VI. ABSOLUTE PITCH
By absolute pitch is usually meant the power to recognize a single musical note when heard, without comparison with any other tone, either objective or subjective. It seems to be an hereditary gift, and probably cannot be acquired by training. (Some doubt has, however, been recently cast upon the latter conclusion by the researches of Gough, who was apparently able to educate persons in this respect to a limited extent.)
Statements regarding the frequency of those who possess this idiosyncrasy vary, from that of Boggs, who says that only a few persons have the gift, to that of Seashore, who declares that “the ability to name notes of a familiar keyed instrument on hearing a single tone is rather common among trained musicians, and may show itself very early in childhood.” Perhaps the discrepancies of statement arise through lack of complete agreement as to what should be meant by “absolute pitch.” If the definition is insistently limited to that often given, namely, “the power to name a single musical note when heard, without comparison with any other tone,” then no doubt the gift belongs to very few people, even those otherwise musically well endowed.
Seashore holds that in these cases, it is probably not pitch as such which is recognized, but rather the timbre of the note. “The timbre of the low notes is entirely different from that of the higher notes, and the evidence seems to show that it is easier to remember a characteristic timbre than pure pitch in itself.”
The gift of absolute pitch is a great advantage to a musician. It is included as a valuable asset in the talent-inventory of Révész.
VII. TONE DEAFNESS
Certain anomalies of structure in the ear give rise to tonal “gaps” and “islands.” The ear does not discriminate among pitches, in certain segments of the scale for pitch. Such a condition may occur in but one ear of a given individual, the other ear then hiding the defect.
The child who is extensively deaf to tones has, of course, no means, save the testimony of others, of knowing whether he is or is not singing properly (unless he sees his singing on a tonoscope). He cannot be taught to sing in key, because the receptors which would enable him to profit by training are absent from the structure of the ear. Many a tone-deaf child has doubtless suffered much from persistent, conscientious efforts to make him sing.
VIII. RANGE OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
In a previous chapter it has been pointed out that quantitative psychology is still struggling toward the invention of scales which shall measure mental traits in terms of units, every one of which shall be equal to every other, as every inch is equal to every other inch. Until this is achieved, we cannot use “times as” comparisons in speaking of the relation of one individual to another, in respect to a function. We can now say that one person is three times as heavy as another person, because we can measure them in pounds, each one of which is equal to every other. But we cannot yet say that one person is three times as intelligent as another, because we have not captured the unit which would enable us to do so.