A 435 or A 440 ?

[John Delacour]

At 4:51 pm -0700 26/7/06, David Love wrote:

>I really question the concept of perfect pitch. Most people that 
>claim that they or other family members have this trait are not 
>accurate. What percentage of these people would be able to 
>distinguish between two freshly tuned, similar pianos one at 440 and 
>the other at 443. Especially if they would hear each after a period 
>of time where they wouldn't have a fresh reference in their head.

I know well a pianist who has bought several pianos from me over the 
years and worked with me for a few weeks to learn the basics of piano 
technology.  His sense of pitch is extraordinarily accurate, within a 
few cents, and I have tested him several times.  My tuner also knows 
him well and has discussed the question with him.  He is always very 
close but his sense of pitch is slightly impaired if he is tired or 
unwell.  It may well be that very few people have such an accurate 
sense of pitch (according to one researcher, 1 in 10,000 in the USA) 
but that doesn't mean nobody does.  The phenomenon is well known and 
researched. The Wikipedia article on this topic seems, for once, to 
be quite a good introduction 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_pitch>

To anyone who might dismiss Absolute Pitch through envy I would 
suggest that they reconsider, since the ability is often more of a 
bane than a blessing.  My friend is a case in point;  he is 
extraordinarily fussy and very quickly tires of any piano he plays. 
His latest acquisition is a 1970s Steinway D which to me is a very 
uninteresting and flawed example.  In a year or so he will be wanting 
something different.  I doubt very much whether he could ever be a 
tuner, since he would always be second-guessing the laws of nature 
and of equal temperament.

JD