Melodic Processes and the Perception of Music

Rosner, B.; Meyer, Leonard B.

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-213562-0.50014-0

Cited by 66 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…This is also true of identification experiments, to the extent that contour is merely used in discriminating between possible answers. Therefore, the idea that contour is used in the communication of musical structure (Jones, 1981;Rosner & Meyer, 1982) needs to be investigated in other ways, especially since contour discrimination does not seem to be uniquely melodic. A more appropriate test of these views would require the construction of sequences with structurally "good" contours, and a comparison of the learning of these with appropriate control melodiesthat is, an approach similar to that adopted for the fifthspan and scale factors in the present study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other authors maintain that contour is an important component in memory for music (Dowling, 1978). There is also much discussion of melodic contour in the terms of general perceptual principles, notably those of Gestalt psychology (e.g., Deutsch, 1978;Divenyi & Hirsh, 1974Heise & Miller, 1951;Ortmann, 1926;Rosner & Meyer, 1982), on the assumption that various visual and auditory contours are perceived in broadly similar ways. Indeed, listeners can accurately draw the contours of melodies they have just heard (Davies & Jennings, 1977;Welker, 1982).…”

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Scale, key, and contour in the discrimination of tuned and mistuned approximations to melody

Watkins

1985

Perception & Psychophysics

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Approximations to melody were synthesized using a computational technique whereby the occurrences of certain notes and intervals were made more probable than others. In experimental melodies, these notes and intervals were chosen to clarify the diatonic scale and the key of the melody. To clarify the scale of a melody, the probabilities of the diatonic scale notes were made higher than those of nonscale notes. Perception of these melodies was compared with control melodies in which the higher probabilities were assigned to a different set of notes. The latter were chosen so that no single diatonic scale embraced the set. To clarify the key of a melody, intervals with a low "fifth-span" were made more probable than intervals with a high fifth-span, while control melodies had the higher probabilities assigned to intervals with a high fifth-span. Here fifth-span is the separation of two notes measured along a progression of fifths. Listeners heard pairs of melodies and were asked to discriminate between pairs of different melodies and pairs in which the second melody was an exact transposition of the first. It was found that this discrimination was easier if the first melody contained a high proportion of diatonic-scale notes. A similar perceptual advantage held for melodies composed of intervals with low fifth-spans. Discrimination was also easier if the contour of the second melody in a different-pair differed from that of the first. The melodies were then mistuned by changing the size of the quantal interval (semitone) by a constant (log)factor. In this way, two types ofmistuned melodies were generated: melodies for which the quantal interval was reduced, and melodies for which the quantal interval was increased. Discrimination advantages for diatonic scale and low filth-span were not found for these mistuned melodies. Nevertheless, differences in contour still led to improved discrimination. It is concluded that melody perception draws on music-specific perceptual knowledge as well as more general factors. Mistuning destroys the perceptual advantages found for the melodies with a clear scale and a clear key. These attributes are therefore considered to be specific to music. By contrast, the perceptual salience of pitch contours is more general in origin, because it was shown for both the tuned and the mistuned tone sequences. This paper is concerned with the effects that "rnistuning" might have on the perceptual discrimination of melody pairs. For "tuned" melodies the note frequencies are based on the values of 12-tone equal temperament. This is a 12-fold division of the 2: 1 frequency ratio of the octave, forming logarithmically equal semitones. Since all other intervals are integer multiples of the semitone, it may be thought of as the "quanta! interval." For •'rnistuned' melodies, this set of note frequencies is either expanded or compressed. This is done by increasing or decreasing the size of the quanta! interval by a constant (log) amount. Physical discrepancies between melody pairs are therefore proporti...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Scale, key, and contour in the discrimination of tuned and mistuned approximations to melody

Watkins

1985

Perception & Psychophysics

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“…A reaction time paradigm should be able to detect any facilitation, whether conscious or not. Second, the expectancies driven by ingrained cognitive structures are not to be confused with the expectancies that arise from familiarity with a particular piece (Dowling & Harwood, 1985;Rosner & Meyer, 1982). An argument that has often been advanced as a reductio ad absurdum against expectationist accounts of music is that once we are familiar with a piece of music, we know exactly what to expect.…”

Section: Jamshed Jay Bharucha and Keiko Stoeckig Dartmouth Collegementioning

confidence: 99%

Reaction time and musical expectancy: Priming of chords.

Bharucha¹,

Stoeckig²

1986

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

219

261

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The cognitive processes underlying musical expectation were explored by measuring reaction time in a priming paradigm. Subjects made a speeded true/false decision about a target chord following a prime chord to which it was either closely or distantly related harmonically. Using a major/minor decision task in Experiment 1, we found that major targets were identified faster, and with fewer errors, when they were related than when unrelated. An apparent absence (and possible reversal) of this effect for minor targets can be attributed to the prime's biasing effect on the target's stability. In Experiments 2 and 3 we tested this hypothesis by employing an in-tune/out-of-tune decision for major and minor targets separately. Both major and minor in-tune targets were identified faster when related than when unrelated. We outline a spreading activation model which consists of a network of harmonic relations. Priming results from the indirect activation of chord nodes linked through the network.

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“…Deutsch (2013) has suggested that these shapes (P*R0P*) may have been laid down in infant development and perhaps derive from the common paralinguistic contours of speech directed toward soothing infants. Other studies conclude instead that reversal is not inborn (Schellenberg, Adachi, Purdy, & McKinnon, 2002) but rather learned (Patel, 2008;Vos & Troost, 1989) as an archetypal schema (stylistically described by Meyer, 1956Meyer, , 1973Meyer, , 1989Meyer, , 2000Narmour, 1990;Rosner & Meyer, 1982.…”

Section: Reversalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward a Unified Theory of the I-R Model (Part 1)

Narmour

2015

Music Perception

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By extensively revising the I-R model of melody (Meyer, 1973; Narmour, 1984, 1989, 1990, 1991a, 1991b, 1992, 1996, 2000) we can explain the structural functions of many musical parameters. Here I will deal with melodic interval, registral direction, pitch height, scale-step (major and minor), duration (interval, length, rate, speed, and pace), tempo, dynamics (loudness), and texture (saving the other parameters for a later essay). By reconceptualizing the model’s core concept of functional directionality within parametric scales, only three isomorphic structural analogues become cognitively necessary, namely, process (and its variant duplication), reversal, and return. Attached signs (0, ∼, −, and +) augment the main symbols (P, D, and R) so as to track strength of implication, realization, and denial. A new theory of rhythmic structure is put forth. And with an aim toward theoretical unification, the reconfigured model confronts the combinatorial complexities of parametric interactions and offers convincing interpretations of congruence and noncongruence—the primary sources of musical affects. Works of Brahms, Debussy, Mussorgsky-Ravel, and Schoenberg are analyzed.

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Melodic Processes and the Perception of Music

Cited by 66 publications

References 12 publications

Scale, key, and contour in the discrimination of tuned and mistuned approximations to melody

Scale, key, and contour in the discrimination of tuned and mistuned approximations to melody

Reaction time and musical expectancy: Priming of chords.

Toward a Unified Theory of the I-R Model (Part 1)

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