A Derivation of the Tonal Hierarchy from Basic Perceptual Processes

In recent decades music psychologists have explained the functioning of tonal music in terms of the tonal hierarchy, a stable schema of relative structural importance that helps us interpret the events in a passage of tonal music. This idea has been most influentially disseminated by Carol Krumhansl in her 1990 monograph Cognitive Foundations of Musical Pitch. Krumhansl hypothesized that this sense of the importance or centrality of certain tones of a key is learned through exposure to tonal music, in particular by learning the relative frequency of appearance of the various pitch classes in tonal passages. The correlation of pitch-class quantity and structural status has been the subject of a number of successful studies, leading to the general acceptance of the pitch-distributional account of tonal hierarchy in the field of music psychology. This study argues that the correlation of pitch-class quantity with structural status is a byproduct of other, more fundamental perceptual properties, all of which are derived from aspects of everyday listening. Individual chapters consider the phenomena of consonance and dissonance, intervallic rootedness, the short-term memory for pitch collection, and the interaction of temporal ordering and voice-leading that Jamshed Bharucha calls melodic anchoring. The study concludes with an elaborate self-experiment that observes the interaction of these properties in a pool of 275 stimuli, each of which is constructed from a single dyad plus one subsequent tone

Analysis of analysis: importance of different musical parameters for Schenkerian analysis

While criteria for Schenkerian analysis have been much discussed, such discussions have generally not been informed by data. Kirlin [Kirlin, Phillip B., 2014 “A Probabilistic Model of Hierarchical Music Analysis.” Ph.D. thesis, University of Massachusetts Amherst] has begun to fill this vacuum with a corpus of textbook Schenkerian analyses encoded using data structures suggested byYust [Yust, Jason, 2006 “Formal Models of Prolongation.” Ph.D. thesis, University of Washington] and a machine learning algorithm based on this dataset that can produce analyses with a reasonable degree of accuracy. In this work, we examine what musical features (scale degree, harmony, metrical weight) are most significant in the performance of Kirlin's algorithm.Accepted manuscrip

Effects of syllable structure on intonation identification in Neapolitan Italian

International audienceIn Neapolitan Italian, nuclear rises are later in yes/no questions (L*+H) than in narrow focus statements (L+H*). Also, the H target is later in closed syllable items than in open syllable ones. In three identification tasks, we found that, when stimuli are ambiguous between questions and statements, listeners exploit the information on the precise alignment within the syllable to identify sentence type. This effect depends on durational constraints, i.e., the perceptual location of the H target is calculated relative to the actual duration of the vowel. Our results suggest that phonetic variability plays a role in shaping intonational categories and support models in which segmental and prosodic information are processed in a parallel fashion

Melodic variations : toward cross-cultural transformation

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 99-101).We all share similar innate emotions, but our cultural experiences nurture us to express them differently. The musical form "theme and variations" offer us a unique lens to uncover in each culture the relationships between the musical surface that touches us most directly, and the underlying structures that are more abstract. Variations are musical surfaces composed to explore the expressive potentials of the theme by transforming it along certain musical dimensions, while the theme itself can be seen as an intermediate pathway to the more abstract structures of a style. I approach cross-cultural transformation in music as a kind of cross-cultural variation, as the theme and variations tradition offers us a framework to explicitly consider which musical elements to stay fixed and which to vary. I propose to treat cross-cultural variation as a four-step process. First, the process of "melodic reduction" reduces the melodic surface of a theme to its underlying melodic progression. Second, "forward cross-cultural transformation" maps the uncovered progressions to those idiomatic in the cultural style that carries the variation. These cross-cultural mappings are approached by considering which of the melodic properties in the underlying progressions to preserve and which to transform. These properties include contour, scale-degree function, melodic formulae and tension. Third, "melodic elaboration" retrieves the melodic surfaces that possess the mapped melodic progressions. Fourth, "backward cross-cultural transformation" adjusts the melodic surface of the variation to strengthen its resemblance to the theme. My experimentation begins with the melodic variations on two historically related instruments, the Chinese zither, gu-zheng, and the Japanese zither, koto. Even though their repertoires evolved culturally to render very different melodic surfaces, it has been pointed out by ethnomusicologist Alan Thrasher that there is a high degree of similarity between their underlying structures. This enables a cross-cultural mapping at the structural level that ties together stylistically different melodic surfaces to exhibit a kind of crosscultural variation. I will conclude by briefly discussing the effectiveness of variation as an approach to cross-cultural transformation.by Cheng-Zhi Anna Huang.S.M

Lerdahl's Surface Tension Rule: Validation or Modification

Lerdahls Tonal Pitch Space (2001) combines music theory with current understanding of music perception and cognition creating of model of tonal pitch space. Lerdahls goals include quantification of areas of tension and relaxation perceived by listeners experienced in Western tonal music. Tension is associated with instability, distance, uncommon tones, and weak attractional force; relaxation with stability, proximity, common tones, and strong attractional force. Quantification requires creation of a time-span segmentation derived from the metrical grid and grouping analysis of the score. The time-span segmentation is necessary for creating the time-span reduction. The time-span reduction removes structurally less significant elements from the musical surface through a series of steps not unlike the layers of Schenkerian analysis. The ultimate goal is the prolongational reduction accompanied by prolongational tree. Global tension is quantified by summing values obtained when considering the region in which an event occurs, distance between successive chords revealed by their position on the chordal circle-of-fifths, number of distinct pitch classes between successive chords, tension inherited by subordinate chords from superordinate chords, melodic and harmonic attraction, and surface dissonance. Lerdahls Surface Tension Rule assigns tension added values due to chord Inversion, chord note in the top voice (Melody), and nonharmonic chord tones. This study tested the validity of assigned tension added values for Inversion and Melody asking 82 participants familiar with Western tonal music to rate perceived tension of Major and minor four-note chords heard devoid of tonal and musical contexts. Results showed Lerdahls tension added values required modification. Root position chords and chords with the root in the Melody require a tension added value greater than 0. Tension due to First Inversion is not the same as tension due to Second Inversion. Tension due to First and Second Inversion is greater than tension due to the third or fifth of a chord in Melody. Tension due to Second Inversion is not different from tension due to root in Melody. A new category, chord Quality, needed to be added. Expertise did not play a role. Lerdahls model and these results provide insight for performers, teachers, listeners, and composers

THE EFFECT OF VISUAL ART ON MUSIC LISTENING

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of visual stimuli on music listening skills in pre-service elementary teachers. Visual Stimuli in this study refers to the presentation of arts elements in selected visually projected images of paintings. Music listening skills are defined as those skills needed to identify and interpret musical excerpts. A Pretest-Posttest Control-group Design was used in this study. Subjects were pre-service elementary general educators enrolled in a large southern university (N=93). Students from intact classes were randomly placed into either the experimental group or the control group. The treatment consisted of six music listening lessons over a two-week period with each group receiving the identical teaching protocol with the exception of the use of paintings with the experimental group. Listening instruction emphasized the identification of melodic contour, instrumentation, texture, rhythm and expressive elements of the compositions. The Teacher Music Listening Skills Test (TMLST) was constructed by the investigator and administered before and after the treatment. The TMLST was designed to assess music listening skills in adult non-musicians. Results indicate that the group receiving visual stimuli in the form of paintings scored significantly higher on listening skills (pandlt;.01) than the control group which received no visual stimuli in the form of visually projected images of paintings. There was an instruction effect on both preference and familiarity of the musical pieces for both the control group and the experimental group

Music as brand, with reference to the film music of John Towner Williams (with particular emphasis on Williams's 'Main Title' for Star Wars)

In contemporary consumer culture, branding is the term given to the creation of an image or text (visual, aural, textural or multi-sensory) intended to represent a commodity or product sold by a producer or service provider. This product’s commercial viability depends largely on the way it is presented (via branding) to its target market. The aim of this research report is to show that music used consciously as a branding medium, with special reference to film music (in its commodified form), has become a brand in itself, as opposed to merely a component of a multi-modal commercial product. Through analyses of a central film music theme from Star Wars: Episode IV, composed by John Williams, I aim to identify what I will term `audio-branding techniques’ within the music, thereby showing how music has come to be regarded as a brand. The audio branding techniques will relate directly to the four levels of analysis that I propose to conduct. The nature of branding implies the presence of three entities in the cultural and commercial `transaction’ that takes place: namely, the service provider (creator), the product (commodity) and the target market (consumer). I intend to argue that, as a result of powerful creative collaborations between John Williams and his various directors (not to mention his own unique talent), this composer’s film music has increasingly become an audio brand which is almost commensurate with the brand status of the film itself. Williams’s ability to create a symbiotic relationship between a music brand and that of a film has set him apart from most other contemporary art and commercial composers. As a result, it is not simply the actors, directors and producers associated with a movie that induce one to buy tickets to see it, but Williams’s independent audio branding style as well. I thus aim to prove that his film music is an audio brand independent of, and yet also allied with, other brands

Waves of Light for Chamber Orchestra

Waves of Light is a symphonic poem written for chamber orchestra. The piece was written to fulfill a portion of the requirements for a Master of Music Composition degree from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Inspiration was taken from the healing powers of the ocean. The composition was completed in late March of 2007, but editorial revisions have occurred through March 2008. This paper presents an analysis of Waves of Light. Along with this analysis, there is a reflection upon particular compositions of the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century that have influenced the conception of this work. There is a comparative study of these works with Waves of Light. The parameters of comparison are based upon the musical principles of form, melody, harmony, rhythm, texture, and orchestration

Triple Synthesis

This thesis investigates the result of merging three musical approaches (jazz fusion, breakbeat/IDM and Electronic Dance Music) and their respective methodologies as applied to music composition. It is presented in a progressive manner. Chapters two to four identify and discuss each of the three styles separately in terms of the research undertaken in the preparation of this thesis. Chapter 2 discusses, through a close examination of selected compositions and recordings, both Weather Report and Herbie Hancock as representing source material for research and compositional study in terms of melody, harmony and orchestration from the 1970s jazz-fusion genre. Chapter 3 examines breakbeat and Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) drum rhythm programming through both technique and musical application. Chapter 4 presents an examination of selected contemporary Electronic Dance Music (EDM) techniques and discusses their importance in current electronic music styles. Chapters 5, 6 and 7 each present an original composition based on the application and synthesis of the styles and techniques explored in the previous three chapters, with each composition defined by proportions of influence from each of the three styles as in the Venn diagram shown in the introduction. Since the musical context of the original compositions is software oriented, diagrams and computer screenshots are used in addition to conventional score notation in order to highlight details of musical examples and techniques. The final chapter discusses the conclusions made through the thesis research and result of this “synthesis” style of composition