In music and music theory a pitch class contains all notes that have the same name; for example, all Es, no matter which octave they are in, are in the same pitch class.
In musical set theory it is more accurate to say that a pitch class is an equivalence class of all pitches that are octaves apart, which would be labeled by an integer, not a traditional letter name. In both cases, when "pitch class" is used, the use of "pitch" indicates a specific frequency or note and does not include its octaves.
Using integer notation and mod 12, two pitches, x and y, are in the same pitch class only if for some integer n:
x = 12n + y
If one only knows the pitch interval, ip, between two pitches, one may use this definition: A pitch class is the set of all pitches such that for any two members of the set x and y:
The 12 pitchclasses can be thought of in a circle; one trip around the circle (from C to C) is an octave; halfway around (from C to F#) is an interval called a tritone.
And when the peak pitchclasses of the younger Vietnamese group were compared with native Californians of the same age, the differences remained highly significant.
Odds are that pitchclass templates are developed at a very young age--perhaps as infants listen to the intonation of voices around them.
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