Re: absolute pitch & animals (Martin Braun )


Subject: Re: absolute pitch & animals
From:    Martin Braun  <nombraun(at)TELIA.COM>
Date:    Thu, 29 Apr 2004 21:19:48 +0200

Robert Zatorre wrote: > I think one has to be very careful when saying that someone or some species > "has absolute pitch". This can mean various different things which are not > equivalent. Yes. No animal can have AP in the sense that humans can have it, because animals have no abstract categories, such as tone names. In a different context, however one could argue that all animals that have pitch are likely to have only the "absolute" version of it. "Relative pitch", i.e. the ability to hear the same interval for C-E as for F-A, demands a highly complex computation that we have not even started to understand. It is highly questionable that any animal should have this ability, simply because none of them has communication signals that are complex enough to benefit from it, as is the case in human speech. For this reason we should assume that in animals all pitch is "absolute". Martin -------------------------------- Martin Braun Neuroscience of Music S-671 95 Klässbol Sweden web site: http://w1.570.telia.com/~u57011259/index.htm


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