bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Mood-Optimizing Strategies in Aesthetic-Choice Behavior
Authors: Breckler Steven J. , Allen Robert B. , Konežni Vladimir J.
Published: September 2012

In two experiments, we examined the manner in which people sequence and chunk their exposure to artistic and nonartistic stimuli differing in pleasingness. A new forced-choice paradigm with fixed time allotments for five choice alternatives was used in both studies. In Experiment 1, subjects made repeated choices among four types of music and an aversive tone, whereas in Experiment 2, the choices were made among Hvc types of slides ranging from nude females to assault victims. In both studies, subjects had to be exposed to 2 min each of the five alternatives, but the order and chunking, in 15-sec intervals, was up to them. For both auditory and visual stimuli, subjects chose the aversive ones early in the session and reserved the most pleasing stimuli for the end. Runs of aversive stimuli were interspersed with exposure to the moderately pleasing ones. For music, but not visual stimuli, the most pleasing type was chosen in the longest runs. The results were interpreted in terms of global and local aesthetic- choice strategies people use to optimize mood.
Performance of a Rubato-like Task: When Two Things Cannot Be Done at the Same Time
Authors: Peters Michael
Published: September 2012

Experienced piano players can perform rubato, where one hand temporarily departs from a common time base. An experimental task that required performance with rubato-like characteristics showed that not only naive subjects, but also experienced piano players manifest interference between hands on this task. Performance was better when the preferred right hand took the rubato in both groups of subjects, in support of Mozart and Chopin's (Shaffer, 1981) admonition that piano players should take the rubato with the right hand.
Differences in Ability of Musicians and Nonmusicians to Judge Emotional State from the Fundamental Frequency of Voice Samples
Authors: Nilsonne Åsa , Sundberg Johan
Published: September 2012

One hundred and twelve listeners evaluated voice recordings containing fundamental frequency contours of patients during mental depression and following recovery. In 80% of the ratings the listeners were able to determine whether or not the recording was made during the depressive phase. A group of conservatory students made significantly fewer errors than a group of law students. No significant difference was found between male and female listeners.
Pitch and Duration as Determinants of Musical Space
Authors: Monahan Caroline B. , Carterette Edward C.
Published: September 2012

In an experiment aimed at assessing dimensional properties of musical space, musicians rated the similarity of pairs of brief melodies on a 9-point scale. From our review of previous work, we hypothesized (1) that pitch variables would be considered more important than time or rhythmic variables by our subjects and (2) that the metrical consonance of pitch and duration patterns would generate a factor related to pattern regularity in listeners' musical space. Four melodies and their inversions were played in each of four rhythmic patterns (anapestic, dactylic, iambic, and trochaic) for a total of 1024 pattern pairs. Both multidimensional scaling and cluster analyses of similarity showed that at least five dimensions were needed for a good accounting of the perceptual space of these melodies. Surprisingly, the major dimensions found were rhythmic: (1) duple or triple rhythm, (2) accent first or last, and (3) iambic-dactylic versus trochaic-anapestic. Other dimensions were (4) rising or falling pitch and (5) the number of pitch—contour inflections. The tendency to rate patterns on the basis of time or rhythm (Dimensions I, II, and III) was negatively correlated with the tendency to rate patterns on the basis of pitch (Dimensions IV and V). It could not be determined whether this result depends on cognitive processing limitations, attention, or preferences. No factor was found that related to pattern regularity as we defined it.
A Model of Expressive Timing in Tonal Music
Authors: Todd Neil
Published: September 2012

During a performance, a pianist has direct control over only two variables, duration and intensity (Seashore, 1938). Other factors such as pitch and timbre are determined largely by the composer and the mechanics of the instrument. Thus expressiveness imparted to a performance lies in the departures from metrical rigidity and constant intensity. In this article, the first of the two variables is considered and it is shown how a duration structure can be generated, corresponding to the rubato in a performance, from the musical structure. The main input to the model is the time-span reduction of Lerdahl and Jackendoff's theory (1977, 1983). Also shown is an interesting analogy between this model and the algorithms of Grosjean, Grosjean, and Lane (1979). Thus the hypothesis that expression is largely determined by musical structure, and the formal parallel between time-span reduction and prosodic structure are given empirical support.
The Effects of Instrumentation, Playing Style, and Structure in the Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach
Authors: Gotlieb Heidi , Konečni Vladimir J.
Published: September 2012

Different recordings and arrangements of the Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach were evaluated on cognitive, emotional, and perceptual dimensions. In Study 1, eight different renditions of the piece were classified as Classical or Romantic interpretations. Both harpsichord and piano versions of each style were included. Only minimal differences were found in subjects' appreciation for the harpsichord versus the piano recordings. Comparisons between the Classical and Romantic styles also revealed only slight differences in subjects' ratings. In addition, no differences were found in subjects' enjoyment of different recordings made by a single artist at different points in his career. In Study 2, the structure of the piece was modified by rearranging the order of the variations. A preference for the original version over the modified arrangements was indicated on only 1 of the 15 dimensions measured. In Study 3, specific triplets of variations were played to subjects in their original order and in a random sequence. No differences were found in subjects' appreciation for the original versus the modified versions.
Purity Ratings of Tempered Fifths and Major Thirds
Authors: Vos Joos
Published: September 2012

In this study, the relationship between the degree of tempering of musical intervals and the subjective purity of these intervals was investigated. Subjective purity was determined for fifths and major thirds. The intervals were presented in isolation, that is, they were not given in a musical context. For two simultaneous complex tones the relationship between subjective purity and tempering could be described by exponential functions. These functions were obtained both for ratings on a 10-point equal-interval scale and for subjective distances derived from preference data collected by means of the method of paired comparisons. To verify to what extent subjective purity had been determined by interference of nearby harmonics, the spectral content of the tones was varied. For both the fifths and the major thirds, interference of the various pairs of nearly coinciding harmonics was canceled by deletion of the even harmonics of the higher tone. This deletion resulted in higher purity ratings, the effect being most prominent for the major third. A further reduction of the potential interference between harmonics was still more effective: for simultaneous sinusoidal tones, subjective differences between pure and tempered intervals were much smaller than for complex tones. Purity ratings for simultaneous sinusoids presented at a low sound level were about equal to the ratings for successive tones. The purity ratings were compared with dissonance patterns predicted by models for tonal consonance/dissonance. Only in a few conditions do the patterns predicted by the model of Plomp and Levelt resemble the rating patterns obtained, and the dissonance patterns predicted by the model of Kameoka and Kuriyagawa are at variance with the purity ratings in all conditions. Suggestions for revision of the models are given.
A Musical Paradox
Authors: Deutsch Diana
Published: September 2012

A pattern of tones is explored that possesses some remarkable properties. It is heard as ascending when played in one key, yet as descending when played in another key. When the pattern is recorded on tape and then played back at different speeds, it is heard either as ascending or as descending depending on the speed of playback. As a further paradox, the pattern in any given key is heard as ascending by some listeners but as descending by others. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.
What Are Musical Pitch and Timbre?
Authors: Balzano Gerald J.
Published: September 2012

This article is addressed both to psychologists interested in theories of pitch and timbre perception and to musicians interested in exploring pitch and/or timbral structures on a computer. A central assertion of the article is that these two enterprises are closely related and that both have been dominated by Fourier-analytic metaphors. I claim that Fourier analysis provides an inadequate model for both sound perception and computer analysis/synthesis of sound. In particular, it has led us to misconceive the relationship between musical pitch and timbre. Rather than modify or augment a Fourier-based perspective on these matters, I propose a different way of thinking about pitch and timbre that highlights their differences from one another and suggests different mechanisms for perceiving them. A view of musical pitch is summarized that treats pitches not as analyzable in isolation but as specifiable only with respect to a larger structure that, in Western music anyway, corresponds to a mathematical group. Following this, a view of musical timbre is summarized that links timbre perception with the dynamic processes by which sound is created, processes that are encountered and initiated outside as well as inside musical contexts and that never lead to the static-spectrum idealization of Fourier analysis except in degenerate cases. Implications of these views for creation of musical sounds by computer are also discussed.
Musical Imagery
Authors: Weber Robert J. , Brown Suellen
Published: September 2012

An objective indicator of musical imagery is developed that involves tracking the up and down movements of the tonal contour of an imagined musical phrase or tune. In two experiments, college students' imagery of music was examined. In both experiments, subjects learned musical phrases with words (songs) and without words (melodies). They then indicated as rapidly as possibly the tonal contour. In Experiment 1, the primary issue was whether musical imagery (as distinct from kinesthetic or visual imagery) drew on the same representation as overt song. Subjects processed the phrases by using either an imaginal or overtly sung representation. No difference in processing time was found between the imaginal and overt modes of representation, consistent with a common representation. A second issue was "tonal primacy," the priority of tonal coding over verbal or word coding in musical phrases; in fact, songs (with words) were processed as well or better than melodies (without words). No evidence favoring tonal primacy was found. In Experiment 2, the issues examined were possible kinesthetic or visual image coding of pitch representation and possible sharing of tonal and verbal generation processes for musical imagery and auditory imagery. Spoken responses for classifying tonal relations took longer than written responses, indicating that kinesthetic and visual image coding was unlikely and that the pitch generation of musical imagery shared resources with a more general auditory imagery.
Conflicting Aesthetic Ideals in a Musical Culture
Authors: Smith J. David
Published: September 2012

One can distinguish a culturally valued aesthetic response to music's intrinsic syntax from a culturally devalued aesthetic response to music's more extrinsic meaning. Experts probably hold a highly syntactic aesthetic ideal. By some accounts, novice listeners hold a less syntactic, more romantic ideal. If so, two aesthetic styles would coexist in musical culture, with experts broadcasting their syntactic ideal to the culture and listeners echoing it in their ideas of musical greatness. However, novices would have a musical split personality—with romantic preference at odds with the expert ideal, but a syntactic ideal of greatness congruent with it. An analysis of American classical music culture of the 1940s (using preference, eminence, space allocation, and musical performance data on Western composers collected by Farnsworth, Hevner-Mueller, etc.) confirmed these predictions. The results indicate the importance of nonsyntactic responses to listeners and suggest further research on these aesthetic dimensions which the culture's syntactic focus has orphaned. Such research might illuminate another cultural phenomenon—the rejection of contemporary music by audiences.
Music Cognition and Perceptual Facilitation: A Connectionist Framework
Authors: Bharucha Jamshed J.
Published: September 2012

The mind internalizes persistent structural regularities in music and recruits these internalized representations to facilitate subsequent perception. Facilitation underlies the generation of musical expectations and implications and the influence of a musical context on consonance and memory. Facilitation is demonstrated in experiments showing priming of chords: chords that are harmonically closely related to a preceding context are processed more quickly than chords that are harmonically distant from the context. A tonal context enhances intonational sensitivity for related chords and heightens their consonance. Facilitation occurs even when related chords don't share component tones with the context, and even when overlapping harmonics are eliminated. These results point to the indirect activation of representational units at a cognitive level. In a parallel study conducted in India, tones considered to play an important role in a rag but absent from the experimental rendition of that rag were facilitated in the same way. In a connectionist framework, facilitation is a consequence of activation spreading through a network of representational units whose pattern of connectivity encodes musical relationships. In a proposed connectionist model of harmony, each event in a musical sequence activates tone units, and activation spreads via connecting links to parent chord units and then to parent key units. Activation reverberates bidirectionally until the network settles into a state of equilibrium. The initial stages of the activation process constitute the bottom-up influence of the sounded tones, while the later, reverberatory stages constitute the top-down influence of learned, schematic structures internalized at the cognitive level. Computer simulations of the model show the same pattern of data as human subjects in experiments on relatedness judgments of chords and memory for chord sequences.
The Perception of Tone Hierarchies and Mirror Forms in Twelve-Tone Serial Music
Authors: Krumhansl Carol L. , Sandell Gregory J. , Sergeant Desmond C.
Published: September 2012

Four experiments are reported in which the materials are derived from two 12-tone serial compositions (Schoenberg's Wind Quintet and String Quartet, No. 4). Two experiments use the probe tone method (Krumhansl & Shepard, 1979) to assess factors contributing to tone prominence in serial music. The contexts in Experiment 1 are musically neutral statements of the complete or incomplete tone rows; the contexts in Experiment 4 are excerpts from the two pieces. Two experiments use a classification task to evaluate whether the prime form of the row is perceived as similar to its mirror forms (inversion, retrograde, and retrograde inversion). The materials are neutral presentations of the forms (Experiment 2) or excerpts from the pieces (Experiment 3). Large individual differences are found. A subgroup of listeners, with more music training on average, show the following effects in the probe tone experiments: low ratings for tones sounded more recently in the contexts and high ratings for tones not yet sounded; low ratings for tones fitting with local tonal implications; similar patterns for the neutral contexts and the musical excerpts. The remaining listeners show the opposite effects. Classification accuracy of mirror forms is above chance and is higher for the neutral sequences than the musical excerpts; performance is correlated with music training. The experiments show that some, but not all, listeners can perceive invariant structures in serial music despite mirror transformations, octave transpositions of tones, and variations of rhythm and phrasing.
Hearing Impairment among Orchestral Musicians
Authors: Woolford Donald H. , Carterette Edward C. , Morgan Donald E.
Published: September 2012

It would seem anomalous that an orchestral musician would have less than normal hearing in order to monitor an exacting musical output. However, some recent studies show that a proportion of symphony musicians do have hearing impairments of various pathologies of which noise exposure, including the music alone, is the dominant causal factor. Intense music exposures in symphony orchestras often exceed the intensity standards of hearing conversation. A basic procedure for industrial hearing conservation is the control of the sound at the source, but the very purpose of the orchestra prevents its use. Hearing protection which is used voluntarily by some musicians presents a different sound picture. The control of intensity of music exposures is necessary but is separate from the concern of the present study with industrial issues and the perceptual-motor performance of musicians. Relevant aspects which are briefly reviewed include the incidence, susceptibility, and severity of hearing impairment among musicians; musical performance of the hearing impaired and the effects of various pathologies on their performance; medical-legal rules of impairment, disability, and handicap; and the incidence of compensible losses among musicians of certain orchestras. Illustrative results are presented of a preliminary study of hearing among 13 volunteer members of The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. It is suggested that a three- phase study be done: (1) a comparative study of hearing among symphony orchestras; (2) development of comprehensive tests to determine hearing-related performance; (3) provision of a rational basis for hearing criteria in the case of musicians for dealing with their employment, transfer, retirement, disability, handicap, and award of compensation. A fourth issue requiring concurrent study is the conserving of the hearing of orchestral musicians.
How Do Birds Sing?
Authors: Nowicki Stephen , Marler Peter
Published: September 2012

Hypotheses are reviewed about how the vocal apparatus of birds operates during singing, focusing especially on the means by which the tonal sounds so typical of birdsong are generated. Evidence for the widely held view that the "two voices" in the songbird syrinx act independently of one another, and independently of acoustic resonances of the vocal tract, is found to be incomplete. Results of several experiments, including effects of placing singing birds in helium air, indicate that coupling of the "two voices" can occur and that changes in vocal tract resonances modify the tonal quality of birdsongs. A new model of songbird phonation is proposed, implying close coordination between the operation of the acoustic sources in the syrinx and dynamic modifications of the vocal tract.
Toward a Comparative Psychology of Music Perception
Authors: Hulse Stewart H. , Page Suzanne C.
Published: September 2012

Musicians and ethnomusicologists have long been interested in the idea of musical universals, the proposition that features of musical structure are common to the music of all human cultures. Recently, the development of new techniques and new theory makes it possible to ask whether the perceptual principles underlying music span not just human cultures but also other nonhuman species. A series of experiments addressing this issue from a comparative perspective show that a songbird, the European starling, can perceive pitch relations, a form of musical universal. However, the species transposes pitch relations across large shifts in tone height with difficulty. Instead, songbirds show a preference for learning pitch patterns on the basis of the absolute pitch of component tones. These results suggest further comparative studies of music perception may be especially worthwhile, not just for gathering new information about animals, but also for highlighting the principles that make human music perception unique.
Shape and Motion in the Microstructure of Song
Authors: Gjerdingen Robert O.
Published: September 2012

The early hopes for the Seeger melograph, a device for recording the pitch and intensity of vocal performances, have not been realized because musicologists found the graphic traces of pitch and intensity too difficult to interpret. In this article, proposals are advanced for redesigning the melograph to provide researchers with more symbolically meaningful information. This involves abandoning the notion of fully separable parameters, relaxing the constraint that representations be culturally neutral, and developing ways to represent musical motion qua motion. The discussion is illustrated with redesigned melograms drawn from analyses of a particularly florid excerpt of South- Indian singing. Comparisons between the performances of a South-Indian singer and the performances of two of her students suggest ways in which cultural conditioning can affect vocal performance.
Ascending and Descending Melodic Intervals: Statistical Findings and Their Perceptual Relevance
Authors: Vos Piet G. , Troost Jim M.
Published: September 2012

Evidence is reported for the existence and the perceptual relevance of a hitherto rather unattended regularity of melodic patterns in Western music. An inquiry into the occurrence of within-octave melodic intervals in a large variety of examples of Western music showed small intervals to be predominantly descenders and large ones to be ascenders. The perceptual relevance of the distributional regularity in question was tested. Subjects were required to discriminate between computer-generated melodic patterns that were endowed either with the discovered regularity of shape distribution over intervals or with the reversed structure. The results were convincingly positive. Music-theoretical intuitions of Meyer (1956, 1973) are used to account for the data and to claim their generalizability to non-Western melodic patterns. Finally, the outcome of this study is discussed with respect to its relevance to various musicological and music-psychological issues.
Expectation in Music: Investigation of Melodic and Harmonic Processes
Authors: Schmuckler Mark A.
Published: September 2012

Expectancy has long been of interest to psychologists and recently has become the focus of research in musical cognition. Four experiments are reported that investigated the formation of expectancies in musically trained listeners and performers. Experiments 1 and 2 examined the factors underlying the formation of melodic and harmonic expectancies, respectively. Both experiments found evidence for the psychological reality of constructs derived from the music-theoretic literature in expectancy formation. Experiment 3 investigated the generation of expectancies for a full musical context (one containing simultaneous melodic and harmonic information) and found that melody and harmony were perceptually independent, such that they combined additively in expectancy formation for a full musical context. Experiment 4 provided a convergent operation for the earlier studies by having skilled pianists perform their expectations for the same passages. These productions strongly correlated with the perceptual expectancies of Experiments 1-3. Taken together, these studies provide evidence for the existence of musical expectancy, as well as delineating some of the factors affecting its formation.
Perceiving Musical Time
Authors: Clarke Eric F. , Krumhansl Carol L.
Published: September 2012

Three experiments are described that investigate listeners' perceptions of the segmentation of a piece of atonal piano music, the location of segments extracted from the piece, and the duration and structural qualities of each segment. The experiments showed that listeners segmented the music in broad agreement with the grouping principles proposed by Lerdahl and Jackendoff (1983) and perceived the location of randomly presented segments of the music in a strongly veridical manner. Listeners' location judgments did, however, show systematic departures from veridicality, segments towards the beginning and end of the piece appearing to be located closer to the center of the piece than was actually the case. Judgments of the duration of extracted segments also were strongly veridical and were unaffected by concurrent ratings of structural properties of the segments. In order to assess possible effects of the unfamiliar musical style, the same three experiments were carried out on a piece of tonal piano music of comparable length, yielding essentially identical results. It is argued that the pattern of departures from veridicality in the location judgments for both pieces may indicate systematic changes in attention in the course of listening to the music, linked to large-scale properties of musical structure that are found in music from a variety of styles and periods. The independence of the segmental duration judgments from structural properties of the music may be a consequence of the performance skills of the musically trained listeners used in this study (a sense of absolute tempo is one of the abilities that a performer must acquire) and/or the particular methods used in the experiments.
Tonal Hierarchies and Rare Intervals in Music Cognition
Authors: Krumhansl Carol L.
Published: September 2012

Four issues raised by Butler's (1989) commentary are addressed. The first issue is the possibility that the results of perceptual studies of tonal hierarchies can be attributed to task-specific strategies developed in response to particular stimuli. Such strategies cannot account for the convergence across experiments employing varied tasks and stimulus materials. The second issue is the correspondence between statistical summaries of music and perceptual data. The correspondence is shown to be quite general and to have implications for the acquisition of tonal knowledge. The third issue is the process listeners use to identify the tonal center. Patternmatching to tonal hierarchies is shown to be a plausible process contributing to key-finding, whereas a tritone rule has limited applicability. The final issue is the effect of temporal order on pitch perception. Principled temporal-order effects are found in many psychological experiments, but not in those focusing on the tritone relation.
Response to Carol Krumhansl
Authors: Butler David
Published: September 2012

Responses are made to the major points discussed in KrumhansPs comment, "Tonal Hierarchies and Rare Intervals in Music Cognition."
Crescendo/Diminuendo Asymmetries in Beethoven's Piano Sonatas
Authors: Huron David
Published: September 2012

A study of 32 piano sonatas by Beethoven reveals a significant asymmetry between increasing and decreasing dynamics. Specifically: (1) crescendos are more frequent than diminuendos, (2) crescendos tend to last longer than diminuendos, (3) large changes of dynamics tend to involve reductions in loudness, and (4) crescendos will more commonly follow low dynamic levels than will diminuendos follow high dynamic levels. These results support a "ramp archetype" of musical dynamics in which the music tends to build in a gradual way, but tends to subside relatively quickly. The results parallel a previous study showing an identical textural asymmetry in the evolution of polyphonic sonorities.
Further Perceptual Evaluations of Pulse Microstructure in Computer Performances of Classical Piano Music
Authors: Repp Bruno H.
Published: September 2012

This research continues the perceptual evaluation of "composers' pulses" begun by Repp (1989a) and Thompson (1989). Composers' pulses are patterns of expressive microstructure (i. e., timing and amplitude modulations) proposed by Clynes (1983). They are said to convey individual composers' personalities and to enhance their characteristic expression when implemented in computer performances of their music. For the present experiments, the initial bars of five piano pieces by each of four composers (Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, and Schubert) were generated with each of four pulse microstructures similar to Clynes's composer-specific patterns, and also in a deadpan version. Listeners representing a wide range of musical experience judged to what extent each computer performance had the composer's individual expression, relative to the deadpan version. Listeners showed an overall preference for the Beethoven and Haydn pulses. The pattern of pulse preferences varied significantly among individual pieces, but little among different composers. These results indirectly support the general notion that expressive variation is contingent on musical structure, but they offer little evidence in support of fixed, composer-specific patterns of expressive microstructure.
Creative Musical Talent, Cognitive Functioning, and Gender: Psychobiological Aspects
Authors: Hassler Marianne , Nieschlag Eberhard , De La Motte Diether
Published: September 2012

Compositions by male and female composers were evaluated. Rating scores were correlated with scores from musical, spatial, and verbal psychometric tests, with dichotic and dichaptic measures, and with salivary testosterone output. Results were discussed in connection with new speculations on the biological substrates of special talents proposed by Geschwind and Galaburda (1985) and by Waterhouse (1988).
Interpreting Musical Analogy: From Rhetorical Device to Perceptual Process
Authors: Kielian-Gilbert Marianne
Published: September 2012

Repetition is a powerful means of articulating design and meaning in music. In contrast to simple repetition, musical analogy posits a functional repetition or similarity in otherwise dissimilar patterns. In music, analogy occurs both in a restrictive sense as rhetorical device and in a broader sense as an ongoing organizational and perceptual process. In this paper, I explore these uses of analogy in music and their ramifications for structural parallels between musical dimensions or between music and other artistic mediums. In its rhetorical treatment, analogy changes the temporal framework of musical events and serves an articulative purpose; in its broader treatment, analogy recurs and deepens through successive application. Examples explore how the variable relationships between local and broader mappings, or between degrees of thematic and rhythmic similarity, shape the analogy. A second stage of interpretation inquires into analogy's expressive function and meaning, the consequence of relating different frameworks. This meaning lies in the interconnection of frameworks, not in relationships generated solely by or within a particular framework.
Recognition of Melody, Harmonic Accompaniment, and Instrumentation: Musicians vs. Nonmusicians
Authors: Wolpert Rita S.
Published: September 2012

This study examined the salience of instrumentation over melody and harmonic accompaniment in identifying music excerpts. Musicians and nonmusicians were tested on match-to-sample recognition tasks. In the first task, subjects were asked to choose which resembled the model more: (a) identical melodies played with instrumentation different from the model, or (b) different melodies played with the same instrumentation as the model. In the second task, the same melodies were played, this time with harmonic accompaniments. Again, subjects were asked to choose between: (a) identical melodies played with different instrumentation, or (b) different melodies with the same instrumentation as the model. In the third task, subjects were asked to choose between: (a) a melody and its accompaniment played in a different instrumentation from that of the model, or (b) a melody and its accompaniment played in the same instrumentation as that in the model, but with the accompaniment played in the key that was dominant to the key of the melody. Ninety-five percent of the nonmusicians chose instrumentation over melody and harmonic accompaniment as the salient cue for recognition. Musicians always chose melody and harmonic accompaniment over instrumentation. These findings indicate that untrained listeners do not share or perhaps use the same cognitive schemata as trained listeners do. Further, the assumptions held by musicians that melody and harmonic accompaniment define the essential structure of much Western music, while instrumentation is cosmetic, may not be shared by nonmusicians.
The Communication of Musical Expression
Authors: Kendall Roger A. , Carterette Edward C.
Published: September 2012

This study focuses on the performer-listener link of the chain of musical communication. Using different perceptual methods (categorization, matching, and rating), as well as acoustical analyses of timing and amplitude, we found that both musicians and nonmusicians could discern among the levels of expressive intent of violin, trumpet, clarinet, oboe, and piano performers. Time-contour profiles showed distinct signatures between instruments and across expressive levels, which affords a basis for perceptual discrimination. For example, for "appropriate" expressive performances, a gradual lengthening of successive durations leads to the cadence. Although synthesized versions based on performance timings led to less response accuracy than did the complete natural performance, evidence suggests that timing may be more salient as a perceptual cue than amplitude. We outline a metabolic communication theory of musical expression that is based on a system of sequences of states, and changes of state, which fill gaps of inexorable time. We assume that musical states have a flexible, topologically deformable nature. Our conception allows for hierarchies and structure in active music processing that static generative grammars do not. This theory is supported by the data, in which patterns of timings and amplitudes differed among and between instruments and levels of expression.
The Upper Limit of "Musical" Pitch
Authors: Semal Catherine , Demany Laurent
Published: September 2012

Ten musicians were presented with a transposable melodic sequence of two monaural pure tones and were required to set the pitch of the higher tone in the sequence just above the upper limit of "musical" pitch. The overall mean of the frequency adjustments was 4.7 kHz, but subjects' individual means consistently differed from each other; their standard deviation was about three semitones. Subjects' adjustments depended on the range of possible adjustments and thus were influenced by context factors. However, the effect of range was 2.7 times smaller than it should have been if the upper limit of musical pitch had no perceptual reality. No consistent frequency differences were found between adjustments made for tones heard through the left ear and the right ear. However, in an additional study on six nonmusicians, one subject displayed a systematic interaural frequency difference amounting to about one semitone. Control measurements showed that this difference could not be explained by the subject's binaural diplacusis. Thus, as suggested by Bachem in 1937, it seems that the upper limit of musical pitch can be a different pitch for the two ears of the same subject.
Melodic and Nonmelodic Sequences of Tones: Effects of Duration on Perception
Authors: Warren Richard M. , Gardner Daniel A. , Brubaker Bradley S. , Bashford, James A.
Published: September 2012

Familiar melodic phrases were played repetitively with note durations ranging from 40 msec to 3.6 sec. Recognition required note durations approximating those normally used for playing melodic themes (roughly 150 msec to 1 sec per note). Additional experiments with nonmelodic sequences of tones indicated that different rules applied for nonmelodic patterns: Permuted orders of the same items could be distinguished from each other at all durations employed (10 msec to 5 sec per item). Recognition of different arrangements occurred not only when each tone differed in pitch, but also when all tones had the same pitch but differed in timbre. It was concluded that the durational limits for melodic recognition are not based on perceptual limits applicable to tonal patterns in general, but rather reflect special rules governing melodic organization. Hypotheses concerning the bases for these rules are suggested.
The Development of Perception of Interleaved Melodies and Control of Auditory Attention
Authors: Andrews Melinda W. , Dowling W. Jay
Published: September 2012

Between the ages of 5 and 10, children gain skill in focusing expectancies and attention. We asked children in that age range (and adults) to discern familiar target melodies whose notes were temporally interleaved with distractor notes. Targets varied in perceptual salience: the most hidden targets were interleaved with distractors of the same pitch range, loudness, and timbre, whereas the most salient targets differed in those dimensions from their distractors. Targets either retained their familiar "straight" form or wandered in pitch. Wandering targets preserved contour (ups and downs) but not pitch intervals, and either remained within the original key ("tonal") or deviated from it ("atonal"). Distractors were drawn from the original key ("tonal") or a distant key ("atonal"). Performance improved with age and experience, was better with salient (vs. hidden) targets, and better with straight (vs. wandering) targets. All but the 5- and 6-year-olds found salient targets easier with tonal distractors and hidden targets easier with atonal distractors. Only the youngest children found same-timbre distractors outside the pitch range of the target as disruptive as same-timbre distractors within that range. By 7—8 years of age, children were able to focus attention within the target pitch range to follow straight targets, indicating the focusing of attention in pitch; and by 9-10 years of age they were able to discern clearly the most hidden straight targets, demonstrating a rhythmic control of expectancies.
Tonal Consonance versus Tonal Fusion in Polyphonic Sonorities
Authors: Huron David
Published: September 2012

An analysis of a sample of polyphonic keyboard works by J. S. Bach shows that the prevalence of different vertical intervals is directly correlated with their degree of tonal consonance. A major exception to this pattern arises with respect to those intervals that contribute to tonal fusion. The prevalence of the latter intervals is negatively correlated with the degree to which each interval promotes tonal fusion. Bach's avoidance of tonally fused intervals is consistent with the objective of maintaining the perceptual independence of the contrapuntal voices. In summary, two factors appear to account for much of Bach's choice of vertical intervals: the pursuit of tonal consonance and the avoidance of tonal fusion.
Pitch Proximity in the Grouping of Simultaneous Tones
Authors: Deutsch Diana
Published: September 2012

In this paper, a new effect of pitch proximity is reported. Subjects were presented with patterns consisting of octave-related complexes. Each pattern was composed of four tones, which constituted two simultaneous melodic lines, one of which ascended by a semitone while the other descended by a semitone. The subjects judged whether the line that was higher in pitch ascended or descended, and from these judgments it was inferred which line was heard as higher and which as lower. It was found that the patterns were perceptually organized so that the simultaneous tones formed proximal relationships. The findings provide evidence that, just as successions of tones tend to be organized perceptually in accordance with pitch proximity, so simultaneous tones tend to be organized in accordance with this principle also.
Recognition of Tone Series Containing Tonic Triads
Authors: Croonen W. L. M.
Published: September 2012

Two experiments concerning the recognition of tone series with a triad on the tonic located either at the beginning, the center, or the end of the series are reported. In Experiment 1, the series consisted of nine tones and comprised three subgroups of either diatonic or nondiatonic tones. Experiment 2 focused on series of 9,11, and 13 tones. The results of Experiment 1 showed that recognition was most accurate for series with the tonic triad located in the center. In Experiment 2, the same effect of location of the tonic triad was found for series of 9 tones, but no significant effect of location of the triad was found for series of 11 or 13 tones. It appears that the location of a tonic triad influences the recognition of short tone series only, and the tonic triad has the greatest impact when it is located in the center of such a series.
Encoding Strategies for Tonal and Atonal Melodies
Authors: Mikumo Mariko
Published: September 2012

In this experiment, strategies of pitch encoding in the processing of melodies were investigated. Twenty-six students who were highly trained in music and twenty-six who were less well trained were instructed to make recognition judgments concerning melodies after a 12-sec retention interval. During each retention interval, subjects were exposed to one of four conditions (pause, listening to an interfering melody, shadowing nonsense syllables, and shadowing note names). Both the standard and the comparison melodies were six-tone series that had either a high- tonality structure ("tonal melody") or a low-tonality structure ("atonal melody"). The results (obtained by Newman-Keuls method) showed that recognition performance for the musically highly trained group was severely disrupted by the note names for the tonal melodies, while it was disrupted by the interfering melody for the atonal melodies. On the other hand, for the musically less well trained group, whose recognition performance was significantly worse than that of the highly trained group even in the Pause condition, there were no significant differences in disruptive effects between the different types of interfering materials. These findings suggest that the highly trained group could use a verbal (note name) encoding strategy for the pitches in the tonal melodies, and also rehearsal strategies (such as humming and whistling) for the atonal melodies, but that subjects in the less well trained group were unable to use any effective strategies to encode the melodies.
Harmonic Closure: Music Theory and Perception
Authors: Rosner Burton S. , Narmour Eugene
Published: September 2012

Music theorists have often disagreed about the material variables that determine the perception of harmonic closure. To investigate this controversial topic, we presented subjects with pairs of selected two-chord progressions. The subjects judged which member of each pair seemed more closed. Preferences varied across pairs of cadences and generally obeyed transitivity. Quantitative reformulation of theoretical harmonic variables permitted correlational analysis of the results. Three or four variables, including one or two that reflect learned stylistic structures, best explained our findings. Conventional harmonic factors of scale step, soprano position, and root position demonstrated surprisingly little explanatory power.
A (De)Composable Theory of Rhythm Perception
Authors: Desain Peter
Published: September 2012

A definition is given of expectancy of events projected into the future by a complex temporal sequence. The definition can be decomposed into basic expectancy components projected by each time interval implicit in the sequence. A preliminary formulation of these basic curves is proposed and the (de) composition method is stated in a formalized, mathematical way. The resulting expectancy of complex temporal patterns can be used to model such diverse topics as categorical rhythm perception, clock and meter inducement, rhythmicity, and the similarity of temporal sequences. Besides expectancy projected into the future, the proposed measure can be projected back into the past as well, generating reinforcement of past events by new data. The consistency of the predictions of the theory with some findings in categorical rhythm perception is shown.
Imitating and Evaluating Real and Transformed Musical Performances
Authors: Clarke Eric F.
Published: September 2012

Expression in musical performance is usually accounted for in terms of a generative model that takes a structural description as input and produces expressive modifications of rhythmic structure as output. This idea is examined in two experiments. In the first, piano players try to imitate heard performances that are either real performances by another pianist, or one of three kinds of transformations of the original performance that disrupt the relationship between structure and expression in different ways. The results show that the more the relationship is disrupted, the more inaccurate and unstable is the imitation attempt, thus providing support for the generative model. The players have some ability to imitate the disrupted versions, however, demonstrating that the generative model is not a complete account, and some explanations are offered for this. The second experiment assesses listeners' responses to the materials of the first experiment and shows that their preference ratings for the various versions of the melodies follow essentially the same pattern as do the accuracy/stability measures for the imitation attempts. This is taken as further evidence for the generative model in both performing and listening and for the central role of a structural representation in understanding and evaluating musical expression.
Accent Structures in Music Performance
Authors: Drake Carolyn , Palmer Caroline
Published: September 2012

Perceptual studies suggest that the segmentation of a musical sequence is influenced by three accent structures: rhythmic grouping, melodic, and metric accent structures. We investigate whether performers emphasize these types of accents with systematic performance variations (intensity, interonset timing, and articulation). In three experiments, skilled pianists performed sequences of various musical complexities: simple sequences containing only one accent structure (Experiment 1), more complex sequences containing coinciding or conflicting accent structures (Experiment 2), and a concert pianist's performance of a sonata containing coinciding and conflicting accent structures (Experiment 3). In all three musical contexts, similar systematic performance variations were observed in relation to each type of accent. Variations corresponding to rhythmic grouping accents were most consistent across musical contexts and dominated when the accent structures conflicted. These findings suggest perceptual correlates for the accent structures in music performance that may facilitate listeners' segmentation of musical sequences.