Leia este post em Português

 

            At Carnegie Hall in New York City, the local philharmonic orchestra has a full complement of musicians.  More than 100 musicians play together, allowing theater goers to experience a bit of heaven, at least musically speaking.

            For me, seated in the seat J45, in the middle of the theater, everything seemed perfect. But it wasn’t. Everything was not so perfect for the conductor. Suddenly he interrupted the performance by rapping his baton on the pedestal. He looked upset. Something was irritating his ears. Then he said:

- Second row of violins, fourth instrument, third string, out of tune, half semitone higher, please!!!

            The beauty of the spectacle from then on didn’t matter to me anymore. The unexpected occurrence that showed the conductor’s perfect pitch demonstrated to me how high human creativity can reach and how much most of us can still grow.

 

What is perfect pitch?

            The capacity of mentally visualizing sound frequencies, perfect pitch (click to see documentary) or of humming the same pitch (active perfect pitch), does not appear to be related to any significant structural modification, but rather to a tendency of central physiological mechanisms that can be stimulated, mainly up to five years of age.

            Studies show (see SACKS, 2007) that we can train our ears to obtain an even more prodigious musical journey, but the genetic factor apparently determines the greater likelihood of the emergence of this skill.

 

Recommended reading:

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, by Oliver Sacks.

 

Author: Pedro de Lemos Menezes

Email: pedrodelemosmenezes@gmail.com

Posts: Every Monday

All posts: Page 1

   Enviar artigo em PDF