bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Harmonic Root: A Fragile Marriage of Concept and Percept
Authors: Thomson William
Published: September 2012

The word root, and the harmonic metabolism it helps to describe, plays a central role in how musicians think about musical structure. Vaguely implicit in some early writers' descriptions of intervals and scales, it awaited Rameau's discussions (1722/1971) of the fundamental bass to become explicit. Since then, music theorists have sought to explain its perceptual nature and causes. Their theories usually turn on some version of physical weightings, a root being the pitch class more powerfully reinforced than its companion pitch classes. After representative versions of influential explanations are reviewed, and their generic shortcomings are noted, Ernst Terhardt's "virtual pitch" theory is recognized as uniquely reasonable; it embodies a condition of pattern perception rather than physical reinforcement, thereby skirting a principal flaw of past theories. And yet, a troublesome paradox surfaces, regardless of which conceptualization one favors: empirical studies of interval perception have fallen short of confirming the phenomenal reality our concepts describe so confidently. In an attempt to outflank these empirical/phenomenal clashes, a scheme of pitch/time interaction, or "vectoral dynamics", is outlined. Its consistency with the linear perspective of vision is noted, and the model is applied to the opening of a Wolf song and to a painting by Titian.
Verbal Attributes of Simultaneous Wind Instrument Timbres: II. Adjectives Induced from Piston's "Orchestration"
Authors: Kendall Roger A. , Carterette Edward C.
Published: September 2012

Experiments were conducted to explore the relationship between wind instrument dyad timbres and verbal attributes drawn from the musicological literature in order to compare and contrast results with studies using artificial stimuli and amusical rating scales. In the first experiment, all adjectives in Piston's (1955) "Orchestration" were collated and subsequently reduced to 61 examples. A checklist procedure was used in response to the dyad timbres to further reduce the set of adjectives to 21. The 21 adjectives were used in verbal attribute magnitude estimation of the 10 wind instrument dyad timbres. Principal components analysis of ratings revealed four verbal attribute factors, accounting for 90.604% of the variance: power, strident, plangent, and reed. Correlational analyses demonstrated an improvement in mapping between the ratings and perceptual similarity spaces over the procedure used in Part I of this study. The two-dimensional timbral circumplex was interpreted as having a principal dimension of nasality versus richness and a secondary dimension of reediness versus brilliance.
Describing the Perception of Tonality in Music: A Critique of the Tonal Hierarchy Theory and a Proposal for a Theory of Intervallic Rivalry
Authors: Butler David
Published: September 2012

Strengths and limitations of the tonal hierarchy theory, and of the probetone testing procedure used to substantiate that theory, are discussed. The tonal hierarchy theory is characterized as an important contribution in that it begins to describe hierarchical relationships of tones in the diatonic set. The tonal hierarchy theory is, however, criticized because it does not describe the mental process or processes by which the tonal center of a piece of tonal music is recognized, nor does it account for the dynamic perception of tonality as it unfolds during actual musical listening. The probe-tone testing procedure most often used to substantiate the tonal hierarchy theory is criticized for the ambiguity of its response task, so that test results could be an artifact of effects of short-term memory. An alternative perceptual theory is proposed to describe the timedependent nature of pitch relationships in music. In this description, listeners are assumed to recognize the tonal center in tonal music on a bestevidence basis, and it is asserted that the clearest evidence is carried in the rarest-occurring intervals in the diatonic set. Evidence, gathered in a series of experiments, is cited to demonstrate that listeners both with and without extensive formal training in music form strong (and usually tacit) mental representations of unambiguous tonality when tones are arranged across time so as to form meaningful tonal referents.
A New Illusion of Time Perception—II
Authors: Hoopen Gert Ten , Hilkhuysen Gaston , Vis Gert , Nakajima Yoshitaka , Yamauchi Fumihiko , Sasaki Takayuki
Published: September 2012

When one very short empty time interval follows right after another, the second one can be underestimated considerably, but only if it is longer than the first one. We coined the term "time-shrinking" for this illusory phenomenon in our previous studies. Although we could relate our finding to some studies of rhythm perception, we were not able to explain the illusion. The present article presents our attempt to understand the mechanism that causes the time-shrinking. Four experiments are reported. The first one ruled out the possibility that the illusion results from a difficulty in resolving the temporal structure. The second experiment showed that the listener was not inadvertently judging the duration of the first interval instead of that of the second one. In addition, this experiment yielded more information about the time window within which the illusion occurs. The third experiment showed that forward masking of the sound markers, delimiting the empty durations, could not explain the illusion either. Furthermore, this experiment revealed a clue to the mechanism of time-shrinking: competition between expected and observed temporal positions. The fourth experiment further examined the temporal conditions that give rise to the illusion and showed that categorical perception plays a crucial role in the formation of the illusion. In the general discussion, we argue that the illusion is due to an asymmetric process of temporal assimilation.
Frequency Analysis and Musical Ability
Authors: Fine Philip A. , Moore Brian C. J.
Published: September 2012

Soderquist (Psychonomic Science, 1970, 21,117–119) found that musicians were better than nonmusicians at separating out ("hearing out") partials from complex tones and proposed that this might be explained by the musicians having sharper auditory filters. In Experiment 1, the auditory filters of two groups, musicians and nonmusicians, were measured at three center frequencies by using a notched-noise masker. The filters were found not to differ in bandwidth between the two groups. However, the efficiency of the detection process after auditory filtering was significantly different between the two groups: the musicians were more efficient. In Experiment 2, the ability to hear out partials in a complex inharmonic tone was measured for the same two groups, using a tone produced by "stretching" the spacing between partials in a harmonic complex tone. Unfortunately, most of the nonmusicians were unable to perform this task. The ability of the musicians to hear out partials was not significantly correlated with the auditory filter bandwidths measured in Experiment 1. The musicians were also tested on the original harmonic complex tone (before "stretching"). For some partials, their performance was better for the inharmonic tone, reflecting the fact that the separation of the partials in frequency was greater for that tone. However, it was also found that those partials that were octaves of the fundamental in the harmonic series were identified better than corresponding partials in the inharmonic tone.
A Principle of Correlativity of Perception and Its Application to Music Recognition
Authors: Tanguiane A. S.
Published: September 2012

Correlativity of perception is defined as a capacity to discover similar configurations of stimuli and to form high- level configurations from them. It is equivalent to describing information in terms of generative elements and their transformations. Such a representation saves memory and reveals causality in data generation. This approach is implemented in a model of artificial perception wherein data are selforganized in order to segregate patterns before recognizing them. Input information is described as generative patterns and their transformations. The least complex data representation that leads to a causally related semantic description is chosen, with (Kolmogorov) complexity defined by the amount of memory store required. The model is applied to voice separation and to rhythm/tempo tracking. Chord spectra are described by generative subspectra, which correspond to tonal spectra, and by their translations, which coincide with the intervals of the chord. Time events are also described by generative rhythmic patterns. Tempo and rhythm interdependence is overcome by the optimal sharing of complexity between representations of rhythmic patterns and tempo curve. The model explains the function of interval hearing, certain statements of music theory, and some effects of rhythm perception. Applications to image processing and modeling of abstract thinking are also discussed.
Motor Encoding Strategy for Pitches of Melodies
Authors: Mikumo Mariko
Published: September 2012

The role of a motor strategy of pitch encoding in the processing of melodies was investigated. The encoding task involved finger-tapping analogous to that used in playing the piano. Twelve students highly trained in music made recognition judgments of melodies after a retention interval. Subjects were instructed to use tapping to memorize the pitches of the standard melody. The retention interval consisted of a blank interval, or was filled with an interfering melody, or a series of musical note names, in separate experiments. The findings suggest that (a) tapping can be an effective strategy for pitch encoding; (b) as melody length or duration of the retention interval increased, or when the retention interval was filled, subjects often tried to repeat the finger-tapping pattern in order to retain the standard melodies; (c) repeating the tapping pattern many times could elaborate the fingering of the tapping and consequently the encoding of the melodies; (d) some subjects used a dual encoding strategy, incorporating motor and verbal components.
The Tritone Paradox and the Pitch Range of the Speaking Voice: Reply to Repp
Authors: Deutsch Diana
Published: September 2012

It is shown on a number of grounds that the findings described by Repp (1994) are uninterpretable in relation to those of Deutsch (1991) and Deutsch, North, and Ray (1990). First, the geographical correlates with perception of the tritone paradox obtained by Repp were based on data from subject populations that differed substantially from those studied by Deutsch (1991), and Repp's subject populations were also treated differently from each other. Second, Repp obtained substantial differences in perception of the tritone paradox depending on the spectral envelope under which the tones were generated; however, he attempted to correlate the data obtained from only one of these envelopes with pitch ranges for speech. Third, the procedures used by Repp to determine the pitch ranges for speech were problematic and inappropriate in the context of Deutsch's hypothesis.
The Influence of Pitch on Time Perception in Short Melodies
Authors: Crowder Robert G. , Neath Ian
Published: September 2012

The pitch difference between tones defining the boundaries of a silent interval affects the perceived duration of that interval. In three replications of our experimental task, we found that when subjects compared the durations of the two silent intervals defined by a three- tone "melody," the tones were perceived as having a greater temporal separation if a wide gap in pitch separated the two tones than if a narrow pitch gap separated the tones, even when the objective timing was identical.
Some Examples of Complex Meters and Their Implications for Models of Metric Perception
Authors: London Justin
Published: September 2012

A music-theoretic discussion of metric structure. Describing a musical passage as "metric" usually implies that one can hear in it an isochronous series of beats and that these beats are hierarchically structured. In some cases, however, one cannot infer a wholly isochronous metric structure from the durations present on the musical surface. In particular, there may be some meters where the beat level of the metric hierarchy consists of a nonisochronous series of durations; these cases are referred to as complex meters, A number of these complex metric structures are presented and discussed. The implications of these structures for various models of metric perception are then considered, with particular reference to their implications for the entrainment model proposed by Jones and Boltz (1989). It is proposed that such meters must be accounted for under an additive rather than multiplicative formalism. The paper concludes with some considerations of how entrainment to complex meters might be tested, as well as the ways in which experiments that focus on complex meters might provide insights into other aspects of temporal perception.
The Emotional Sources of "Chills" Induced by Music
Authors: Panksepp Jaak
Published: September 2012

Music modifies moods and emotions by interacting with brain mechanisms that remain to be identified. One powerful emotional effect induced by music is a shivery, gooseflesh type of skin sensation (commonly called "chills" or "thrills"), which may reflect the brain's ability to extract specific kinds of emotional meaning from music. A large survey indicated that college-age students typically prefer to label this phenomenon as "chills" rather than "thrills," but many mistakenly believe that happiness in music is more influential in evoking the response than sadness. A series of correlational studies analyzing the subjective experience of chills in groups of students listening to a variety of musical pieces indicated that chills are related to the perceived emotional content of various selections, with much stronger relations to perceived sadness than happiness. As a group, females report feeling more chills than males do. Because feelings of sadness typically arise from the severance of established social bonds, there may exist basic neurochemical similarities between the chilling emotions evoked by music and those engendered by social loss. Further study of the "chill" response should help clarify how music interacts with a specific emotional process of the normal human brain.
What Is Melodic Accent? Converging Evidence from Musical Practice
Authors: Huron David , Royal Matthew
Published: September 2012

The theoretical and experimental literatures pertaining to pitch-related accent are reviewed. From these literatures, eight competing notions of melodic accent are identified. All eight conceptions of melodic accent were investigated through correlational studies of three contrasting samples of music. Statistical correlations were calculated for each accent type with respect to the corresponding metric position or with respect to the syllabic/melismatic status of associated sung text. The results for all three studies are most consistent with a perceptual model of melodic accent developed by Joseph Thomassen (1982). The remaining conceptions of melodic accent receive little or no empirical support. In addition, this study reveals an endemic use of text-melody displacement in a sample of Gregorian chant—suggesting that the chant melodies were constructed so as to avoid strong rhythmic stresses.
Multiple Components of the Perception of Musical Sequences: A Cognitive Neuroscience Analysis and Some Implications for Auditory Imagery
Authors: Carroll-Phelan Berenice , Hampson Peter J.
Published: September 2012

A neurologically plausible model of the auditory perception of musical sequences is proposed, and some implications are derived for auditory imagery. In line with a cognitive neuroscience approach, a componential analysis of the major functions required of auditory perception and imagery for musical sequences is first carried out, and a minimal model of auditory imagery and perception is outlined. The minimal model makes a clear distinction between the processing subsystems required for analyzing pitch and rhythm. It also incorporates an auditory buffer for the brief retention of relatively unprocessed auditory input, an attention subsystem that permits selective intake of relevant auditory information, a memory subsystem for melodic strings that combines the outputs of pitch and rhythmic analyses into a long-term, flexible representation of the musical sequence, and an associative memory system that links the results of perceptual analyses of music with extraperceptual (semantic and episodic) information about the musical string. The present theory builds on a recent model of music perception proposed by Peretz (1993) and also accounts for data from studies of patients with disorders of rhythmic processing, thus indicating the close relationship between auditory perception and imagery for rhythmic sequences, timing, and motor processes. Recent data are used to refine and extend the minimal model and provide an organizing framework for current laboratory work.
Interactions of Perceived Intensity, Duration, and Pitch in Pure Tone Sequences
Authors: Tekman Hasan Gürkan
Published: September 2012

If one dimension of sound is manipulated in a way that suggests a particular rhythmic organization, does perception of other dimensions change in ways that are consistent with the same rhythmic organization? When subjects were asked to judge or adjust intensities of tones, rhythmic manipulations of pitch structure changed the perception of intensity. When subjects were asked to judge timing, rhythmic manipulations of intensity had a similar effect. Timing manipulations did not have an effect on judgments of pitch. The results indicate that temporal structure as a whole is more accessible than the individual physical manipulations that give rise to that structure. It may be concluded that the temporal structure itself, rather than pitches, intensities, and durations in isolation, is a perceptual object.
Simplifying the Implication-Realization Model of Melodic Expectancy
Authors: Schellenberg E. Glenn
Published: September 2012

Results from previous investigations indicate that the implication-realization (I-R) model (Narmour, 1990) of expectancy in melody may be overspecified and more complex than necessary. Indeed, Schellenberg's (1996) revised model, with two fewer predictor variables, improved predictive accuracy compared with the original model. A reanalysis of data reported by Cuddy and Lunney (1995) provided similar results. When the principles of the I-R model were submitted to a principal- components analysis, a solution containing three orthogonal (uncorrelated) factors retained the accuracy of the model but was inferior to the revised model. A separate principal-components analysis of the predictors of the revised model yielded a two-factor solution that did not compromise the revised model's predictive power. Consequently, an even simpler model of melodic expectancy was derived. These results provide further evidence that redundancy in the I-R model can be eliminated without loss of predictive accuracy.
Neural Responses to Melodic and Harmonic Closure: An Event-Related-Potential Study
Authors: Hantz Edwin C. , Kreilick Kelley G. , Kananen William , Swartz Kenneth P.
Published: September 2012

The event-related evoked potential (ERP) responses to sentence endings that either confirm or violate syntactic/semantic constraints have been extensively studied. Very little is known, however, about the corresponding situation with respect to music. The current study investigates the brain- wave (ERP) responses to perceived phrase closure. ERPs are a potentially valid measure of how language-like or uniquely musical the perception of phrase closure is. In our study, highly trained musicians (N= 16) judged whether or not novel musical phrases were closed (melodically or harmonically). Three stimulus series consisted of seven- note tunes with four possible endings: closed (tonic note or tonic chord), open/ diatonic (dominant chord or a member thereof), open/ chromatic (a chromatic note or chord outside the key of the melody), or open/white noise (a nonmusical control). One series included melodies alone, a second series included melodies harmonized, and a third series included melodies in which the melodic contexts were disrupted rather than the endings. In the recorded ERPs, a statistically significant negative drift in the waveforms occurred over the course of the context series, indicating anticipation of closure. The drift-corrected poststimulus waveforms for all series were subjected to a principal components analysis/analysis of variance. Two subject variables were also considered: sex and absolute pitch. All four stimulus types elicited identifiable responses. The waveform peaks for the four stimulus types are clearly differentiated by principal component analysis scores to two components: one with a maximum value at 273 ms and one with a maximum value at 471 ms. Taking the closed endings as the expected "standard," the waveforms for the two types of musical deviant endings were significantly below the standard at 273 ms and above the standard at 471 ms. The amount of negativity was proportional to the amount of deviance of the ending. The positive peak in the closed condition and the reduced peak in the open/diatonic condition are contrary to the normal inverse relationship between peak size and stimulus probability; the former agrees with peaks found in response to syntactic closure in language. Significant, though isolated, interactions involving both sex and absolute pitch also emerged.
Asymmetric Cognitive Clock Structures in West African Rhythms
Authors: Magill Jonathan M. , Pressing Jeffrey L.
Published: September 2012

Results of an experimental investigation of pattern production by a West African (Asante) master drummer are reported. He performed bimanual tapping, with the Kete time-line pattern in one hand and either a regular 3-pulse or a regular 4-pulse in the other hand. Experimental variables manipulated were pulse-stream size (three or four), pulse hand allocation (left or right), and recording protocol, which was either synchronous (played in relation to a computer-generated tone) or spontaneous (no tone). Structural equation modeling was used to systematically examine the comparative fit of two mental models: an asymmetric timeline- ground (TLG) model, which represents a computational elaboration of traditional African understanding, and a pulse-ground (PG) model, which is based on Western ideas of regular meter. The African-based TLG model with at most minor adjustment provided an excellent fit for seven of eight experimental conditions; one condition achieved a good fit only after more substantial modification of the model. The African TLG model achieved superiority over the Western PG model only under certain specific conditions, suggesting that the use of the African cognitive model is subtle, context-dependent, and linked to specific training regimes.
Inference of Metrical Structure from Perception of Iterative Pulses within Time Spans Defined by Chord Changes
Authors: Dawe Lloyd A. , Plait John R. , Racine Ronald J.
Published: September 2012

In many theories of meter inference (e. g., Benjamin, 1984; Lerdahl & Jackendoff, 1983), the cues that serve as markers for major metrical accent locations are the basis from which one infers or determines a meter. However, phrase and metrical structure often support one another with phrase boundaries coinciding with metrically important locations. Thus, it becomes difficult to determine which cues, if any, are used predominantly as the basis for meter inference. Three experiments are presented in which different time spans defined by harmonic, melodic, and temporal accents, and their coincidences were systematically pitted against one another. Musicians and nonmusicians were requested to identify the meter of the stimuli as belonging to a category of either a triple (e. g., 6/8 or 3/4 time), or a duple meter (e. g., 2/4 or 4/4 time). It was found that musicians use harmonic information much more often and reliably than do nonmusicians, who also use the temporal accent to define a metrical structure. Nevertheless, across all experiments, when a harmonic accent was present, subjects used that accent to define the meter. Furthermore, the coincidence of melodic accents was used more often than a temporal accent to determine a metrical structure. The implications of these findings in light of other research that shows that a temporal accent is heard as initiating major metrical locations (Lerdahl & Jackendoff, 1983; Longuet-Higgins & Lee, 1982, 1984; Longuet-Higgins & Steedman, 1971; Steedman, 1977) are discussed.
Eye Movement in Music Reading: Effects of Reading Ability, Notational Complexity, and Encounters
Authors: Goolsby Thomas W.
Published: September 2012

Six types of eye movement were measured and recorded with an SRI Eyetracker: number of progressive and regressive fixations, durations of progressive and regressive fixations and lengths of progressive and regressive saccades. Twenty-four graduate music students were selected as skilled and less- skilled music readers. Eye position was measured every millisecond with a high degree of accuracy. The factorial design was 2 Groups x 4 Melodies x 3 Encounters (including a practice period). Results indicated that patterns of eye movement in the two groups were similar across melodies and encounters, but differed with notational complexity. Eye movement was reduced when performing melodies with more-concentrated visual information than when performing melodies with less- concentrated visual information. The main effect of encounters indicated that music readers used fewer but longer fixations after practicing the melodies. Results suggest that skilled music readers look farther ahead in the notation, and then back to the point of performance, when sightreading.
More on Key-Distance Effects in Melody Recognition: A Response to van Egmond and Povel
Authors: Takeuchi Annie H.
Published: September 2012

Further analysis of the results of Experiments 2 and 3 from Takeuchi and Hulse's (1992) paper, "Key- distance effects in melody recognition reexamined," shows that the false-alarm rate to near-key lures was not elevated in Experiment 2 relative to Experiments 1 and 3. Thus van Egmond and PovePs ( 1994) hypothesis that the lack of a key distance effect in Experiment 2 was due to listeners interpreting near-key lures as tonal transpositions, thus producing more false alarms, is not supported.
Expectancy in Bohemian Folk Song Melodies: Evaluation of Implicative Principles for Implicative and Closural Intervals
Authors: Thompson William Forde , Stainton Murray
Published: September 2012

Principles of melodic implication were evaluated in an analysis of folk song melodies. Implicative and closural intervals were identified in 513 Bohemian melodies, and the note following each interval (the continuation note) was analyzed. Multinomial log-linear analysis was conducted to assess the extent to which Narmour's (1990) implicative principles could predict continuation notes. Support was found for five principles, with slightly greater support for strongly implicative intervals than for closural intervals, and for large intervals than for small intervals. Alternative models of melodic implication are discussed.
The Detectability of Local Deviations from a Typical Expressive Timing Pattern
Authors: Repp Bruno H.
Published: September 2012

In three experiments, musically trained listeners tried to detect local deviations from a typical pattern of expressive timing in the initial measures of Chopin's Etude in E Major. The goal of the experiments was to neutralize structurally based perceptual biases ("timing expectations") that had been revealed previously in the detectability of local deviations from metronomic timing in the same music. In Experiment 1, which presented deviations from full-scale expressive timing, the perceptual biases were reversed, indicating that listeners' timing expectations were smaller than the typical timing variation in performance. Experiments 2 and 3 therefore presented deviations from a down-scaled timing pattern (25% or 10% of its original magnitude). Although neither experiment succeeded in completely neutralizing the perceptual biases, correlational evidence suggested that listeners' timing expectations were about five times smaller than typical expressive timing variations. The small, essentially subliminal size of the listeners' timing expectations is consistent with recent findings of related unintentional timing variation in deliberately metronomic performance and in finger-tap synchronization with a metronomic rendition of the same music.
Fetal Music Perception: The Role of Sound Transmission
Authors: Abrams R. M. , Griffiths S. K. , Huang X. , Sain J. , Langford G. , Gerhardt K. J.
Published: September 2012

The fetal sound environment is now known to be rich and varied. Playback of tapes made from intrauterine recordings of sounds reveals some muffling, suggesting an attenuation of high-frequency sounds at the surface of the abdominal wall and during transmission through abdominal and uterine tissues and fluids. The present experiments show how the spectral features of synthesized musical sounds are altered once they reach the ear of the fetal sheep. Below 300 Hz, intrauterine sound pressure levels are nearly identical to those recorded outside the ewe. Between 315 and 2500 Hz, the attenuation increases at a rate of 5 dB per octave. Spectral analyses of trumpet and flugelhorn sounds recorded in utero show a marked diminution in sound pressure level in partials above 600 Hz; this diminution could be perceived by the fetus as an altered timbre.
Psychological Processes Involved in the Temporal Organization of Complex Auditory Sequences: Universal and Acquired Processes
Authors: Drake Carolyn
Published: September 2012

Previous psychological research investigating the perceptual and cognitive processes involved when listening to complex sound sequences is reorganized into a framework composed of four types of processes: two basic processes (segmentation into groups and regularity extraction) and two hierarchical organizations (hierarchical segmentation organization and hierarchical metrical organization). This framework allows us to propose hypotheses about the way these processes are acquired: the basic processes may be universal (functional from an early age and common to everyone), whereas the integration of these building blocks into hierarchical organizations may be acquired (through acculturation and specific training). We present illustrations from our recent work in support of these hypotheses.
Effects of Global and Local Contexts on Harmonic Expectancy
Authors: Tillmann B. , Bigand E. , Pineau M.
Published: September 2012

Several psycholinguistic studies have investigated the influence of local and global semantic contexts on word processing. The first aim of the present study was to examine local and global level contributions to harmonic priming. The second was to test a spreading-activation account of harmonic context effects (Bharucha, 1987). The expectations for the last chord (the target) of eight-chord sequences were varied by simultaneously manipulating the harmonic relationship of the target to the first six chords (global context) and to the seventh chord (local context). Human performances demonstrated that harmonic expectancies are derived from both the global and local levels of musical structure. Bharucha's connectionist model provides a possible account of local and global context effects. In isochronous chord sequences, harmonic priming seems to result from activation spreading via a schematic knowledge of tonal hierarchies.
A Two-Process Model for Control of Legato Articulation across a Wide Range of Tempos during Piano Performance
Authors: Jacobs J. Pieter , Bullock Daniel
Published: September 2012

The key overlap times (KOTs) required for legato articulation vary markedly with tempo. For scales/ arpeggios performed at interonset intervals (IOIs) of 100-1000 ms, prior reports show an increasing but nonlinear functional dependence of KOT on IOI. Because the major nonlinearity appears in the long-IOI (slow-tempo) region, the dependence of KOT on IOI is not attributable to gross biomechanical factors, such as finger inertias. Herein, we show that the dependence can arise from a neural circuit in which a predictive central process and a slow sensory feedback process cooperate to control articulation. An oscillating neural network is first constructed as an extension of the vector-integration-to-endpoint (VITE) model for voluntary control of movement. The resulting circuit exhibits volition-controlled oscillation rates. It also affords predictive control by continuously computing an internal estimate of the remaining " time-to-contact" (TTC) with a targeted integration level, the reaching of which triggers the oscillator's next half cycle. At fixed successive threshold values of this estimate of time remaining in the current half cycle, the performer first launches keystroke n + 1 and then lifts keystroke n. As tempo slows, the time required to pass between threshold crossings elongates, and KOT increases. However, if performers used only such a central process to control articulation, they would not show the bend seen in the slow tempo region of the KOT vs. IOI function. The bend emerges if performers lift keystroke n whenever they cross the second internal threshold or receive sensory feedback from stroke n + 1, whichever comes earlier. Empirical estimates of feedback delay times are consistent with this interpretation.
Pitch Distributions in Korean Court Music: Evidence Consistent with Tonal Hierarchies
Authors: Nam Unjung
Published: September 2012

Preliminary evidence from three recorded samples of music for p'iri suggests that a tonal hierarchy may exist in traditional Korean court music. After a simple transposition, two of the three works studied exhibited similar scale intervals, similar phrase-ending tones, and similar tone-duration distributions (or "key profiles"). A third sample work proved more equivocal. The results are consistent with earlier studies of Balinese music (Kessler, Hansen, & Shepard. 1984) and North Indian music (Castellano, Bharucha, & Krumhansl, 1984) concerning the existence of genre- related tonal hierarchies.
The Role of Diatonicism in the Abstraction and Representation of Contour and Interval Information
Authors: Freedman Eric G.
Published: September 2012

Previous research on melody recognition indicates that listeners can recognize contour information when melodies are retained for brief intervals and can recognize interval information of melodies held in longterm memory. However, past research has failed to control for the diatonicism and familiarity of the melodies. In three experiments, the relative contributions of contour and interval information during the abstraction of novel diatonic and nondiatonic sequences are examined. Listeners recognize the melodic contours of melodies held over an extended retention interval. Additionally, listeners use the diatonic context to recognize both the contour and interval information. In nondiatonic contexts, listeners rely predominantly on the contour information. In addition, musically experienced listeners can recognize both the contour and interval information, whereas musically inexperienced listeners rely predominantly on the contour information. Recognition of melodic contour remained relatively accurate during a 24-hr retention interval. Thus, the results indicate that the diatonic scale mediates the abstraction of interval information. Listeners seem to acquire a musical schema for diatonic melodies.
The Combinatorial Model of Pitch Contour
Authors: Quinn Ian
Published: September 2012

Much previous work on the perception of pitch contour has concerned itself only with the contour relations among adjacent notes, which may lead to the assumption that relations among nonadjacent tones do not play a role in the mental representation of contour. Music theorists, on the other hand, have developed sophisticated models of contour in which relations among nonadjacent tones play an integral part. In order to test the salience of relations among nonadjacent melodic tones in the perception of melodic contour, musically trained participants were asked to rate the similarity of discrete pairs of stimulus melodies with regard to contour. The results suggest that although contour relations among adjacent tones are more significant than those among nonadjacent tones in determining judgments about contour similarity, nonadjacent contour relations do contribute to such judgments.
Stretching and Compression in the Perception of Musical Intervals
Authors: Rosner B. S.
Published: September 2012

Perceived octaves are stretched, requiring frequency-dependent ratios that generally exceed 2:1. Small intervals seem to be compressed perceptually. Whether this compression also depends on frequency is unclear. To examine this question, six experienced string instrumentalists each made perceptual judgments of sinusoidally formed major seconds, perfect fourths, and octaves above each of four lower frequencies. The frequency ratio for each perceived interval type varied with lower frequency. The pattern of this variation differed between the octave and the other two interval types and across subjects. A consequence is that nonlinear loci in a two-dimensional space are mathematically necessary for a complete representation of an individual listener's subjectively equal musical intervals. The listener apparently quickly assimilates the intervals produced by performers to these personal interval loci.
Music Expectation by Cognitive Rule-Mapping
Authors: Narmour Eugene
Published: September 2012

Iterative rules appear everywhere in music cognition, creating strong expectations. Consequently, denial of rule projection becomes an important compositional strategy, generating numerous possibilities for musical affect. Other rules enter the musical aesthetic through reflexive game playing. Still other kinds are completely constructivist in nature and may be uncongenial to cognition, requiring much training to be recognized, if at all. Cognitive rules are frequently found in contexts of varied repetition (AA), but they are not necessarily bounded by stylistic similarity. Indeed, rules may be especially relevant in the processing of unfamiliar contexts (AB), where only abstract coding is available. There are many kinds of deduction in music cognition. Typical examples include melodic sequence, partial melodic sequence, and alternating melodic sequence (which produces streaming). These types may coexist in the musical fabric, involving the invocation of both simultaneous and nested rules. Intervallic expansion and reduction in melody also involve higherorder abstractions. Various mirrored forms in music entail rule-mapping as well, although these may be more difficult to perceive than their analogous visual symmetries. Listeners can likewise deduce additivity and subtractivity at work in harmony, tempo, texture, pace, and dynamics. Rhythmic augmentation and diminution, by contrast, rely on multiplication and division. The examples suggest numerous hypotheses for experimental research.
An Auditory Model of the Role of Short-Term Memory in Probe-Tone Ratings
Authors: Leman Marc
Published: September 2012

Auditory modeling is used to investigate the role of short-term memory in probe-tone experiments. A framework for auditory modeling is first defined, based on a distinction between auditory images, processes, and stimulus-driven inferences. Experiments I and II of the probe-tone experiments described by C. Krumhansl and E. Kessler (1982) are simulated. The results show that a short-term memory model, working on echoic images of periodicity pitch, may account for the probe-tone ratings. The simulations challenge the claim that probe-tone experiments provide evidence that listeners familiar with Western music have abstracted tonal hierarchies in a long-term memory.
The Role of Timing Patterns in Recognition of Emotional Expression from Musical Performance
Authors: Juslin Patrik N. , Madison Guy
Published: September 2012

The purpose of this study was to explore whether listeners can use timing patterns to decode the intended emotional expression of musical performances. We gradually removed different acoustic cues (tempo, dynamics, timing, articulation) from piano performances rendered with various intended expressions (anger, sadness, happiness, fear) to see how such manipulations would affect a listener's ability to decode the emotional expression. The results show that (a) removing the timing patterns yielded a significant decrease in listeners' decoding accuracy, (b) timing patterns were by themselves capable of communicating some emotions with accuracy better than chance, and (c) timing patterns were less effective in communicating emotions than were tempo and dynamics. Implications for research on timing in performance are discussed.
Tapping in Time with Mechanically and Expressively Performed Music
Authors: Drake Carolyn , Penel Amandine , Bigand Emmanuel
Published: September 2012

We investigate how the presence of performance microstructure (small variations in timing, intensity, and articulation) influences listeners' perception of musical excerpts, by measuring the way in which listeners synchronize with the excerpts. Musicians and nonmusicians tapped on a drum in synchrony with six musical excerpts, each presented in three versions: mechanical (synthesized from the score, without microstructure), accented (mechanical, with intensity accents), and expressive (performed by a concert pianist, with all types of microstructure). Participants' synchronizations with these excerpts were characterized in terms of three processes described in Mari Riess Jones's Dynamic Attending Theory: attunement (ease of synchronization), use of a referent level (spontaneous synchronization rate), and focal attending (range of synchronization levels). As predicted by beat induction models, synchronization was better with the temporally regular mechanical and accented versions than with the expressive versions. However, synchronization with expressive versions occurred at higher (slower) levels, within a narrower range of synchronization levels, and corresponded more frequently to the theoretically correct metrical hierarchy. We conclude that performance microstructure transmits a particular metrical interpretation to the listener and enables the perceptual organization of events over longer time spans. Compared with nonmusicians, musicians synchronized more accurately (heightened attunement), tapped more slowly (slower referent level), and used a wider range of hierarchical levels when instructed (enhanced focal attending), more often corresponding to the theoretically correct metrical hierarchy. We conclude that musicians perceptually organize events over longer time spans and have a more complete hierarchical representation of the music than do nonmusicians.
Why Do Skips Precede Reversals? The Effect of Tessitura on Melodic Structure
Authors: Von Hippel Paul , Huron David
Published: September 2012

In melodies from a wide variety of cultures, a large pitch interval tends to be followed by a change of direction. Although this tendency is often attributed to listeners' expectations, it might arise more simply from constraints on melodic ranginess or tessitura. Skips tend toward the extremes of a melody's tessitura, and from those extremes a melody has little choice but to retreat by changing direction. Statistical analyses of vocal melodies from four different continents are consistent with this simple explanation. The results suggest that, in the sampled repertoires, patterns such as "gap-fill," "registral direction," and "registral return" (L. Meyer, 1956, 1973; E. Narmour, 1990) are mere side effects of constraints on melodic tessitura.
Pattern Typicality and Dimensional Interactions in Pianists' Imitation of Expressive Timing and Dynamics
Authors: Repp Bruno H.
Published: September 2012

Success in an imitation task may be defined in absolute terms (how well the reproduction matches the model) or in relative terms (how much better the reproduction matches the model than the imitator's spontaneous production matches the model). In the present study of expressive music performance, it was hypothesized that absolute imitation success would decrease but relative imitation success would increase as the model pattern diverges more and more from the typical pattern of spontaneous production, within reasonable limits. This hypothesis received support in Experiment 1, which required pianists first to play a musical excerpt spontaneously and then to imitate model performances instantiating different patterns of expressive timing or dynamics, with the other dimension held constant at a typical pattern. The typical expressive pattern for a given musical passage seems to function as a cognitive schema that biases perception, memory, and (re) production of expressive nuances. The results also suggested that imitation of different dynamic patterns affects expressive timing (louder tones were followed by longer interonset intervals), whereas imitation of different timing patterns had little effect on produced dynamics. The latter findings were replicated in Experiment 2, which presented models that differed in both timing and dynamics. Attention to both dimensions simultaneously also reduced imitation accuracy, especially for timing.
Absolute-Pitch Judgments of Black and White-Key Pitches
Authors: Takeuchi Annie H. , Hulse Stewart H.
Published: September 2012

Absolute-pitch possessors have been reported to identify black-key pitches less quickly and accurately than they identify white-key pitches. However, it is possible in these experiments that the greater speed of identifying white-compared with black-key pitches was due to a motor response bias because the motor requirements for indicating a black-key pitch were more difficult than those for indicating a white-key pitch. The greater accuracy in identifying white-compared with black-key pitches may have been due to a choice response bias favoring white-key pitch responses. We compared absolute- pitch judgments of black-and white-key pitches in a task free of motor response biases. Subjects compared the pitch of an auditory tone with a visually presented pitch name and responded Same or Different. The absolute- pitch possessors responded significantly more slowly to black- key auditory pitches, and to black- key visual pitch names, than to white-key pitches and pitch names. These differences may have been due to perceptual and retrieval processes associated with the frequencies with which black-and white-key pitches and pitch names occur in music literature. Another possible explanation is that absolute-pitch possessors may learn absolute pitch for only white-key pitches in development and may interpolate blackkey pitches from neighboring white-key pitches. Experiments to test these alternative accounts are proposed.