Subset-Class Relation, Common Pitches, and Common Interval Structure Guiding Estimations of Similarity

Abstract

THE PRESENT STUDY EXAMINED THE importance of subsetclass relation for closeness estimations. Two experiments used set-class pairs consisting of a pentad class and a tetrad class represented by block chords, and approximately half of the pairs accomplished the subset-class relation. In the first experiment the number of common pitches was systematically varied. In the second experiment the intervals between the lowest pitch and the other pitches were either similar in both chords (except for the interval missing from the tetrachord) or dissimilar, but the chords shared no common pitches. The degree of set-class consonance was also varied. The results of the experiments indicated that the number of common pitches and the common interval structure were important factors guiding closeness estimations. The subset-class relation was important since it enabled a maximum number of common pitches, maximally similar intervals, or highly uniform voice-leading between chords.

Musical training and musical ability: Effects on chord discrimination

“…Many experiments have studied perception of post-tonal chords in ways that enhance surface-level characteristics and enable perceptually-driven estimations (Bruner, 1984;Gibson, 1993;Kuusi, 2001Kuusi, , 2005aSamplaski, 2000). The abstract-level similarity of post-tonal chords has thus far been studied only in a few experiments (Kuusi, 2005b(Kuusi, , 2007(Kuusi, , 2010, and all of them have compared chords representing different set-classes. Abstract-level discrimination between chords representing the same set-class has been a neglected area of study.…”