Musical expectations within chord sequences: Facilitation due to tonal stability without closure effects.

Tillmann, Barbara; Marmel, Frederic

doi:10.1037/a0030454

Cited by 15 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(58 reference statements)

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“…Similarly, harmonic expectancy studies generally support a hierarchy of stability (I > V > IV; Bharucha & Krumhansl, 1983; Tillmann, Janata, Birk, & Bharucha, 2008), with more stable chords serving as cognitive reference points , an expression coined by Rosch (1978) for elements that are characterized by their asymmetric temporal relations with less stable elements. To date, further support for increasingly subtle within-key expectancy violations has been found for I vs. V (Tillmann et al, 2003, 2008; Tillmann & Marmel, 2013), and I vs. vi in harmonic contexts (Kim, Kim, & Chung, 2011; Koelsch, Jentschke, Sammler, & Mietchen, 2007), and 1ˆ vs. 4ˆ in melodic contexts (Marmel, Tillmann, & Delbé, 2010).…”

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confidence: 94%

Expecting the end: Continuous expectancy ratings for tonal cadences

Sears

Spitzer

Caplin

et al. 2018

Psychology of Music

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Cognitive accounts for the formation of expectations during music listening have largely centered around mental representations of scales using both melodic and harmonic stimuli. This study extends these findings to the most recurrent cadence patterns associated with tonal music using a real-time, continuous-rating paradigm. Musicians and nonmusicians heard cadential excerpts selected from Mozart’s keyboard sonatas (perfect authentic cadence [PAC], imperfect authentic cadence [IAC], half cadence [HC], deceptive cadence [DC], and evaded cadence [EV]), and continuously rated the strength of their expectations that the end of each excerpt is imminent. As predicted, expectations for closure increased over the course of each excerpt and then peaked at or near the target melodic tone and chord. Cadence categories for which tonic harmony was the expected goal (PAC, IAC, DC, EV) received the highest and earliest expectancy ratings, whereas cadence categories ending with dominant harmony (HC) received the lowest and latest ratings, suggesting that dominant harmony elicits weaker expectations in anticipation of its occurrence in cadential contexts. A regression analysis also revealed that longer excerpts featuring dense textures and a cadential six-four harmony received the highest ratings overall.

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confidence: 94%

Expecting the end: Continuous expectancy ratings for tonal cadences

Sears

Spitzer

Caplin

et al. 2018

Psychology of Music

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“…Harmonic priming studies have used a dissonance detection task in which the listener must detect the presence of an augmented root or augmented fifth (both highly dissonant chord members in Western music). Tonal context also has small and inconsistent effects on accuracy for this task ( Bigand and Pineau, 1997 ; Tillmann and Marmel, 2013 ), in contrast with robust effects on response time. However, in these tasks, the mistuning can be detected also by the presence of acoustics beats in the waveform of the dissonant interval ( McDermott et al, 2010b ), meaning that the pitch interval itself need not be discriminated by the participants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Accessing these overlearned tonal hierarchies can facilitate pitch processing when the relevant pitches are highly expected within the tonal structure. For various pitch processing tasks, response times are faster for expected than for unexpected chords, based on the preceding harmonic progressions ( Bharucha, 1987 ; Bigand and Pineau, 1997 ; Tillmann et al, 2008 ; Tillmann and Marmel, 2013 ), as well as for notes primed by melodic context ( Marmel et al, 2008 , 2011 ). The mechanism of this facilitation of processing may be either priming of expected pitches, or enhanced perception and representation of important pitches or harmonies within the tonal hierarchy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Familiar Tonal Context Improves Accuracy of Pitch Interval Perception

Graves

Oxenham

2017

Front. Psychol.

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A fundamental feature of everyday music perception is sensitivity to familiar tonal structures such as musical keys. Many studies have suggested that a tonal context can enhance the perception and representation of pitch. Most of these studies have measured response time, which may reflect expectancy as opposed to perceptual accuracy. We instead used a performance-based measure, comparing participants’ ability to discriminate between a “small, in-tune” interval and a “large, mistuned” interval in conditions that involved familiar tonal relations (diatonic, or major, scale notes), unfamiliar tonal relations (whole-tone or mistuned-diatonic scale notes), repetition of a single pitch, or no tonal context. The context was established with a brief sequence of tones in Experiment 1 (melodic context), and a cadence-like two-chord progression in Experiment 2 (harmonic context). In both experiments, performance significantly differed across the context conditions, with a diatonic context providing a significant advantage over no context; however, no correlation with years of musical training was observed. The diatonic tonal context also provided an advantage over the whole-tone scale context condition in Experiment 1 (melodic context), and over the mistuned scale or repetition context conditions in Experiment 2 (harmonic context). However, the relatively small benefit to performance suggests that the main advantage of tonal context may be priming of expected stimuli, rather than enhanced accuracy of pitch interval representation.

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“…(e.g. Egermann & McAdams, 2013; Lehne et al, 2014; Meyer, 1956; Sears et al, 2018, 2020; Tillmann & Marmel, 2013), but there have been contradictory results regarding the impact on perceived emotion in the listener. Psychoacoustical similarity and fit of cadences has been tested in Milne (2009b, 2010) and Milne et al (2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceived Emotions of Harmonic Cadences

et al. 2020

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Harmonic cadences are chord progressions that play an important structural role in Western classical music – they demarcate musical phrases and contribute to the tonality. This study examines participants’ ratings of the perceived arousal and valence of a variety of harmonic cadences. Manipulations included the type of cadence (authentic, plagal, half, and deceptive), its mode (major or minor), its average pitch height (the transposition of the cadence), the presence of a single tetrad (a dissonant four-tone chord), and the mode (major or minor) of the cadence’s final chord. With the exception of average pitch height, the manipulations had only small effects on arousal. However, the perceived valence of major cadences was substantially higher than for minor cadences, and average pitch had a medium-sized positive effect. Plagal cadences, the inclusion of a tetrad, and ending on a minor chord all had weak negative effects for valence. The present findings are discussed in light of contemporary music theory and music psychology, as knowledge of how specific acoustic components and musical structures impact emotion perception in music is important for performance practice, and music-based therapies.

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Musical expectations within chord sequences: Facilitation due to tonal stability without closure effects.

Cited by 15 publications

References 27 publications

Expecting the end: Continuous expectancy ratings for tonal cadences

Expecting the end: Continuous expectancy ratings for tonal cadences

Familiar Tonal Context Improves Accuracy of Pitch Interval Perception

Perceived Emotions of Harmonic Cadences

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