How can I learn to hear an octave-displaced popular piece, as easily as the popular piece?
At 0:20, Duke University Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Music R. Tarry Todd
Education
Ph.D., Yale University 1979
M.Phil., Yale University 1976
B.A., Yale University 1974
purports to play some random notes on a grand piano.
Students and everybody else are saying, "Well, anybody can do that, it's just random notes." So I said, "Well, what is this?" And then I played [plays notes on the piano]. Eventually, one student put up their hand, and I said, "Yes?", and she said, "That sort of sounds like Happy Birthday." I said, "You're right, it was simply spread out over the keyboard. So it was an attempt to show how composers can use register sometimes taken to an extreme.
I've repeated Todd's playing ten times, but even after knowing that Todd's just octave displacing "Happy Birthday", I still can't hear this displacement as "Happy Birthday"! Is there something wrong with my hearing?
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