Is pitch a relative concept

Answer 1

There are two kinds of recognition of different pitches. One is relative pitch and one is absolute pitch, otherwise called perfect pitch. Relative pitch runs on several different levels, some of them human-detectable, and some machine-detectable.

On a fundamental, human level, the concept of relative pitch is a comparitively simple one to master - and has already been shown to have been mastered by several animals, including birds and dogs, the latter of whom, it is demonstratively proven, have hearing levels better than humans. The idea of hearing two different pitches, one of 261.6255635 hertz and the next of 277.182631 hertz, and identifying one as a Middle C and one as a C# - one semitone higher - is a purely humanly created concept - which since the introduction of even temperament, has been not just musically defined, but mathematically defined, also.

The difference between any one pitch and the pitch of n semitones difference is defined thus - taking the A above middle C, defined, since 1926, as 440 Hertz, as a benchmark.

For any note x semitones above or below concert pitch A, the formula for calculating the note's frequency is as such:

440 x (2x/12)

The variable x can be any positive or negative number. For example, a value of x = 1 indicates an increase in pitch of a single semitone, while a value of x = -1 indicates a decrease in pitch of a single semitone.

The note a quarter-tone above A = 440 can be discovered by multiplying 440 by 2^(0.5/12) - which, when continued throughout the 24 notes of a quarter-tone chromatic scale, would marry each alternate note with its semitonally comparitive neighbour. Quarter tone notes, while mathematically interesting, are a distraction in most chromatic Western music outside of avant garde jazz.

However, in non-Western scales, particularly in Indian music, fewer than eight notes exist in a single scale. In almost no instance are these treated absolutely.

Humans singing together will treat pitch as a relative concept - close harmony singers working without instruments will often sing notes which do not appear in musical scales because they "sound" better in harmony with each other. Notes can be decreased by as much as a quarter tone in order to make harmony sound "tenser" and increased by a quarter tone in order to make harmony sound "looser" to the average human ear.