The Brain Injury That Made Edward Freytag a Musical Genius

November 3, 2026

MRI images of the brain

(NYT) – About two weeks after Edward’s crash, Joanna was driving him home after a visit to her mother when Edward reached over and turned on the radio. As music from a jazz quintet played, he started calling out the chords–complex chords, like C minor 9, F13 sharp-11, G minor 13…

Perfect pitch is probably genetic and nearly impossible to learn as an adult. The lucky few who have it — a group that has included Mozart, Ella Fitzgerald and Charlie Puth — tend to be musical prodigies.

Edward, however, was the first person known to gain perfect pitch from a brain injury. Neuroscientists have considered such a thing to be theoretically possible, but it had never been documented before. (Read More)