Perceiving Music Through the Lens of Synaesthesia and Absolute Pitch

Abstract

Synaesthesia and absolute pitch (AP) are two rare conditions that occur more frequently within populations of artistic professionals. Current thinking surrounding synaesthesia and AP and their relationship to music perception form the focus of this article. Given that synaesthesia has rarely been discussed in the music literature, the article surveys and consolidates general neurobiological, psychological, and behavioural evidence to summarise what is currently known on this topic, in order to link this back to the conditions that most relate to music. In contrast, research on AP is now well established in the music literature, but the important gap of linking AP to other conditions such as synaesthesia has yet to be fully explored. This article investigates the potential relationship between synaesthesia and AP for musicians who possess both conditions by systematically comparing the definitions, classifications, prevalence, diagnoses, and impacts on music perception of synaesthesia and AP and provides insights into the varying states of the literature and knowledge of both conditions. In so doing, this article aims to facilitate a greater understanding of music and auditory forms of synaesthesia and their interaction with AP and encourage increased research effort on this important topic.

Mechanisms of absolute pitch: I. Acoustical beating

“…With beating rates of less than 5 per second (Francis, 2005, p. 2), second-order beats are likely to occur in the low-frequency theta wave range found related to associative memory (Clouter et al, 2017; Elmer et al, 2015; Leipold et al, 2019). It is not supposed that acoustical beating is the only mechanism underlying AP sensitivity, nor that its hypothetical effects are exclusive to any one of the AP types defined in the classical literature by Bachem (1937) nor to any given area of the pitch identification continuum described by current researchers (Glasser, 2021; Leite et al, 2016). Part II of this article (Thurlow & Baggaley, 2022) places the acoustical beating hypothesis in the context of other physical rationales for TC, each of which may have synaesthetic effects that differ between individuals and from note to note/key to key.…”

“…Whereas tonality variations are usually defined in terms of the structural characteristics of musical keys-for example, major versus minor (Dahlhaus, 1990)-the key characteristics created by second-order beating represent an added criterion for tonality (Bibby Preston, personal communication, 1971) of which only AP possessors and synaesthetes may be fully aware. As Glasser (2021) points out, studies to date have largely overlooked "aspects of music-induced forms of synaesthesia such as timbre, tonality and context. This may in part explain why the important gap of linking AP to synaesthesia has not to date been adequately explored" (p. 703).…”

“…Extensive current reviews of the AP and synaesthesia literature, including studies of their genetic and cultural determinants, are provided by Baggaley and James (2020, pp. 23–58) and Glasser (2021).…”

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

“…Subjects playing TI have to associate two different pitch labels with pitches: labels (chromas) of written pitches and labels (chromas) of actual sounds being played on their instruments. However, constant association (specific pitch labels with given pitches) plays a crucial role in the development of AP (Deutsch, 2013; Glasser, 2018). However, the authors of this article did not find any publications in the literature that examined the relationship between playing TI and AP.…”

“…Tone chroma means that all of the 12 semitones have a distinct musical quality which is equivalent regardless of the tone height (Miyazaki, 2019). Bachem (1937, 1950) describes these distinct qualities as “C-ness” or “D-ness.” The term “C-ness” or “D-ness” reflects the specific characteristics by which pitches are qualitatively distinguishable from each other, but also to the common characteristic of pitches that repeat in octaves (Glasser, 2018). However, due to the qualitative nature of tone chroma, it is not an objective and measurable but a subjective experience (Miyazaki, 2019).…”