Abstract
The music of the genes
Highlights
The most famous of musical dynasties is that of the Bachs
Galton investigated the pattern of inheritance of exceptional ability within families, showing that the eminence of relatives of an eminent man declined with the degree of relatedness, and taking this as evidence of heritability
Modern geneticists have been interested in questions of musical inheritance, and have mostly focused on a simpler phenotype, absolute pitch (AP) - the ability to instantly recognize and correctly name the pitch of any of about seventy different notes in the middle of the auditory range
Summary
The most famous of musical dynasties is that of the Bachs. In Leipzig for a conference, I visited the Bach Museum opposite the Thomaskirche where the greatest Bach of all worked as Kapellmeister for 27 years, and is buried. The occurrence of so many great musicians in seven generations of one family might suggest musical ability in the genes. Galton investigated the pattern of inheritance of exceptional ability within families, showing that the eminence of relatives of an eminent man declined with the degree of relatedness, and taking this as evidence of heritability.
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