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May 12, 2008 | 50°F Overcast

Radiolab

piano child

Behaves So Strangely

We'll kick off the chase with Diana Deutsch, a professor specializing in the Psychology of Music, who could extract song out even the most monotonous of drones. (Think Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller. Bueller.)

For those of us who have trouble staying in tune when we sing, Deutsch has some exciting news. The problem might not be your ears, but your language. She tells us about tone languages, such as Mandarin and Vietnamese, which rely on pitch to convey the meaning of a word. Turns out speakers of tone languages are exponentially more inclined to have absolute (AKA 'perfect') pitch. And, nope, English isn't one of them.

What is perfect pitch anyway? And who cares? Deutsch, along with Jad and Robert, will duke it out over the merits of perfect pitch. A sign of genius, a nuisance, or an evolutionary superpower? You decide. (We can't).

» Diana Deutsch's Website

» Hear Musical Illusions

» Tone Language Speakers and Perfect Pitch


Listener Comments Comment | Refresh | Back to Episode
[1]
Posted by: christopher rock
July 11, 2007 - 09:48PM
bolton, ct

Dear Radio Labs

Somehow I stumbled upon Radio Labs and have found myself listening for the past 6 hours, absolutely loving every episode. Six hours, what is wrong with me?

I have never heard such an amazing broadcast with the shear quality, enthusiasm and joy for producing radio works.

Please keep up the great work and to WNYC, please continue to fund this series. I shall become a member of the WNYC family, simply for this program.

Thanks again for the smiles and joy

Chris Rock

[2]
Posted by: bleezer
July 21, 2007 - 04:14PM
US

One theory dismissed by the host is that genetic factors contribute to more Chinese having perfect pitch. Isn't it possible that tone languages themselves exist in populations that are genetically disposed to higher intelligence, which are thus able to comprehend them more effectively? And has anyone investigated whether there a significant correlation between higher innate intelligence, tone language and perfect pitch (as politically incorrect as that might be)?

[3]
Posted by: jbl
August 06, 2007 - 12:33PM
Cochise County, AZ

Among the many fascinating aspects of Diana Deutch's work, the subject of music extracted from a spoken phrase came sharply to mind when I was just listening again to a work by a contemporary American composer.

Check out "Different Trains" by Steven Reich. He makes terrific use of this phenomenon.

[4]
Posted by: Garth
August 27, 2007 - 03:32AM
Berkeley CA

I have just discovered Radio Lab. What a great show! Thank god things like this exist.

Thank you!!

Garth~

[5]
Posted by: Michael
September 10, 2007 - 06:05PM
Milwaukee, WI

Absolutely wonderful program, as usual. For many more amazing examples of the musicality of human speech, check out the music of The Books:

http://www.thebooksmusic.com/

The song "Be Good to Them Always" is a particularly great example.

[6]
Posted by: Al
September 28, 2007 - 03:39PM
Columbia, SC

I'm a new listener and this show just blew my mind. Excellent!

[7]
Posted by: Max Growth
November 10, 2007 - 06:16PM

The spoken word/song part of the segment reminds me of electronic/sample-based music.

Almost any dance music has songs with samples taken from films/programs/speeches where this principle is demonstrated.

Luke Vibert is a good example.

Great show!

[8]
Posted by: Kurtis Henderson
December 28, 2007 - 10:36PM
Bloomington, IN

I'm interested in why the singers chose to change the last pitch of "Sometimes behave so strangely." Speaking in solfege, the notes the singers sang were La La Sol Fa La Sol Do. But if you listen to Diana's speech, the tones she uses are La La Sol Fa La Sol Si (Ti for the Sound of Music fans out there.). It makes sense, too, because having the phrase end on a leading tone keeps the listeners' ears perked for what she'll say next, and of course she does go on to finish her sentence eventually. The singers change this last note, though, presumably to make the loop have more of a feeling of finality.

[9]
Posted by: Luis Emilio
January 27, 2008 - 09:05PM
Columbia, MD

I am amazed that Mussorgsky was not mentioned in this program: This composer believed that music should reproduce the music of the natural language. Very interesting program!

[10]
Posted by: Sarah
March 25, 2008 - 06:47PM

I love how the first bit relates to rap music. Great rappers are not only very aware of the inherent musicality and rhythm of language, they exploit and experiment with it.

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