# Musicians with perfect pitch



## Gordontrek

Hello all,
I've become rather fascinated by the phenomenon of absolute pitch, its causes, how it develops, whether animals possess it, and if we are all born with it. Most of all, though, I've been researching the lives of great musicians today or from history to see if they were known to possess the ability. 
I am planning to do an academic paper on perfect pitch at some point, possibly for a writing competition or a graduate thesis if I make it that far; it never hurts to think ahead! I've compiled a list of all the musicians that I could find - composers, conductors, individual performers, etc - who were known to possess or not possess the ability; at the very least, I've tried to find as much information as I can regarding the most popular musicians today and from history. 
I've attached a list of musicians, and whether they were known to possess absolute pitch. I was hoping you could look over it and give me your thoughts. If you see something that is in error, or you can help me with musicians that I couldn't find any info for, I would be eternally grateful! If you have information about a musician not listed I would greatly appreciate that as well.
Thanks!
View attachment perfect pitch.docx


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## Mahlerian

I'm pretty sure Schoenberg did have perfect pitch, and your citation for him doesn't say anything either way. He would say things like "any musician playing a C in a transposing instrument must realize that they're actually playing a B-flat."

Also, if you're including those who "demonstrated perfect pitch from an early age" under Yes, wouldn't Mahler fit as well, even though it degraded later in life? He still had an extremely sensitive ear, one which could pick up on and isolate phantom tones produced by resonances in a hall.


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## Gordontrek

Mahlerian said:


> Also, if you're including those who "demonstrated perfect pitch from an early age" under Yes, wouldn't Mahler fit as well, even though it degraded later in life? He still had an extremely sensitive ear, one which could pick up on and isolate phantom tones produced by resonances in a hall.


I considered that. For a lot of the musicians who demonstrated the ability early on, there was no indication that they ever lost it. That is why I kept them under "Yes," because the implication is that they still have/had it later in life, otherwise it might have been mentioned that the ability was lost or not mentioned at all. I put Mahler under "no" because sources explicitly stated that the ability had left him as a mature adult.


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## Chordalrock

The correct term is absolute pitch, contrasted with relative pitch (relative-absolute are opposites; relative-perfect have nothing to do with one another).

As I understand, the ability doesn't really have much to do with "sensitive ear", but is simply about pitch memory: some people with absolute pitch may not be able to tell if a tone is slightly out of tune, they will simply recognise all nearby pitches as a certain note because they're "close enough" and trigger their pitch memory, while some people may be bothered by anything that is ever so slightly out of tune regardless of whether they can identify an isolated tone.


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## Merl

Billy Joel supposedly has 'perfect pitch'. That's why he composed such masterpieces as 'Uptown Girl'.


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## GreenMamba

Merl said:


> Billy Joel supposedly has 'perfect pitch'. That's why he composed such masterpieces as 'Uptown Girl'.


He has synesthesia, not perfect pitch.

Nicolas Slominsky had perfect pitch.


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