Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Another "scientific" study was described in yesterday's paper that purported to show that people who had had some musical training responded differently to pleasing sounds than those who had not. Perhaps the study shows something altogether different: Perhaps it reveals that people are no longer singing, training or no.

Voices "true" instinctively. Responding to overtones is a natural occurrence, no training required--in fact, usually the less the better.

Pitch, like so many other things, is being mechanized to a point where it no longer is recognizable. The piano, ubiquitously (and wrongly, in my opinion)used as the arbiter of pitch, supports this tendency. Alas.