Meaning
The ability to name any sounded note, or sing any requested note, without a reference tone; the popular name for what scientists and musicologists usually call absolute pitch. Possessors hear a car horn or a doorbell and can say, that is an F. In journalism the phrase also lends itself to figurative use - an uncanny instinct for the exactly right note, moment or judgement - though standard dictionaries record only the musical sense. Contrast with relative pitch, the far commoner ability to judge intervals between notes. Researchers increasingly prefer absolute pitch because perfect implies an accuracy the skill does not guarantee. The figurative business sense is not separately recorded by the dictionaries. Regional use: English worldwide; absolute pitch is the preferred term in the scientific literature.
Origin
The OED's earliest evidence for the noun perfect pitch is 1925, in The Times of London - verified directly - and Merriam-Webster's First Known Use is likewise 1925. The ability itself was studied scientifically far earlier: Wikipedia's article on absolute pitch traces formal study to Alexander Ellis's 1876 work on measuring pitch, notes that the term absolute pitch or absolute ear was in use among British and German researchers by the late nineteenth century, and records the American rival label positive pitch of 1916. Perfect pitch is thus the younger popular synonym of absolute pitch, the term Merriam-Webster uses to define it. On the figurative extension the record is silent: the OED factsheet lists a single sense, and Cambridge and Merriam-Webster give only the musical definition, so figurative uses rest on general usage rather than a dated dictionary entry.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- absolute ear
- absolute pitch
- relative pitch (the contrasting ability)
Usage Examples
- She heard the doorbell and said, without looking up, 'B flat; the battery is going.' That is perfect pitch.
- Few conservatory students have true perfect pitch; most rely on relative pitch to find their notes.
- The agency timed the product launch to the hour; their marketing chief has perfect pitch for a news cycle.