the absolute pitch , in opposition to the relative Ear, is faculty for somebody to be able to identify a musical Note in the absence of reference. In Occident, only a person on: 10000 would be equipped with an absolute pitch “active”, i.e. would be able to sing without reference mark a correct note. Thus famous the Juilliard School off Music, with New York, tried without success to train pupils so that they have the absolute pitch.

As the absolute pitch constitutes a means of exact recognition and identification of a sound, the military forces, in particular the marine , were always interested closely in research in this field.

Distinctions

One distinguishes, according to a Anglo-Saxon terminology, still little employed in France, two categories of absolute pitch: one passivates, the other activates.

Passive absolute pitch

The people having an absolute pitch known as “passivates” are able individually to identify each note which they hear, without preliminary reference, but are unable to sing with accuracy a note requested.

Active absolute pitch

The people having an absolute pitch known as “activates” can sing with an extreme accuracy a given note. They are in addition able, not only to identify and name a listened note, but also to announce if this one is a little too acute or serious according to the Diapason of reference.

One can suppose that all the people having an absolute pitch are not musicians: considering this fact, the rate of people musicians having the absolute pitch would be then much weaker. Nevertheless, a musical education is necessary for the complete development of the auditive potential of the people equipped with this faculty.

Operation

The hearing and the distinction of the frequencies are made on the level of the internal ear in the snail (more precisely in the body of Corti) but its identification, i.e. the attribution of a name and a label, is an activity of the right part of the brain. The identification of the note can then be carried out or in reference to a basic note (the Diapason) - it is the relative identification - or without needing to hear again this note of reference - it is the absolute identification. The capacity to identify and name correctly a note without note of reference thus requires a good hearing, a good capacity storage and a good communication between the right part and the left part of the brain.

Several assumptions were put forth on the origin of this particular capacity: would it be about a greater facility of communication between the lobes? Of a better development of the left lobe? Studies seem to prove that the auditive system of a person having the absolute pitch is in any point identical to that of a normal person.

Advantages and disadvantages

It is however necessary to specify that the musicians equipped with the absolute pitch, active like passive, are strongly handicapped when it acts, as it is the case during examinations in the music schools and academies, to take a “musical dictation” in which the tuning fork changes. Indeed, the tuning fork of reference being says It “the 440” (442 for the orchestra) - i.e. a frequency of 440 (442 for the orchestra) vibrations per seconds - when, for example, a piece of music baroque, i.e. in “the 415”, is given in dictation, the absolute pitch finds itself in shift compared to the emitted sounds. In this case, it is not used any more for nothing, and constitutes even a handicap for the musician.

The utility of the absolute pitch is not a doubt, particularly for activities the such direction of orchestra or the practice of a nonmoderate instrument. Nevertheless, it is not a need. Ron Gorow ( " Hearing and Writing Music" , September Publishing, 2002) said even on this subject which “if you have the absolute pitch, God blesses you. If not, do not worry you. You get a tuning fork with 4$, and work! Do not waste your money of methods promising the capacity to identify to you tons them. They are without reward other than to impress your friends. ”

Like the intellectual ability, the capacity to recognize the notes instantaneously can vary according to the age, but also according to the moment of the day. A person having the absolute pitch will not as easily recognize the notes at the end of a large day's work as the morning when it is fresh and in form.

Independently of the problems of tuning fork, the absolute pitch is an undeniable advantage for another type of musical exercises. Indeed, the exercise of the atonal dictation, where the notes are connected without bond of coherence, favors by far the owners of an absolute pitch, who can note each note indépendemment others, and thus “do not lose themselves” not in this type of exercise where the owners of relative ears are very quickly désarçonnés. This type of dictations is precisely used in the examinations of music schools and academies in order to detect the pupils able to follow and note apart from all reference marks, and thus equipped with an absolute pitch.

Current theories

The Soviet psychologist Alexei Leontiev put forth the assumption, starting from work completed near wounded Second world war, that the absolute pitch could be acquired by combining a vocal and auditive training: the muscular effort realized by the vocal apparatus at the time of the reproduction of a sound is memorized and, when a sound is heard, the person then tries to mentally reproduce the required effort to emit it, which then enables him to say which is its height. According to the experiments carried out, many people would have thus managed to acquire this famous absolute pitch.

According to Diana Deutsch, professor of psychology of the University of California to San Diego, the Asian ones have a stronger probability to have the absolute pitch than the Westerners. The study related to first-year students of an academy of music, the ones with Beijing, which speak the Mandarin, and the others with Rochester in the United States, which speaks the English. The tests in particular showed that, for those which had begun their musical education at the age of four or five years, close to 60  % of the Chinese subjects have the absolute pitch, against 14  % of the American subjects. The figures were of 42  % and 0  %, respectively, if musical education had started only at the age of eight or nine years. The reason of this disparity is undoubtedly due to the fact that Mandarin is, contrary to English, a tonal Langue where the direction of a word can vary according to the tone employed. The study also suggests that the capacity to acquire the absolute pitch would be universal with the birth.

Genealogical bonds

Related articles

• relative Ear
• harmonic Ear

External bond

• do you Have the absolute pitch? (some tests)
• Article on the absolute pitch at PC Music

Random links:

Canton of Salbris | Lakeville | Confederation of the Rhine | Beenie Man | Connection of Koszul