On 12/06/2012 11:55, Jörn Nettingsmeier wrote:
On 06/12/2012 11:32 AM, Richard Dobson wrote:
It is also a concept that
needs clarification not least with respect to questions of temperament -
do people with absolute pitch insist on 12T Equal Temperament based on
A=440? Or it is a broad categorical distinction, like recognising red as
red and green as green?
a co-student of mine who has absolute pitch perception expressed
difficulty in sight-reading (and singing) old music at A=415 Hz (much
like transposing on sight on a piano), but felt no discomfort on a bar
piano at 437 (plus minus a few beers that had been poured in over the
years) or on a crisp concert grand at 442.
Interesting. While definitely not having absolute pitch, I count myself
among the musicians (generally not string players) who for whatever
reason find 440 a tad high, and who left to our own devices may well
gravitate towards the old "Philharmonic" pitch standard of 435. The
Berlin Phil regularly played and recorded at anything up to 452, roughly
corresponding to the old English "sharp pitch".
The historical antecedents would be a great research topic; given that
absolute pitch at least appears to be in whatever way a selective but
innate (genetic?) faculty, it must have existed in one form or another
well before pitches became standardised. It is well known, for example,
that even within the same town, different churches would operate at
different pitches, and that flute players, for example, had to carry
around several alternative middle-joints ("corps de rechange") in order
to comply with widely varying pitch standards. Therefore, in those
times, "absolute pitch", if recognised at all, must itself have been
somewhat relative.
Richard Dobson
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