Low-Skip Bias

Abstract

Skips are relatively infrequent in diatonic melodies and are compositionally treated in systematic ways. This treatment has been attributed to deliberate compositional strategies that are also subject to certain constraints. Study 1 showed that ease of vocal production may be accommodated compositionally. Number of skips and their distribution within a melody’s pitch range were compared between diverse statistical samples of vocal and instrumental melodies. Skips occurred less frequently in vocal melodies. Skips occurred more frequently in melodies’ lower and upper ranges, but there were more low skips than high (“low-skip bias”), especially in vocal melodies. Study 2 replicated these findings in the vocal and instrumental melodies of a single composition (Bach’s Mass in B minor). Study 3 showed that among the instrumental melodies of classical composers, low-skip bias was correlated with the proportion of vocal music within composers’ total output. We propose that, to varying degrees, composers apply a vocal template to instrumental melodies.

Evolution of tonal organization in music mirrors symbolic representation of perceptual reality. Part-1: Prehistoric

“…“Displacement” serves as a sequential consonance in the progression of pitches—in contradistinction to “tracing” that works as a vertical buffer to compensate for disruption in the melodic smoothness (Tiulin, 1966 , p. 33). Consonance is used more often than dissonance (Huron, 1994 )—respectively, steps prevail over leaps (Zivic et al, 2013 ), especially in vocal music (Ammirante and Russo, 2015 ). Melodic 2nd is the principal binding agent in the music tissue (Tiulin, 1966 , p. 49).…”

Towards a Vocal Constraints Model of Melodic Expectancy: Evidence from Two Listening Experiments

“…For example, reversals tend to follow larger leaps in vocal melodies (Watt, 1924) but only when the leap is towards a pitch extreme (Von Hippel & Huron, 2001), suggesting reversals accommodate a restricted vocal range. Comparative studies show that, relative to human vocal melodies, melodic intervals are larger in birdsong (Tierney et al, 2011) and larger intervals occur more often in instrumental melodies (Ammirante & Russo, 2015). One explanation may be the number of available effectors.…”

“…The vocal constraints model proposed here is zerothorder in that it predicts that listeners should expect the absolute pitch height of the next tone should fall within the modal register regardless of preceding context. Responses consistent with proximity and reversal should obtain when successive notes extend beyond the modal register (Ammirante & Russo, 2015). But, like a polar planimeter, which measures the higher-order variable of area directly by tracing a region's boundary rather than computing from length, singability is assumed to generate expectations about relations between successive tones directly and without computation (Runeson, 1977).…”

“…An exception is Ammirante and Russo's (2015) corpus study, which proposed that proximity is favored in vocal melodies because smaller intervals minimize the possibility of an abrupt change between vocal registers. As evidence, they showed that melodic leaps in the lower part of a melody's range (which are likely sung in the modal register) are more common in vocal melodies relative to instrumental, but leaps in the mid-to-high part of a melody's range (which may involve a change between modal and upper registers) are avoided in vocal melodies relative to instrumental.…”

Cultural Evolution and Music

“…Humpback whales also have hierarchical rhythmic structures that are like those found in human music (Handel et al, 2009;Kello et al, 2017). Additionally, bird song and human music appear to be shaped by similar motor constraints (Savage et al, 2017;Tierney et al, 2011;Ammirante and Russo, 2015), and when bird songs are shu ed they are less likely to be classi ed as "musical" by human listeners (Bilger et al, 2021). Below, we will brie y review research on the cultural evolution of non-human song relevant to cultural evolution researchers.…”