Tone Profiles of Isolated Musical Chords: Psychoacoustic Versus Cognitive Models

Parncutt, Richard; Sattmann, Sabrina; Gaich, Andreas; Seither-Preisler, Annemarie

doi:10.1525/mp.2019.36.4.406

Cited by 6 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…It has been proposed that chord roots have a psychological basis in pitch perception (Parncutt, 1988;Terhardt, 1974Terhardt, , 1982 empirical work indeed supports the notion that chord roots correspond to chord tones with particularly high perceptual salience, and that this perceptual salience can be predicted by computational models of pitch detection (Parncutt et al, 2019).…”

Section: Chord Rootsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Representing Harmony in Computational Music Cognition

Harrison¹,

Pearce²

2020

Preprint

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Cognitive theories of harmony require unambiguous formal models of how listeners internally represent chords and chord progressions. Various model representations have been used in previous research, but it is not always clear what cognitive assumptions are implied by these different representations, and how these representations might be converted to one another. The present research systematically addresses these issues. First, we compile a network of 13 low-level harmonic representations relevant for music cognition, organised into three categories: symbolic, acoustic, and sensory. Second, we define integer encodings for four of these representations, which provide bijective mappings between set-based chord representations (e.g. '(0, {0, 3, 6})') and integer-based representations (e.g. '289'). Third, we introduce a new open-source R package, hrep (http://hrep.pmcharrison.com), which implements these different representations in an easy-to-use object-oriented framework. We also discuss computational methods for deriving higher-level representations from these low-level representations. This work should provide a useful platform for future research into harmony cognition.

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Section: Chord Rootsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Representing Harmony in Computational Music Cognition

Harrison¹,

Pearce²

2020

Preprint

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“…In the present study, we counted how often chromas immediately preceded and followed sonorities in musical scores. These prevalence profiles may be considered analogous to Experiment 1 of Parncutt et al (2019), in which listeners heard a chord followed by a tone and indicated how well it went with the chord. The resultant goodnessof-fit profiles depended in different ways on diatonic/fifth relations, missing fundamentals, and completion tones.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…The analysis focused on the nine non-chord chromas in the 12-tone chromatic scale. Experiment 2 of Parncutt et al (2019) provided evidence for missing fundamental perception among non-chord chromas. All findings were limited to Western-enculturated listeners.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…For a given chord, their analyses produced several root candidates, of which the predicted root was the most salient. These predictions were tested by Parncutt et al (2019). In each experimental trial, musically trained listeners heard a trichord of octave-complex (Shepard) tones followed by a single octave-complex tone.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The present study asks if music is composed according to similar principles. Parncutt et al (2019) concluded that chroma salience profiles of musical chords obtained from hearing tests depend primarily on experience of chord progressions in familiar musical contexts. They depend only indirectly ('psychohistorically') on variations in pitch salience according to psychoacoustic principles.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Octave-generalized analysis of chord progressions: Diatonic/fifth relations, missing fundamentals, completion tones

Parncutt

Reisinger

2020

Journal of New Music Research

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In a representative historical database of musical scores, a sonority was defined at every onset in any voice. For eight trichords-major (047), minor (037), suspended (027), diminished (036), 015, 045, 025, 035-immediately preceding and following sonorities were analysed. Chroma prevalence profiles depended surprisingly little on century or temporal position-especially for major/minor trichords (cf. Krumhansl's key profiles). Profiles for nine non-chord chromas per trichord were influenced more strongly by diatonic scales and 5th relationships than missing fundamentals (roots) or completion tones (tones that complete familiar tetrachords) according to predictions of simple models.

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The Origin of the Dominant: Schoenberg's ‘Strong Progression’ and the Realisation of Implied Virtual Pitches

PARNCUTT

2024

Music Analysis

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In major‐minor tonality, V implies I, and rising fourths, falling thirds and rising seconds between successive chord roots are more common than falling fourths, rising thirds and falling seconds respectively. Possible explanations involve history (in two‐part medieval counterpoint, harmonic major sixths resolved to octaves – maintained in V–I); the rising leading note (V–I includes it, IV–I does not); acoustic speculation (in V–I, the third harmonic of resolves to the second); voice leading (in V7–I, a tritone resolves to a third by contrary step); melodic closure (a rising melodic leap implies subsequent falling steps, and melodies often end with –, harmonised V–I); root newness (chords ‘progress’ if the second chord's root is not part of the first); and tonal stability (V is less stable than IV, giving it a stronger ‘urge’ to resolve). An additional possibility combines the ‘virtual‐pitch’ theory of Ernst Terhardt with the ‘implication‐realisation’ theory of Leonard B. Meyer and Eugene Narmour. Major and minor triads imply subsidiary virtual pitches (missing fundamentals; see Rameau's ‘fundamental bass’) at third and fifth intervals below the root. These weakly perceived pitches are realised in the next chord if the root falls by a third or rises a fourth or major second, creating a feeling of forward progression – while also facilitating intonation for singers and melodic instrumentalists. The theory correctly predicts that successive harmonic complex (but not pure) tones an octave apart sound more similar if rising, and rising octaves are more common than falling in melody. It also explains why Classical modulations are asymmetrical in the opposite direction, major keys tending to modulate to V (not IV) and minor to III (not VI): accidental flats tend to be more perceptually salient or stable than sharps.

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Tone Profiles of Isolated Musical Chords: Psychoacoustic Versus Cognitive Models

Cited by 6 publications

References 68 publications

Representing Harmony in Computational Music Cognition

Representing Harmony in Computational Music Cognition

Octave-generalized analysis of chord progressions: Diatonic/fifth relations, missing fundamentals, completion tones

The Origin of the Dominant: Schoenberg's ‘Strong Progression’ and the Realisation of Implied Virtual Pitches

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