Re: The great 440 Hz conspiracy, and why all of our music is wron
Originally Posted by
Drew Streip
Here's a question: For people who have perfect pitch, is their reference point constant and consistent -- or does it change based on the conventions of the era? For example, would somebody today recognize 437 as being "A" but a little flat? Or would anything in the realm of, say, a quarter-tone either direction qualify?
Would somebody in 1900 have heard 440 and thought "My goodness, they are sharp!"?
Drew... that is the question that I was about to ask.
My best guess is that people with 'perfect' pitch learn to recognize the accepted pitch of their environment... or as you say "the conventions of the era".
I'm pretty sure the few people I know personally who have perfect pitch recognize a 440 Hz tone as an A.
The tone they can hear in their head, without any outside reference is the tone they've learned to recognize as a certain note.
I really don't know though. Interesting question.
"I play BG so that's what I can talk intelligently about." A line I loved and pirated from Mandoplumb
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