What a great post and meaningful anecdote... Thanks...
I will add that we dont hear a "playing tonal timbre" only by frequencies analysis... A tonal timbre is a BODY with a face not only a concept, it is a concept made flesh as sound , a complex entity Walter has deal with all his life as dealing with a human being...You can recognize someone you love and his walking style at a long distance, in the same way Walter knew how the violin must sound and perceive it as the brain /ears do with way more than just fourier analysis of a frequencies bundle...
Then a lost by aging of the upper higher range means not deafness, it means a light impediment nothing else...I am 72 years old and i tuned my room by ears to my utmost satisfaction for my "limited" ears... Not for yours... 😊
Two points re: "Golden ears" and old ears:
1. It doesn’t seem to be necessary to actually be physiologically capable of hearing all frequencies in order to “listen well.” I don’t know how to explain this, but I have a sweet anecdote to illustrate it. My music teacher was Botso Koresheli; he grew up in Georgia (Tbilisi) and had to leave because of Stalin. For some years, he lived in southern Germany, and performed—violin—in the Munich Philharmonic. One week, their guest conductor was the great Bruno Walter, who was already quite elderly, and had significant hearing loss. And yet....
As Botso told the story, during rehearsal, someone in the second violins was playing a particular note on an open string. Walter stopped the orchestra, said that someone was playing on an open string, and gently requested that they not do so. So the music began again, and a minute later Walter again brought the players to a halt: “Someone is still playing on an open string. Please; no more!” They began again, and once more a minute later, Walter stopped the orchestra. This time, he didn’t say anything, but everyone saw a tear roll down his cheek. No one played on an open string after that.
I tell the story to make a point about “critical listening.” If the 80 year old Bruno Walter could hear a single violin playing on an open string, there’s hope for all us old guys. Maybe it’s "neural plasticity"—the brain’s ability to "re-wire" itself to make up for some cognitive loss or other. Or maybe it’s the kind of "conceptual" sophistication that is at the bottom of all perception, as Mahgister remarks. Whatever it is, embrace it.
2. I would attach a screen shot of a chart of the frequency ranges of various musical instruments and male and female voices below if I could. It was posted to a tube fetish site called "glowinthedarkaudio"; you can find it there under "Opinions." Nothing on the chart exceeds 4 kHz. Sure, there are overtones higher than that. But...
Just sayin’.
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