Absolute pitch: A literature review of underlying factors, with special regard to music pedagogy.

Abstract

Absolute pitch (AP) is a fairly rare and special phenomenon that has relevance for musicology, psychology, genetics, and neuroscience. AP possessors are able to identify the pitch of an isolated sound or to produce that sound without a reference point. The authors' aim is to review the literature on AP. The phenomenon of AP was described in the era of Mozart, but it was only in the last decades of the 19th century that it became the focus of research. The standardization of the tuning system and organized music education underlied the interest in AP, and Bachem's tone chroma concept was relevant as well. The prevalence of AP is estimated to be between 0.01% and 1% in the general population, however, larger-scale epidemiological studies are lacking. AP's prevalence is much higher in special groups, such as among trained musicians, relatives of AP possessors, blind persons, people native in tonal languages, Asian music students or musicians, and those with an autism spectrum disorder. The genetic and environmental factors behind this ability are briefly summarized, followed by a detailed discussion of the solfège methods (movable-do and fixed-do systems) that can facilitate the development of AP.