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Not to split hairs, but it was either Pythagoras or Aristotle who discovered, through using a string with a movable stopping block, the septatonic scale, which we now know as diatonic because of the repeated first note. Octave, I believe, is Greek in origin. The use of harmonics was developed from his calculations. From the octave, we develop the diatonic scalar system, although yes, before the Renaissance, we did not have even temperment (sp?) and modes were based on a random pitch, and the Ionian mode (I seem to recall) was not yet in use. However, diatonicism was in use, and the Ionian mode was a greek mode originally, named for a tribe or something, I don't really remember (MUSC 311 was 2 semesters ago). But anywho, my point is not cultural biases, it's simply that one has to develop the acquaintance with 12 tones before he or she can name them, right? That's all I'm saying, just that you can't be born, and immediately identify A as A. Infants can, however, distinguish changes in pitch, and I suppose the tests they do could sort of detect those who are more perceptive, and from that you could support an innate perfect pitch person...wow, it's late!
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