Two studies, one correlational and one meta-analytic, were conducted to explore whether pitch proximity influences listeners' melodic expectations about pitch direction and tonality. Study 1 used a probe-tone task. Specifically, listeners heard fragments of tonal melodies ending on intervals of 1 or 2 semitones, and rated how well individual tones (the probe-tones) continued each fragment. Regression analyses showed that listeners expected probe-tones to be proximate in pitch to the last tone they heard in the fragments, but not to the penultimate one, as there was no evidence of expectations for a change in pitch direction. However, listeners expected probe-tones to be proximate to (at least one oO the other tones they had heard in the fragments, as there was evidence of expectations for a melodic movement toward the bulk of the fragments' pitch distribution. In addition, the most stable probe-tones in the key of the fragments were more expected than the least stable ones only when they were proximate to the tones presented in the fragments. The results of Study 1 were replicated and extended in Study 2, in which a meta-analysis of data reported in Schellenberg (1996, Experiment 1) was performed. These data had been collected using the same probe-tone task as in Study 1, but different melodic fragments; the fragments ended on intervals of 2 or 3 semitones. Together, the present findings suggest, first, that when small intervals occur in a melody, pitch proximity has only a global influence on expectations about pitch direction; and second, that pitch proximity constrains the influence of tonality on melodic expectation.
pitch-related information in tonality induction. In both experiments, participants were asked to: 1) identify (sing) the tonic of either an original sequence of tones or a distorted version in which pitch class distribution was preserved but pitch class ordering, pitch contour, and/or pitch proximity were altered; and 2) rate how confident they were in the tonic they identified. In Experiment 2, the sequences were presented with an isochronous rhythm, in order to eliminate the potential confounding effects of time-related information. The results of both experiments showed that participants' ability to identify the tonic of the sequences, as well as their confidence in the tonic they identified, decreased
The idea that listeners’ tonal/atonal sense represents a special case of multiple causation was examined, and the following hypothesis was tested: pitch dispersal (i.e., distance in pitch between successive tones) is a secondary determiner of tonality and atonality, the former being strengthened by low levels of pitch dispersal and the latter by high levels of pitch dispersal. A correlational study was conducted in which eight trained listeners judged the degree to which 78 melodies extracted from A. Schoenberg’s oeuvre convey a tonic. In line with the present hypothesis, results suggest that listeners’ judgments were influenced not only by consonance or pitch class distributions (i.e., by underlying “scales”), as expected from previous research, but also by pitch dispersal. Interestingly, it was also found that Schoenberg’ melodies became not only less diatonic over time, but also more dispersed, which suggests that the joint manipulation of pitch class distributions and pitch dispersal might have been a strategy on Schoenberg’s part to weaken the sense of tonality. Some of the key musicological, theoretical, and psychological implications of these findings are discussed.
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