Absolute Pitch

Jannis, you have absolute pitch. What does that mean, exactly?

My parents noticed it quite early on. My father is a pianist, and when he played something to me, I automatically played the right notes, even without looking at the sheet music.

Can you really sing an A straight off?

Yes: (sings an A; the author doesn’t have a tuning fork to check)

And how does this table sound? (Author knocks on the table)

That’s a G. When I listen closely, everything has a pitch. If someone knocks on a window pane, for example.

Are you particularly sensitive to noise?

No. Only in music, when the piece moves off-key. I am perhaps more sensitive when I hear non-professional ensembles or choirs when their pitch drops. It’s unpleasant for me when something hovers between two keys.

Is absolute pitch a blessing or a curse for you?

A blessing! Because it saves me a lot of time. It makes learning pieces by heart easy for me, even without using my instrument. All I need is the sheet music. I can easily memorise pieces just in my head and need very little time to practise them on the instrument.

Then you can also sight-read perfectly?

(Laughs) That depends on the speed. But yes, I already hear the music just by looking at the dots. With big intervals, for example, I don’t think much about what I’m doing; it’s clear to me what the next note is. Because you asked me about the curse: Baroque music is peculiar in that the instruments are tuned differently today from how they were originally pitched. So today, everything sounds a semitone higher than originally notated. I would always have to play lower than my ear imagines the notes. That’s why I don’t play those pieces.

What’s it like playing in an orchestra? Do nuances throw you?

In an orchestra with a hundred people, the overall sound usually mixes in the end. And with a top orchestra like the Munich Philharmonic, you expect the intonation to be very good. When you play in a chamber ensemble, everyone has their particular strengths. Mine is that I hear intervals precisely, for others it’s perhaps more the phrasing. I’m very sensitive when it comes to intonation. I do get triggered when I notice that the people I play with don’t have the same feel for it as I do.

Researchers assume that absolute pitch results partly from predisposition and partly through training …

It is the mixture. There is also relative pitch: People with this ability can also recognise notes, but they need an initial note as a starting point. That’s quite easy to train. I think that overall there are many more people with this predisposition. But it won’t get trained if you don’t make music.

How would you notice in everyday life, if you’re not a musician?

For example, when you sing pop songs you know from memory. You could record yourself and then find out whether you are singing in the same key as the original.

Does hearing play a greater role for you than your other senses?

Of course my hearing is more pronounced than other senses. My daily life has always been affected more by acoustic stimuli. Visualising things is not my strong point.

Did you decide to become a musician early on in life?

Before the age of 19, I definitely didn’t want to be a musician. I started playing the violin at an early age and always enjoyed it, but I actually wanted to study sports. When I tore three ligaments in my ankle during an orchestra project and found that I wouldn’t be able to take the sports entrance exam, I studied the violin for a year to bridge the gap. It was the contact to and playing with other musicians that whet my appetite for music. I switched to the viola and discovered a fascination for this instrument.

What makes the viola so special?

The tonal colour. When I switched to the viola, I discovered a totally different way of making music. Perhaps my absolute hearing also plays into this: the middle register the violas play suited me better than the high violin parts. You’re more of a connecting element and have to fit in. Maybe that’s where my talent lies. I also much prefer playing chamber music to being a soloist on stage.