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Dear all,<BR>
<BR>
My understanding is that the creeping sharp of absolute pitch is, as Fred intuits below, a physical change in the ear with age (thus it has nothing to do with listening to early music, etc.). I am not sure now where I learned this, but I was told that the basilar membrane (in the auditory system’s cochlea) stiffens with age. In normal hearing the basilar membrane is activated tonotopically, with high frequencies activated at the base of the membrane and low frequencies at the apex; this leads to our perception of pitch. Somehow the stiffening of the membrane must lead to different activations, here or further up the auditory system. Does David, or anyone else, know whether this explanation has been studied?<BR>
<BR>
Betsy Marvin<BR>
Eastman School of Music<BR>
<BR>
<HR ALIGN=CENTER SIZE="3" WIDTH="95%"><B>From: </B>"Dr. Fred Bashour" <<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U><a href="dufaydigital@att.net">dufaydigital@att.net</a></U></FONT>><BR>
<B>Date: </B>Tue, 7 Feb 2012 22:00:45 -0500<BR>
<B>To: </B>David Huron <<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U><a href="huron.1@osu.edu">huron.1@osu.edu</a></U></FONT>>, <<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U><a href="smt-talk@lists.societymusictheory.org">smt-talk@lists.societymusictheory.org</a></U></FONT>><BR>
<B>Subject: </B>Re: [Smt-talk] Perfect pitch and aging<BR>
<BR>
Hello David, et al.<BR>
<BR>
Yes, I am aware of this phenomenon and, yes, it happened to me to, beginning<BR>
around age 50. I'll be 64 next week. I've gotten used to hearing<BR>
Beethoven's Sixth in F#. Early music performances at lower pitch, on the<BR>
other hand, sound "just right" these days whereas, back in the seventies<BR>
when I first heard a live performance by Concentus Musicus during their US<BR>
tour, everything sounded a semitone flat.<BR>
<BR>
My teenage daughter, whose perfect pitch is just as "perfect" as mine was at<BR>
her age (that is to say, "no question about it, you just know the pitch<BR>
class, and also whether it's slightly flat or sharp from A-440), calls my<BR>
present degree of pitch acuity, "imperfect pitch." ;>)<BR>
<BR>
Before I became aware that this was a common occurrence, I had two naïve<BR>
beliefs about it:<BR>
<BR>
1. That since I've spent the last thirty-five years producing literally<BR>
hundreds of recordings of early music--much of which was tuned in the region<BR>
between A-415 and A-430--I thought my absolute pitch had just adopted a new<BR>
reference, that I'd developed "Baroque perfect pitch."<BR>
<BR>
2. That this phenomenon was analogous to the loss of elasticity in one's<BR>
eye muscles as one ages, which necessitates the use of bi-focals, or similar<BR>
aids to help one to focus on items close-up. The hair cells just become<BR>
stiffer with age, or something else in the ear tightens up.<BR>
<BR>
I would very much enjoy reading the results of any study of this phenomenon.<BR>
Perhaps in Music Perception?<BR>
<BR>
Best,<BR>
<BR>
Fred Bashour<BR>
Dufay Digital Music<BR>
Leverett, MA 01054<BR>
<BR>
********************************************************************<BR>
Dr. Elizabeth West Marvin <a href="bmarvin@esm.rochester.edu">bmarvin@esm.rochester.edu</a><BR>
Professor of Music Theory Eastman School of Music<BR>
and Brain & Cognitive Sciences University of Rochester<BR>
<BR>
Eastman School of Music <BR>
26 Gibbs Street Phone: (585) 274-1076<BR>
Rochester, NY 14604 Fax: (585) 274-1088<BR>
<a href="http://www.esm.rochester.edu/theory/elizabeth_marvin.php#home">http://www.esm.rochester.edu/theory/elizabeth_marvin.php#home</a><BR>
<a href="http://theory.esm.rochester.edu/music-cognition/">http://theory.esm.rochester.edu/music-cognition/</a><BR>
<BR>
********************************************************************<BR>
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