Later -life AP (was: Re: AUDITORY Digest - 18 Apr 2008 to 19 Apr 2008 (#2008-84)) (Eliot Handelman )


Subject: Later -life AP (was: Re: AUDITORY Digest - 18 Apr 2008 to 19 Apr 2008 (#2008-84))
From:    Eliot Handelman  <eliot@xxxxxxxx>
Date:    Sun, 20 Apr 2008 15:41:23 -0400
List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>

Daniel Levitin wrote: I wrote: >> I'm an example, acquiring AP when I was about 42. . .one >> day listening to some music I became aware that >> every time I heard a "b" I knew exactly what it was. It was not like >> knowing a pitch by remembering the last time you heard it; > > I believe this is an example of what in the literature (going back to > Bachem, 1954) is referred to as "quasi-Absolute Pitch," which is, by > definition, when a person has "AP" for a single note or two. I did not imply this. When I said "the other pitches followed" I meant that I heard them all "absolutely." > It's not clear from Eliot's description if the other notes he > eventually acquired were identified with reference to this first note, > in which case he has AP for a single note and used his excellent sense > of RP (relative pitch) from there. No, because as I mentioned there is a qualitative distinction for me in perceiving pitch "with pitch" & "without." This is an ongoing issue for me because I sometimes hear very clearly & sometimes in the indefinite, pre-AP way. To hear clearly is not just to know the label but, as I mentioned, to feel the label as part of the identity of the pitch. To "know a pitch relatively" is not qualitatively the same thing at all. My labelling is the outcome of the way I hear pitch. AP is a sort of pitch gnosis, I think: it's like the difference between seeing a triangle "as" a triangle & concluding that there is a triangle because you have counted the sides. (Viz. some Sacks story about restored vision after cataract operations.) In my case, it's plausible that RP (ie counting) does play some role (and I think it does); but it would be as if you saw 2 sides of a triangle, deduced the third, & then suddenly saw the whole. In other words, with RP or without there is still a qualitative distinction between hearing pitch or not. > If in fact Eliot acquired it, he would be the only case I know of an > adult who did. Ah -- so I could be like a Tiresias of absolute pitch then, since I'd be the only one around who knows both states. As a matter of fact, I have a great deal to say about the subject, but perhaps not now. -- eliot


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