Absolute Pitch

ABSOLUTE PITCH, the ability to recognize the absolute pitch of a heard sound. Absolute pitch differs from relative pitch, the possessor of which correctly recognizes the intervals between heard sounds, i.e., their relative position in the musical scale, but is unable to indicate the true pitch of each sound individually. The mechanism of absolute pitch has not yet been fully clarified. In the early period of physiological acoustics, absolute pitch was explained, based on the Helmholtz theory of hearing, by the fact that a sound of a certain pitch excites a specific, always identical, group of fibers of the basilar membrane of the cochlea, and the explanation was reduced to the general theory of local signs of Lotze and Lipps. It is easy to see that this theory explained too much, as it required the presence of absolute pitch in every average person, whereas absolute pitch in its pure form is a rather rare phenomenon. Since then, the question has become extremely complicated. First of all, it turned out that every healthy person has a kind of absolute pitch in the field of non-musical sounds, accurately recognizing the vowel sounds of speech by the absolute height of their characteristic formants, and this ability is not lost even in the presence of complete musical deafness (amusia). Furthermore, in a person who shows no traces of musical absolute pitch, a conditioned reflex to pitch can be developed with the same ease as in a dog; there is no person who would not hear the difference if the bell in their telephone were changed from the one they were accustomed to. Numerous observations of a similar order suggest that there are two categories of absolute pitch, differing from each other both in origin and in mechanism. One type of absolute pitch is a trainable quality, constantly inherent in everyone in areas that reinforce the reflex of pitch recognition. This includes, in addition to the general cases listed, the absolute pitch of singers for their own voice, of violinists for their violin, etc. This type of absolute pitch is always more or less strictly specific to a certain practiced type of sound; it is capable of fading and being reinforced; it is possible that it is connected in part with kinesthetic and intentional sensations from the vocal apparatus. This type of absolute pitch is apparently of central cortical origin, is related to conditioned reflexes, and is universally distributed to one degree or another. Another type of absolute pitch is a purely idiopathic mechanism of completely unclear origin. This type of absolute pitch is always, apparently, innate, untrainable, and possesses universality in relation to all types of heard sounds (however, even here, the middle registers are usually recognized more accurately than the extreme ones). Not infrequently, absolute pitch of this type accompanies very high musical talent (Mozart, Scriabin), but there are known major musicians who lack absolute pitch (Paganini), and on the other hand, the highest degrees of fineness of absolute pitch can be found in ordinary people, degenerative psychopaths, the mentally ill, etc. This type of absolute pitch is so rare that it has not yet yielded to generalizing study. Not infrequently, absolute pitch is encountered in connection with auditory and other synesthesias (audition colorée, etc.).