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1

Absolute Pitch and Its Frequency Range

Rakowski A., Rogowski P.

Archives of Acoustics

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2011

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Vol. 36, No. 2

251-266

EN

This paper has two distinct parts. Section 1 includes general discussion of the phenomenon of “absolute pitch” (AP), and presentation of various concepts concerning definitions of “full”, “partial” and “pseudo” AP. Sections 2–4 include presentation of the experiment concerning frequency range in which absolute pitch appears, and discussion of the experimental results. The experiment was performed with participation of 9 AP experts selected from the population of 250 music students as best scoring in the pitch-naming piano-tone screening tests. Each subject had to recognize chromas of 108 pure tones representing the chromatic musical scale of nine octaves from E0 to D#9. The series of 108 tones was presented to each subject 60 times in random order, diotically, with loudness level about 65 phon. Percentage of correct recognitions (PC) for each tone was computed. The frequency range for the existence of absolute pitch in pure tones, perceived by sensitive AP possessors stretches usually over 5 octaves from about 130.6 Hz (C3) to about 3.951 Hz (B7). However, it was noted that in a single case, the upper boundary of AP was 9.397 Hz (D9). The split-halves method was applied to estimate the reliability of the obtained results.

2

Pitch Strength of Residual Sounds Estimated Through Chroma Recognition by Absolute-Pitch Possessors

Rogowski P., Rakowski A.

Archives of Acoustics

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2010

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Vol. 35, No. 3

331-347

EN

Absolute pitch is a unique feature of the auditory memory which makes it possible for its possessors to recognize the musical name (chroma) of a tone. Six musicians with absolute pitch, selected from a group of 250 music students as best scoring in musical pitch-naming tests, identified the chroma of residue pitch produced by harmonic complex tones with several lower partials removed (residual sounds). The data show that the percentage of correct chroma recognitions decreases as the lowest physically existent harmonic in the spectrum is moved higher. According to our underlying hypothesis the percentage of correct chroma recognitions corresponds to the pitch strength of the investigated tones. The present results are compared with pitch strength values derived in an experiment reported by Houtsma and Smurzynski (1990) for tones same as those used in this study but investigated with the use of a different method which consisted in identification of musical intervals between two successive tones. For sounds comprising only harmonics of very high order the new method yields a very low pitch recognition level of about 20% while identification of musical intervals remains stable at a level of about 60%.

3

Experiments on long-term and short-term memory for pitch in musicians

Rakowski A., Rogowski P.

Archives of Acoustics

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2007

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Vol. 32, No. 4

815--826

EN

A series of experiments on the memory for pitch was performed with 18 musicians. They had to pass a pitch-naming and a newly-designed pitch-producing test meant to check their passive and active absolute-pitch ability. On that ground two of them, who revealed faultless, full absolute pitch and one who had most typical relative (non-absolute) pitch, were selected to take part in a case-study-type experiment on short-term memory for pitch. The experiment partly confirmed the previous finding (RAKOWSKI, [5]) of the about 2-minute time range for short-term pitch memory in relative-pitch listeners. It also explained cases in which absolute pitch possessors, when required to repeat after short-term delay an external pitch standard, either use for that purpose their authentic short-term memory for pitch, or rather relay on comparisons with their absolute-pitch standards.

4

Absolute pitch: Common traits in music and language

Rakowski A., Miyazaki K.

Archives of Acoustics

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2007

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Vol. 32, No. 1

5-16

EN

Absolute pitch in music means an ability of long-term auditory memory to store pitch standards corresponding to within-octave musical pitch classes, based on a generally recognized reference pitch. Such an ability, extremely rare among Western musicians, appears much more commonly among musicians of Asiatic countries. Hypothetically, it is due to either the special forms and early beginnings of musical education (Japan), or to a sort of "preconditioning" of the pitch-memory system in infants and very young children, to treat pitch value as a meaningful element of speech communication (countries with tone languages). Similarities and differences between absolute pitch in music and the memory for pitch value in tone languages will be discussed in detail.

5

Absolute pitch and its implications for music

Miyazaki K.

Archives of Acoustics

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2007

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Vol. 32, No. 3

529–-540

EN

Absolute pitch is defined as an ability to identify musical pitch of single tones presented in isolation. There has been so far little empirical research investigating in detail how people with absolute pitch perceive musical pitch, so absolute pitch is still surrounded by mystery. This article summarizes a series of the author’s experiments exploring the perception of musical pitch and melodies by listeners having absolute pitch. Absolute pitch has been considered an important part of musical ability, and is assumed to be acquired primarily through early music training at the age from 3 to 6 years. However, critically important is relative pitch (pitch relations) on which melodies and harmonic structures are constructed. In contrast, absolute pitch that enables its possessors to name isolated tones is not crucial to music. Moreover, the experimental findings suggest that absolute pitch may sometimes be disadvantageous for musicians since it may, in some cases, be incompatible with processing and learning of relative pitch.