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Journal articles on the topic 'Musical intervals and scales'
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1
Nikolsky, Sergei S. "Musical Scales with Pythagorean Intervals." Music Scholarship / Problemy Muzykal'noj Nauki, no. 3 (September 2020): 17–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.33779/2587-6341.2020.3.017-023.
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Douthett, J., and R. Krantz. "Continued fractions, best measurements, and musical scales and intervals." Journal of Mathematics and Music 1, no. 1 (March 2007): 47–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17459730601137799.
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Misto, Riccardo. "Therapeutic Musical Scales: Theory and Practice." OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine 06, no. 02 (November 19, 2020): 1. http://dx.doi.org/10.21926/obm.icm.2102019.
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Using musical scales in a therapeutic key is one of the fundamental music therapy techniques of the Yoga of Sound (Nāda Yoga). The practice consists of singing particular sound formulas (scales), which are devised on a logical mathematical basis formed by specific musical intervals. These scales can bring to the surface, in a clear (objective), recognizable, and predictable way, psycho-emotional states and transform the blocked emotional energies. These blocked emotional energies are caused by repeated emotional stress, which, according to the psychosomatic principle, is the main cause of the physical and mental problems and pathologies. In this article, the fundamental principles of this music therapy, in theory and practice, are uncovered and analyzed.
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Delviniotis, Dimitrios, Georgios Kouroupetroglou, and Sergios Theodoridis. "Acoustic analysis of musical intervals in modern Byzantine Chant scales." Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 124, no. 4 (October 2008): EL262—EL269. http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.2968299.
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Parncutt, Richard, and Graham Hair. "A Psychocultural Theory of Musical Interval." Music Perception 35, no. 4 (April 1, 2018): 475–501. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/mp.2018.35.4.475.
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The Pythagoreans linked musical intervals with integer ratios, cosmic order, and the human soul. The empirical approach of Aristoxenus, based on real musicians making real music, was neglected. Today, many music scholars and researchers still conceptualize intervals as ratios. We argue that this idea is fundamentally incorrect and present convergent evidence against it. There is no internally consistent “Just” scale: a 6th scale degree that is 5:3 above the 1st is not a perfect 5th (3:2) above the 2nd (9:8). Pythagorean tuning solves this problem, but creates another: ratios of psychologically implausible large numbers. Performers do not switch between two ratios of one interval (e.g., 5:4 and 81:64 for the major third), modern studies of performance intonation show no consistent preferences for specific ratios, and no known brain mechanism is sensitive to ratios in musical contexts. Moreover, physical frequency and perceived pitch are not the same. Rameau and Helmholtz derived musical intervals from the harmonic series, which is audible in everyday sounds including voiced speech; but those intervals, like musical intervals, are perceived categorically. Musical intervals and scales, although they depend in part on acoustic factors, are primarily psychocultural entities—not mathematical or physical. Intervals are historically and culturally variable distances that are learned from oral traditions. There is no perfect tuning for any interval; even octaves are stretched relative to 2:1. Twelve-tone equal temperament is not intrinsically better or worse than Just or Pythagorean. Ratio theory is an important chapter in the history Western musical thought, but it is inconsistent with a modern evidence-based understanding of musical structure, perception and cognition.
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Ambrazevicius, Rytis. "Performance of musical scale in traditional vocal homophony: Lithuanian examples." Muzikologija, no. 17 (2014): 45–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.2298/muz1417045a.
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Acoustical measurements of pitches in a dozen songs exemplifying the Lithuanian traditional vocal homophony were carried out. Several phenomena were revealed. First, the entire scales experience gradual transposition (rise) from the beginning to the end of the song performances. Second, the transposition is supplemented with the gradual shrinking of the musical scales (the intervals become narrower). Third, the intonations of the scale degrees are dynamic, i.e. they depend on the musical (both melodic and harmonic) contexts. Fourth, the versions of musical scales work as certain markers for the idiolects (further studies could show if this might be extrapolated to the realm of dialects). All these insights raise issues about the perceptual qualities of the musical scales and their manifestations in the performance.
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McBride, John M., Sam Passmore, and Tsvi Tlusty. "Convergent evolution in a large cross-cultural database of musical scales." PLOS ONE 18, no. 12 (December 13, 2023): e0284851. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284851.
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Scales, sets of discrete pitches that form the basis of melodies, are thought to be one of the most universal hallmarks of music. But we know relatively little about cross-cultural diversity of scales or how they evolved. To remedy this, we assemble a cross-cultural database (Database of Musical Scales: DaMuSc) of scale data, collected over the past century by various ethnomusicologists. Statistical analyses of the data highlight that certain intervals (e.g., the octave, fifth, second) are used frequently across cultures. Despite some diversity among scales, it is the similarities across societies which are most striking: step intervals are restricted to 100-400 cents; most scales are found close to equidistant 5- and 7-note scales. We discuss potential mechanisms of variation and selection in the evolution of scales, and how the assembled data may be used to examine the root causes of convergent evolution.
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Smith, Allan B. "A "Cumulative" Method of Quantifying Tonal Consonance in Musical Key Contexts." Music Perception 15, no. 2 (1997): 175–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40285748.
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Huron (1994) recently calculated the tonal (sensory) consonance for interval categories for all scales that can be drawn from the 12 equally tempered pitch classes. Among scales with seven tones, the combinations that allow the highest tonal consonance were found in the diatonic major, natural minor, and several other scales. In this paper, an extension of Huron's approach that begins with a single tone and successively adds tones that bring the most tonal consonance to the existing set is tested. Based on (1) the order in which tones are added and (2) the mean tonal consonance of the intervals after each addition, values are assigned to each tone that are significantly correlated (p< .001) with ratings of stability that tones display in major and minor key contexts reported by Krumhansl and Kessler (1982). These findings suggest that tonal consonance is not only facilitated in major and minor scales, as Huron found, but that tonal consonance may also account for the tonal hierarchy for tones in both major and minor key contexts.
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Tsuzaki, Minoru. "Effects of the Preceding Scale on Melodic Interval Judgment in Terms of Equality and Size." Music Perception 9, no. 1 (1991): 47–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40286158.
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In an investigation of interactions between scales and intervals in music cognition, melodic intervals were judged in three preceding-scale contexts: diatonic, chromatic, and no scale. Musically less trained and highly trained subjects compared standard and comparison intervals using three response categories: smaller, equal, and larger. Standard intervals began with notes B or C and ascended by 100, 150, or 200 cents. Discriminal dispersion was estimated for each combination of standard and comparison intervals, based on the assumption that the bandwidth of subjective equality was constant. The dispersion width and the modal dispersion corresponded to the equality- related and sizerelated aspects of interval judgments, respectively. The size-related aspect was strongly influenced by the size of the standard intervals. The point of balance, which corresponds to the traditional point of subjective equality (PSE), tended to be smaller as the standard interval became larger. It was, however, anchored to the point of musical equality when the standard interval began with the tonic. The equality-related aspect was influenced by the relationship between the preceding scale and the intervals to be judged. The diatonic preceding scale differentiated the intervals by their positions along the scale, that is, a sharp discriminal dispersion was estimated when the judged intervals were congruent with the diatonic scale. Such differentiation was not clearly observed in the chromatic condition. The relationship between these two aspects of interval judgment and the subject's musical ability is discussed.
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Moore, Sarha. "Interval Size and Affect: An Ethnomusicological Perspective." Empirical Musicology Review 7, no. 3-4 (June 27, 2013): 138. http://dx.doi.org/10.18061/emr.v7i3-4.3747.
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This commentary addresses Huron and Davis’s question of whether “The Harmonic Minor Provides an Optimum Way of Reducing Average Melodic Interval Size, Consistent with Sad Affect Cues” within any non-Western musical cultures. The harmonic minor scale and other semitone-heavy scales, such as Bhairav raga and Hicaz makam, are featured widely in the musical cultures of North India and the Middle East. Do melodies from these genres also have a preponderance of semitone intervals and low incidence of the augmented second interval, as in Huron and Davis’s sample? Does the presence of more semitone intervals in a melody affect its emotional connotations in different cultural settings? Are all semitone intervals equal in their effect? My own ethnographic research within these cultures reveals comparable connotations in melodies that linger on semitone intervals, centered on concepts of tension and metaphors of falling. However, across different musical cultures there may also be neutral or lively interpretations of these same pitch sets, dependent on context,manner of performance, and tradition. Small pitch movement may also be associated with social functions such as prayer or lullabies, and may not be described as “sad.” “Sad,” moreover may not connote the same affect cross-culturally.<br />
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Poorhaydari, Kioumars. "Examination of Neutral Intervals and Parent Scales in Persian Art Music: A Step toward the Standardization of the Musical System." Music Theory and Analysis (MTA) 9, no. 1 (May 15, 2022): 28–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.11116/mta.9.1.2.
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Neutral intervals between minor and major intervals have been used in Persian/Iranian art music for centuries or even millennia. During the medieval era in the Muslim world, several scholars proposed ratios for the various intervals used in their recognized musical species and presented systematized parent scales. However, this did not result in unanimously accepted or standardized neutral interval sizes or fretting systems in practice, either in the past or in modern times. This article examines neutral intervals and parent scales in Persian art music in four sections. First, the neutral intervals according to the main medieval theorists of the Muslim world (specifically, from the eighth through the fifteenth centuries) are reviewed. Second, the opinions of several twentieth-century mu sicologists and their measured/proposed neutral intervals are critically examined. Third, several ratios for neutral seconds are considered based on different theoretical approach es, and a unique ratio, close to the current practice, is proposed. Finally, the arithmetic mean calculation method is directly applied to an 18-tone scale (for the fretting of a Persian tār/sitār) as an example of a standardized parent scale.
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Iswanto, Iswanto. "THE ETHNOMUSICOLOGY OF THE ILLE LE SONGS, MELOLO COMMUNITY, EAST SUMBA DISTRICT, EAST NUSA TENGGARA." Tambur : Journal of Music Creation, Study and Performance 2, no. 2 (January 12, 2023): 109–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.52960/jt.v2i2.173.
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Ethnomusicology is concerned with music and society. This research was conducted in Melolo, Umalulu District, East Sumba Regency. The problem in this study is how the ethnomusicology of the singing of Ille Le Melolo, East Sumba Regency, East Nusa Tenggara. The results of the research, the song Ille Le or the sleep songs for boys 'umbu', has unique characteristics in terms of musical form, poetry, and cultural meaning. Musically, this song consists of four notes, namely B, D#, E, and F. The intervals used are dominated by P1, M2, M3, P4, m2, M7, P5. An interval scheme like this will result in static movement and stepping with occasional interval jumps. The meter used is 68. When combined with the existing intervals, it will form a story song. The two lyrics of the song are very distinctive, this is related to the word 'umbu'. The word umbu is always in the lower notation in the musical structure of Ille Le's Song which is 185 Hz (F#3) and 240 Hz (B3). In addition, this song expresses the cultural meaning of the patriarchal system in East Sumba society. Musical structure cannot be separated from poetry. Ille le's ethnomusicological studies link the analysis of musical forms and poetry. Ethnomusicology includes musical characteristics such as the use of pentatonic scales, rhythm, motive, phrase, period and text interpretation.
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Rahn, Jay. "Perceptual Aspects of Tuning in a Balinese Gamelan Angklung for North American Students." Canadian University Music Review 16, no. 2 (March 1, 2013): 1–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.7202/1014424ar.
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A detailed analysis of the spectra and frequencies of tones produced on metallophones in a Balinese orchestra clarifies a number of issues that arise in studying timbre and tuning. Among these are the relative importance of accuracy and completeness of measurements, the relevance of acoustical description to musical perception and style, the appropriateness of statistical generalizations and numerical formulations to musical practice and theory, and the possibility of bi-musical responses to divergent tuning systems. Byproducts of the investigation include a proposed basis for inter-cultural ear training and a novel formulation of the unison, octave, and other intervals (including wide and narrow variants), as well as traditional scales and interval collections that have existed side-by-side in widely varying forms within individual cultures.
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Wand, Alex. "On the Conception and Measure of Consonance." Leonardo Music Journal 22 (December 2012): 73–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/lmj_a_00102.
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What makes a musical interval consonant? Since the early Greeks, there have been two contrasting views: an “objective” approach, focusing on the mathematical relationship of frequencies, and a “subjective” approach, emphasizing auditory perception. These approaches are reviewed, as are several proposed measures of consonance. The author then presents a composition that uses intervals that are rated highly by the measures of consonance but are outside the scales of Western music and so are subjectively unfamiliar. The goal is to see whether, via repetition and other devices for overcoming unfamiliarity, the consonance of these intervals can be conveyed.
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Huron, David. "Interval-Class Content in Equally Tempered Pitch-Class Sets: Common Scales Exhibit Optimum Tonal Consonance." Music Perception 11, no. 3 (1994): 289–305. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40285624.
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Pitch-class sets (such as scales) can be characterized according to the inventory of possible intervals that can be formed by pairing all pitches in the set. The frequency of occurrence of various interval classes in a given pitch-class set can be correlated with corresponding measures of perceived consonance for each interval class. If a goal of music-making is to promote a euphonious effect, then those sets that exhibit a plethora of consonant intervals and a paucity of dissonant intervals might be of particular interest to musicians. In this paper, it is shown that the pitch-class sets that provide the most consonant interval-class inventories are the major diatonic scale, the harmonic and melodic minor scales, and equally tempered equivalents of the Japanese Ritsu mode, the common pentatonic scale, and the common "blues" scale. Consonant harmonic intervals are more readily available in these sets than in other possible sets that can be drawn from the 12 equally tempered pitch chromas.
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Keefe, Douglas H., Edward M. Burns, and Phong Nguyen. "Vietnamese Modal Scales of the Dan Tranh." Music Perception 8, no. 4 (1991): 449–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40285522.
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The dan tranh is a Vietnamese 17-string zither tuned to pentatonic modal scales. Each modal scale, or dieu, encompasses a given tuning and a specific sentiment or modal nuance, and ornamentation using pitch bends is an important embellishment. The dan tranh was tuned entirely by ear, and the repetition rate of the lowest-pitched string varied from G₀ to E₃ in data obtained during a 6-month period from a single highly skilled Vietnamese musician. The modal scales lie in two major systems, bac and nam, and the frequency ratios of the tonal materials comprising the scales were measured. Using a standard categorization experimental paradigm, the musician was unable to categorize intervals in the absence of musical context. In a probe-tone rating experiment, the musician was asked to contemplate the sentiment associated with a particular modal scale, and evidence was found that was suggestive of an internalized hierarchy that differed between the two modal scales used as stimuli. Vietnamese modal scales make extensive use of a 166-cent scale step, which corresponds to $\frac{5}{3}$semitones.
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Wang, Qian (Janice), and Charles Spence. "‘Striking a Sour Note’: Assessing the Influence of Consonant and Dissonant Music on Taste Perception." Multisensory Research 29, no. 1-3 (2016): 195–208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/22134808-00002505.
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We report two experiments designed to investigate the consequences of manipulating the harmonic content of background music on taste perception. The participants in the present study evaluated samples of mixed fruit juice whilst listening to soundtracks that had either been harmonised with consonant or dissonant musical intervals. Each sample of juice was rated on three computer-based scales: One scale was anchored with the words sour and sweet, while the other two scales involved hedonic ratings of the music and of the juice. The results of an internet-based pre-test revealed that participants reliably associated the consonant soundtracks with sweetness and the dissonant soundtracks with sourness. The results of the on-site experiments demonstrated that participants rated the juices as tasting significantly sweeter in the consonant than in the dissonant music condition, irrespective of the melody or instrumentation that were evaluated. These results therefore provide empirical support for the claim that the crossmodal correspondence between a higher level musical attribute (namely, harmony) and basic taste can be used to modify the evaluation of the taste of a drink.
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Bradby, Barbara. "Symmetry around a centre: music of an Andean community." Popular Music 6, no. 2 (May 1987): 197–218. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0261143000005997.
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Ever since the first systematic study of Peruvian music (d'Harcourts 1925), musicologists have puzzled over the relationship of pentatonic, or five-note music, to other modes of music in the Andes. At that time the enquiry was related to the general musicological debate over whether the pentatonic was the universal form of primitive ‘scale’, from which all other musical scales have evolved. This debate was enmeshed with the hypothesis of nineteenth-century anthropology, that this most basic form of musical system could be derived from a human physiological capacity to distinguish the consonances of the intervals of the fourth, the fifth and the octave. Within this evolutionary paradigm, the accumulation of examples of pentatonic melody from the Peruvian Andes was easily interpreted as further evidence of the universality of this form among primitive people.
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Brown, Helen. "The Interplay of Set Content and Temporal Context in a Functional Theory of Tonality Perception." Music Perception 5, no. 3 (1988): 219–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40285398.
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The purpose of this study was to provide evidence for the perceptual component of an analysis of pitch relationships in tonal music that includes consideration of both formal analytic systems and musical listeners' responses to tonal relationships in musical contexts. It was hypothesized (1) that perception of tonal centers in music develops from listeners' interpretations of time-dependent contextual (functional) relationships among pitches, rather than primarily through knowledge of psychoacoustical or structural characteristics of the pitch content of sets or scales and (2) that critical perceptual cues to functional relationships among pitches are provided by the manner in which particular intervallic relationships are expressed in musical time. Excerpts of tonal music were chosen to represent familiar harmonic relationships across a spectrum of tonal ambiguity/specificity. The pitch-class sets derived from these excerpts were ordered: (1) to evoke the same tonic response as the corresponding musical excerpt, 2) to evoke another tonal center, and (3) to be tonally ambiguous. The effect of the intervallic contents of musical excerpts and strings of pitches in determining listeners' choices of tonic and the effect of contextual manipulations of tones in the strings in directing subjects' responses were measured and compared. Results showed that the musically trained listeners in the study were very sensitive to tonal implications of temporal orderings of pitches in determining tonal centers. Temporal manipulations of intervallic relationships in stimuli had significant effects on concurrences of tonic responses and on tonal clarity ratings reported by listeners. The interval rarest in the diatonic set, the tritone, was the interval most effective in guiding tonal choices. These data indicate that perception of tonality is too complex a phenomenon to be explained in the time-independent terms of psychoacoustics or pitch- class collections, that perceived tonal relationships are too flexible to be forced into static structural representations, and that a functional interpretation of rare intervals in optimal temporal orderings in musical contexts is a critical feature of tonal listening strategy.
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Muzzulini, Daniel. "Isaac Newton's Microtonal Approach to Just Intonation." Empirical Musicology Review 15, no. 3-4 (June 28, 2021): 223–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.18061/emr.v15i3-4.7647.
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In 1665 Isaac Newton wrote a notebook in which he collected materials for a musical treatise which was never completed. He investigated ways of approximately representing just intonation scales by dividing the octave into many equally sized intervals. Strictly speaking, equal divisions of the octave are incompatible with just intonation, and just intonation intervals are audibly different from the intervals played on a modern equally tempered modern piano. By increasing the number of parts of an equal division, just intonation can be approximated arbitrarily well. Scales with more than 60 microtonal steps per octave, however, never gained wide acceptance in music theory or practice. Newton divided the octave into 612 equal parts so that he could represent the syntonic chromatic scale very accurately and he studied several equal divisions of the octave with fewer parts. His approximation problem is looked at in three ways: (1) A reconstruction of how he determined the many EDO-representations listed in the notebook is given. (2) Using computer programs Newton's tuning problem is solved "empirically" through calculating and evaluating the related approximations comprehensively. (3) The findings from the computer-assisted analysis are used to develop a more general geometric approach to the approximation problem.
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Susanni, Paolo. "Tonal progression in Bartók's 'Etudes', Op. 18." New Sound, no. 42 (2013): 129–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.5937/newso1342129s.
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Bartók's mature musical language was born of both folk and art-music sources which influenced the composer in equal measure. The Three Studies for piano, Op. 18, represent a significant step in the evolution of the composers synthesis of the art-music source. All three etudes are based on equal-interval chains called interval cycles. Each of the three etudes represents a stage in the process of intervallic augmentation the composer named diatonic expansion. This concept, together with that of chromatic compression, is fundamental to all his mature works. The first etude expands the chromatic scale to two whole-tone scales. In the second etude the intervals are expanded to include the minor and major thirds as well as the perfect fourth, while in the third etude the tritone becomes the final step in the expansion process. The interactions of the ever-expanding interval cycles generate an array of diatonic, non-diatonic and abstract pitch collections. Parts of the opus rely on the concept of tonal progression based on axes of symmetry, which reached its perfection in later works such as the Out of Doors Suite and Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta.
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Vencovský, Václav, and František Rund. "Roughness of Two Simultaneous Harmonic Complex Tones On Just-Tempered and Equal-Tempered Scales." Music Perception 35, no. 2 (December 1, 2017): 127–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/mp.2017.35.2.127.
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This study is focused on the perceived roughness of two simultaneous harmonic complex tones with ratios between their fundamental frequencies set to create intervals on just-tempered (JT) and equal-tempered (ET) scales. According to roughness theories, ET intervals should produce more roughness. However, previous studies have shown the opposite for intervals in which the lower fundamental frequency of the complex was equal to 261.6 Hz. The aim of this study is to verify and explain these results by using intervals composed of complexes whose spectral components were generated with either a sine starting phase or with a random starting phase. Results of the current study showed the same phenomenon as previous studies. To examine whether the explanation of the phenomenon lies in the function of the peripheral ear, three roughness models based upon this function were used: the Daniel and Weber (1997) model, the synchronization index (SI) model, and the model based on a hydrodynamic cochlear model. For most of the corresponding JT and ET intervals, only the Daniel and Weber (1997) model predicted less roughness in the ET intervals. In addition to this, the intervals were analyzed by a model simulating the auditory periphery. The results showed that a possible cause for the roughness differences may be in the frequencies of fluctuations of the signal in the peripheral ear. For JT intervals the fluctuations in the adjacent places on the simulated basilar membrane had either the same frequency or integer multiples of that frequency and were synchronized. Since a previous study showed that synchronized fluctuations in adjacent auditory filters lead to higher roughness than out of phase fluctuations (Terhardt, 1974), this may cause more roughness across JT and ET intervals.
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Ross, Barry, and Sarah Knight. "Reports of equitonic scale systems in African musical traditions and their implications for cognitive models of pitch organization." Musicae Scientiae 23, no. 4 (October 17, 2017): 387–402. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1029864917736105.
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Psychological research into musical behavior has mostly focused on Western music, explored with experiments utilizing Western participants. This ethnocentric bias limits the generalizability of many claims in the field. We argue that our current understanding of the cognition of pitch organization might be helpfully informed by data gathered in non-Western contexts. In particular, musical traditions featuring equal-spaced scales (where all scale-step interval sizes are equal) are suggested to pose a challenge to popular models of pitch organization, in which unequally spaced scales are suggested to provide cognitive anchor points for on-the-fly pitch orientation. This article presents a summary and theoretical consideration of all available evidence on equal-spaced scales, the vast majority of which appear in east Africa. It is noted that despite equal spacing, there is evidence to suggest that tonal centers are still perceived by idiomatic listeners. We then proceed to propose how such tonal center perception is possible within equal-spaced tonal environments. In short, the existence of equal-spaced scale systems shifts the focus of research from interval uniqueness to alternative explanations for the perception of tonal centers, such as implicit statistical tracking, secondary parameters, recognition of learnt patterns as tonal cues, and so on. Throughout, we note that interdisciplinary work involving ethnomusicologists and psychologists would be beneficial in answering questions about music cognition, and by extension, human cognition in general.
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HOWELL, STANDLEY. "The emergence of a medieval pitch concept." Plainsong and Medieval Music 29, no. 2 (September 15, 2020): 99–117. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s096113712000011x.
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ABSTRACTThe ninth century witnessed a fundamental change in the way Western musicians thought about music. Before the Carolingians assimilated ancient music theory, they had no functional concept of how the intervals between pitches of the scale differed from one another and how those differences affected melodic structure. The transition to interval-based thinking may be traced in writings about music. The first half of Aurelian of Réôme's mid-century Musica disciplina quotes from Boethius, Cassiodorus and other ancient authors, but fails to make sense of what they say about intervals. The second half describes the rise and fall of chant melodies without reference to intervals. Treatises of the later ninth century (the Enchiriadis treatises, Hucbald's Musica) are the first to treat music in terms of individual pitches and explain how patterns of whole tones and semitones define modes and scales. However, an early draft of Musica enchiriadis, the Inchiriadon, still displays no awareness of the role that semitones played. A parallel evolution occurred in notation. Neumes, which outline melodic direction but not precise intervals, can be documented from the second quarter of the ninth century and are likely older. They lack pitch content because musicians who invented them lacked a conceptual framework for understanding pitch. Pitched notations do not appear until late in the century and their use is confined to examples in theory treatises.
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Cook, Norman D. "Harmony Perception: Harmoniousness is More Than the Sum of Interval Consonance." Music Perception 27, no. 1 (September 1, 2009): 25–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/mp.2009.27.1.25.
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ATTEMPTS TO EXPLAIN HARMONY PERCEPTION SINCE Helmholtz (1877/1954) have relied primarily on psychoacoustical models of the dissonance among the partials of chord tones. Those models are successful in explaining interval perception and the interval structure of common scales, but do not account for even the basics of triadic harmony. By introducing a 3-tone "tension" factor, I show how the sonority of the triads of diatonic music can be explained.Moreover, the relative size of the intervals among the partials in triads determines the major/minor modality of chords: major chords have a predominance of larger lower intervals, while minor chords have a predominance of smaller lower intervals. Finally, by invoking the "frequency code" known from linguistics and ethology, the positive/negative valence of the major/minor chords is shown to have an acoustical basis. I conclude that the perception of harmony can be explained by the acoustical structure of triads, without invoking cultural factors.
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Micha, Paraskevi. "Comparative study of the performances of greek adolescents in dictée." DEDiCA Revista de Educação e Humanidades (dreh), no. 2 (March 1, 2012): 103–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.30827/dreh.v0i2.7123.
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Music dictation (dictée) constitutes one of the most difficult challenges in the teaching of music and a source of disappointment for the students. Their errors, during this lesson, may be fundamental to our research. The goal of this paper is to observe, describe and analyse the errors made during the recording of melodies of western European and tropical Greek demotic music (traditional cosmopolitan melodies). These errors indicate proof and a means of analysis of the mental procedures which are inextricably connected to the teaching of music. By analysing these errors we will attempt to discover the causes which provoke difficulties and are inextricably connected to notes, intervals, scales, drops and rhythmic values. The statistical sample of the students (36 students) is a representative of the two different teaching methods (traditional and Kodaly) in an environment of a specific musical culture (Greek).
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Costa, Marco, Philip Fine, and Pio Enrico Ricci Bitti. "Interval Distributions, Mode, and Tonal Strength of Melodies as Predictors of Perceived Emotion." Music Perception 22, no. 1 (2004): 1–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/mp.2004.22.1.1.
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Fifty-one tonal and atonal classical melodies were evaluated by 29 students on 10 bipolar adjective scales that focused on emotional evaluation along four factors: valence, aesthetic judgment, activity, and potency. Significant predictors for each factor were obtained through ridge regression analyses. Predictors were quantified characteristics of each melody: the distribution of intervals according to interval size, the mode, and tonal strength (C. L. Krumhansl, 1990). Valence was best predicted by mode. Aesthetic judgment was predicted by the interval distribution and by tonal strength. Melodies judged pleasant contained more perfect fourths and minor sevenths and fewer augmented fourths; they were also high in tonal strength. Activity and potency were best predicted by the interval distribution. Activity, a sense of instability and motion, was conveyed by a greater occurrence of minor seconds, augmented fourths, and intervals larger than the octave. Potency, an expression of vigor and power, was marked by a greater occurrence of unisons and octaves. Thus the emotional expression of a melody appears to be related to the distributions of its interval categories, its mode, and its tonal strength.
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Thomson, William. "The Harmonic Root: A Fragile Marriage of Concept and Percept." Music Perception 10, no. 4 (1993): 385–415. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40285580.
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The word root, and the harmonic metabolism it helps to describe, plays a central role in how musicians think about musical structure. Vaguely implicit in some early writers' descriptions of intervals and scales, it awaited Rameau's discussions (1722/1971) of the fundamental bass to become explicit. Since then, music theorists have sought to explain its perceptual nature and causes. Their theories usually turn on some version of physical weightings, a root being the pitch class more powerfully reinforced than its companion pitch classes. After representative versions of influential explanations are reviewed, and their generic shortcomings are noted, Ernst Terhardt's "virtual pitch" theory is recognized as uniquely reasonable; it embodies a condition of pattern perception rather than physical reinforcement, thereby skirting a principal flaw of past theories. And yet, a troublesome paradox surfaces, regardless of which conceptualization one favors: empirical studies of interval perception have fallen short of confirming the phenomenal reality our concepts describe so confidently. In an attempt to outflank these empirical/phenomenal clashes, a scheme of pitch/time interaction, or "vectoral dynamics", is outlined. Its consistency with the linear perspective of vision is noted, and the model is applied to the opening of a Wolf song and to a painting by Titian.
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Çenberci, Senim, and Julide Gündüz. "Neo-classical Etude for Flute Solo: Evaluation of Karg Elert “op.107 no.30 Chaconne” in Terms of Technique and Pedagogy." International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies 11, no. 4 (October 20, 2023): 225–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijels.v.11n.4p.225.
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Sigfrid Karg-Elert, one of the German organ composers of the 20th century, introduced the etudes titled 30 Caprices for Flute Solo Op. 107 into the flute education repertoire to meet the technical demands of the period’s orchestral music and flute repertoire. Among these etudes, no.30 Chaconne is a concert etude combining elements that require advanced technique with musical expression and style. This research, which aims to examine Karg-Elert’s op.107 no.30 Chaconne etude in terms of form, technique, and pedagogy, is a descriptive case study. A general form analysis of Chaconne was made in the first dimension of the research. Chaconne was examined from a technical perspective in the second dimension of the study. The techniques included in the etude are categorized as articulation technique, finger technique, sonority/embouchure technique, and ornaments. The techniques’ usage rates in the etude are determined by frequency and percentages. Among the various articulation techniques included in the etude, the legato technique has the highest usage rate, with 42.10%, and among the fingering techniques, chromatic scales had the highest at 30.26%. In sonority techniques, the usage rate of wide intervals of octave and above is very high at 39.47%. In this context, it has been determined that the most decisive difficulty in the etude comes from the use of wide intervals, and it has been concluded that a significant level of flexibility and embouchure control must be provided in the performance of the etude. The technical difficulties included in the etude were determined on a variation basis in the last dimension of the study, and a study guide consisting of original exercise suggestions was presented. This study is novel in the literature as it presents a study guide on Chaconne. Also, this study is thought to contribute to musical literacy by enabling performers to comprehend Karg Elert Chaconne multi-dimensionally.
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Brown, Helen, David Butler, and Mari Riess Jones. "Musical and Temporal Influences on Key Discovery." Music Perception 11, no. 4 (1994): 371–407. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40285632.
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The intervallic rivalry model of key identification is outlined and evaluated in two experiments that use a completion judgment task. Experiment 1 replicates an earlier experiment by Cuddy and Badertscher (1987), in which the rare-interval hypothesis of the intervallic rivalry model was considered. In the present study, listeners with different levels of musical training rated probe tones in the context of three different melodic patterns: arpeggiated major triads, ascending major scales, and arpeggiated diminished triads. Results of Experiment 1 indicated that in both the C major triadic and the C major scalar contexts, listeners gave higher completion ratings to all three probes that were members of the presented C major triad than to the other probes, with the exception of F, thereby producing a jagged (multipeaked) profile. For the diminished triadic context, listeners rated the single probe C, that which corresponds to the tonal center in major mode for that group of three tones, as the best completion. Experiment 2 tested the temporal-order hypothesis of the intervallic rivalry model by reordering tones in all three contexts. Again jagged tone profiles appeared with major triadic and major scalar contexts, although in the former the tone F, a perfect fifth below the root of the presented C major triad, received the best completion rating. A single-peaked function appeared with probes in the diminished triadic context, where the major-mode tonic garnered the highest rating found in all conditions of both experiments. Data are interpreted as support for both the rare-interval hypothesis and the temporal-order hypothesis derived from the intervallic rivalry model of key discovery. Complementary findings consistent with the tonal hierarchy model are also discussed.
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Narmour, Eugene. "Toward a Unified Theory of the I-R Model (Part 1)." Music Perception 33, no. 1 (September 1, 2015): 32–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/mp.2015.33.1.32.
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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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TOPÇU, Ömer Yusuf. "OVERVIEW OF POLYPHONY AND NATIONALISM IN EUROPE, OTTOMAN AND OTTOMAN TÜRKİYE." International Refereed Journal of Humanities and Academic Sciences, no. 30 (2023): 57–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.17368/uhbab.2023.30.04.
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Aim: This research investigates the relationships between the folk songs, which are the roots of choral music in Turkey, and the qualities in polyphony practices were questioned and the approaches with which they were polyphonic were investigated from a quantitative perspective. Method: Under the titles of melody and harmony of polyphonic works; The use of major-minor scales, pentatonic and maqam transitions, dynamic and expression terms, triad, multiplication, scoredorg, double-quadruple-quintet harmony were evaluated by quantitative analysis method, findings and results were obtained and interpreted. Polyphony practices in choral works, whose source is folk songs, have been researched with a comparative perspective. Findings: In order to eliminate the problems arising from modality while the works in which Turkish music maqam scales are used are polyphonic, different from the triple harmony system, which was defined by Kemal İlerici (1910-1986), it was formed by the overlapping of the quartets and based on the Hüseyni maqam. It was determined that the quartet harmony system was also used. Conclusion: Folk songs and polyphonic choral works that take them as a source show affinity in terms of musical characteristics. The words of the material have undergone few changes, some of them have been given a canonical structure, dynamic and expressive indicators have been added. Chromatic transitions, double, quadruple and quintuple intervals are used cyclically on SATB lines.
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Agus Mega Saputra, Gde, Galih Suryadmaja, and Dewi Puspita Ningsih. "The impact of changes in scale configuration on the gangsa instrument of the Bhavana Ethnic Mataram as an Indonesian music innovation." Dewa Ruci: Jurnal Pengkajian dan Penciptaan Seni 19, no. 1 (June 5, 2024): 20–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.33153/dewaruci.v19i1.5887.
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The use of traditional instruments in Bhavana Ethnic's musical compositions is one of the innovative aspects of Indonesian music offered. This Indonesian authenticity emerges through the characteristic sounds and drumming patterns that are presented in composing the harmony of the musical works. The innovation in question is the group's efforts to change the composition and configuration of the notes and scales on the gangsa instrument. An instrument adopted from the Balinese gamelan ensemble. Making adjustments to the reality of traditional music in the creative process. The aim of this research is to explain the importance of innovation in the creative (music) process. Seeing how the Bhavana Ethnic group's perspective understands the reality of tradition in gangsa instruments, the idea emerged to change the composition and configuration of the notes in an effort to meet the aesthetic needs in the work. This research was conducted using qualitative methods. Researchers as the main instrument to understand the impact of changes in the tone composition and scale configuration of bronze instruments in natural conditions. The research results are that changes in aspects of the instrument's pitch configuration have implications for changes in the number of tones, pitch range, rules, melodic pattern system, and instrument function in the ensemble. The result of the musical innovation process carried out is that there is a tendency for interval patterns in the selection of tones in each musical creation process. The tendencies for interval patterns in question include the 2- ½ -1- 2 -½ pattern on the major scale, and 1-1- 1½ -1 -1½ on the minor scale.
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Milne, Andrew J., Robin Laney, and David B. Sharp. "Testing a spectral model of tonal affinity with microtonal melodies and inharmonic spectra." Musicae Scientiae 20, no. 4 (August 1, 2016): 465–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1029864915622682.
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Tonal affinity is the perceived goodness of fit of successive tones. It is important because a preference for certain intervals over others would likely influence preferences for, and prevalences of, “higher-order” musical structures such as scales and chord progressions. We hypothesize that two psychoacoustic (spectral) factors—harmonicity and spectral pitch similarity—have an impact on affinity. The harmonicity of a single tone is the extent to which its partials (frequency components) correspond to those of a harmonic complex tone (whose partials are a multiple of a single fundamental frequency). The spectral pitch similarity of two tones is the extent to which they have partials with corresponding, or close, frequencies. To ascertain the unique effect sizes of harmonicity and spectral pitch similarity, we constructed a computational model to numerically quantify them. The model was tested against data obtained from 44 participants who ranked the overall affinity of tones in melodies played in a variety of tunings (some microtonal) with a variety of spectra (some inharmonic). The data indicate the two factors have similar, but independent, effect sizes: in combination, they explain a sizeable portion of the variance in the data (the model-data squared correlation is r2 = .64). Neither harmonicity nor spectral pitch similarity require prior knowledge of musical structure, so they provide a potentially universal bottom-up explanation for tonal affinity. We show how the model—as optimized to these data—can explain scale structures commonly found in music, both historical and contemporary, and we discuss its implications for experimental microtonal and spectral music.
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Gunawan, Iwan, Rita Milyartini, and Juju Masunah. "The Use of Laras in Contemporary Gamelan Music." Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 22, no. 1 (July 1, 2022): 161–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.15294/harmonia.v22i1.35483.
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Gamelan instruments, which have a distinctive tone system (scale) or are called laras, are a challenge for contemporary composers in their working techniques. In contrast to Western music which uses a “well-tempered” system, gamelan music has a distinctive phenomenon in its tone system, including the absence of standardization of basic notes and tone intervals. This article aims to analyze the concept of garap and the phenomenon of the use of laras) in contemporary gamelan music. The method used is content analysis, by taking four contemporary gamelan works that use the concept of garap on the use of a new scale, which is auditorily difficult to identify the scales in conventional musical knowledge. The content used is in the form of audio recordings and notations, which are then analyzed by various parametric musical aspects. The results show that there were two directions of garap on the tone systems (scale) in contemporary gamelan music. First, the direction of the garap is done by limiting the tones of the tone systems used in constructing the sound both vertically and horizontally. As in Supanggah’s “Thongkleng,” only five of the seven notes are used in the laras pelog. Meanwhile, in Mack’s “Crosscurrent,” only four tones are used out of the five notes in the laras degung. The direction of the second interpretation is to expand the tone by mixing other tones to build the impression of a new tone. In O’Neil’s “Lesson of Garden” and Gunawan’s “Noname and Nothing,” there is a chromatic approach to melodic contours to obscure the impression of conventional tone. O’Neil focuses more on melodic tone processing, while in Gunawan’s work, the tone processing is more rhythmic and random.
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Dean, Roger T. "Widening Unequal Tempered Microtonal Pitch Space for Metaphoric and Cognitive Purposes with New Prime Number Scales." Leonardo 42, no. 1 (February 2009): 94–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/leon.2009.42.1.94.
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I define a new set of microtonal scales based on the prime number series, and containing 41 to 91 pitches spread over the whole audible range, rather than subdividing the octave. I designed these scales for metaphorical purposes, and applied one within my performance piece Ubasuteyama (2008), written with Hazel Smith, for speaker, computer sound and digital processing. Simple timbres using partials bearing prime number ratios to their fundamental were also used to embody the scale. The scales and timbres will be amongst the subjects of cognitive studies of pitch combinations, of large and unbroken pitch intervals in melodies, and of the relation between scale and timbre.
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Pohlit, Stefan. "EPISTEMOLOGY OF TONE: AN OBITUARY FOR JULIEN JALÂL ED-DINE WEISS." Tempo 71, no. 281 (June 21, 2017): 71–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0040298217000444.
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AbstractDuring the 1980s, Julien Jalâl Ed-Dine Weiss, founder of the Al-Kindi ensemble of Aleppo, invented a qānūn in just intonation with which he attempted to solve a major discrepancy between the theory and practice of maqām-scales. Weiss objected to the introduction of Western standards, observing that they distort the significance of interval ratios and prevent a comparative understanding of the modal system as a transnational phenomenon. In the twentieth century, the implementation of equal-semitone temperament emerged simultaneously with a notable invasion of sociological criteria into musical inquiry. The polarity observed between westernisation and tradition can be seen most visibly in the present search for identity amongst Middle- and Near-Eastern musicians, but this schismogenic process can also be observed in the history of the Western avant-garde, where microtonal explorations have been halted in favour of extra-musical conceptuality. While cross-cultural musicians are faced with a new climate of distrust, it seems most likely that the principles that draw us apart may originate in the very patterns of thought in which our notion of culture operates. Weiss's tuning system may serve as a helpful tool to foster a new and universal epistemology of tone, bridging and transcending the apparent contradictions between the two spheres.
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Cos, Ignasi, Benoît Girard, and Emmanuel Guigon. "Balancing out dwelling and moving: optimal sensorimotor synchronization." Journal of Neurophysiology 114, no. 1 (July 2015): 146–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1152/jn.00175.2015.
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Sensorimotor synchronization is a fundamental skill involved in the performance of many artistic activities (e.g., music, dance). After a century of research, the manner in which the nervous system produces synchronized movements remains poorly understood. Typical rhythmic movements involve a motion and a motionless phase (dwell). The dwell phase represents a sizable fraction of the rhythm period, and scales with it. The rationale for this organization remains unexplained and is the object of this study. Twelve participants, four drummers (D) and eight nondrummers (ND), performed tapping movements paced at 0.5–2.5 Hz by a metronome. The participants organized their tapping behavior into dwell and movement phases according to two strategies: 1) Eight participants (1 D, 7 ND) maintained an almost constant ratio of movement time (MT) and dwell time (DT) irrespective of the metronome period. 2) Four participants increased the proportion of DT as the period increased. The temporal variabilities of both the dwell and movement phases were consistent with Weber's law, i.e., their variability increased with their durations, and the longest phase always exhibited the smallest variability. We developed an optimal statistical model that formalized the distribution of time into dwell and movement intervals as a function of their temporal variability. The model accurately predicted the participants' dwell and movement durations irrespective of their strategy and musical skill, strongly suggesting that the distribution of DT and MT results from an optimization process, dependent on each participant's skill to predict time during rest and movement.
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Lesiczka, Sebastian. "Tonality of Folk Funeral Chants in the Rzeszów Region." Edukacja Muzyczna 17 (2022): 253–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.16926/em.2022.17.12.
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Folk religious chants have already been the object of scientific study for several decades. The matter of morphological features of the religious repertoire in the living tradition includes several basic factors, such as poetic text structure (versification, strophic structure), stylistic and formal properties, metre and rhythm, melodics, and tonal considerations (cf. B. Bartkowski, Niektóre ce-chy muzycznej metrorytmiki polskich pieśni religijnych żyjących w tradycji ustnej, “Summarium. Sprawozdania Towarzystwa Naukowego KUL” 1978, no. 3 (23), p. 250). The purpose of this article is to present and analyse the tonal phenomena occurring in folk religious chants performed throughout the funeral rite in the region of Rzeszów (Rzeszów region – a region in South-Eastern Poland inhabited by the ethnic groups of Lasowiacy and Rzeszowiacy, which covers the approxi-mate area of the current ten districts (Tarnobrzeg, Stalowa Wola, Nisko, Kolbuszowa, Leżajsk, Mielec, Ropczyce-Sędziszów, Rzeszów, Przeworsk, and Łańcut). -cf. Kolędowanie na Rzeszowszczyźnie, ed. K. Smyk, J. Dragan, Kolbuszowa – Kraków 2019, p. 8, and range maps, pp. 382–383), especially during the prayer for the deceased at home, the procession to the church, the procession to the cemetery, and the inhumation at the cemetery). The musical scales upon which the melodies of the individual chants are based have particular significance in terms of their musical shape. In fact, the tonality, which constitutes a note system, influences the interval structure, the relationships between individual notes, the melody and, indirectly, the regional conditions for the performance of the chants (cf. B. Bartkowski, Niektóre cechy…, p. 250). The material will be presented based on the scale range criterion while individual tonal phenomena will be presented using selected examples.
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Shen, Hung Che, and Chung Nan Lee. "Digital Storytelling Book Generator with MIDI-to-Singing." Applied Mechanics and Materials 145 (December 2011): 441–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.145.441.
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Creating a digital storytelling book is an important knowledge source for the blinds, but it usually takes a lot of time and efforts. In order to read the books from electronic contents, automatic procedures could be incorporated into a speech synthesis system. In this paper, we give a practical description using a free software Text-to-speech (TTS) program with a MIDI-to-Singing toolkit as a digital storytelling book generator. In this case, a certain amount of emotional TTS customization can be derived by using time-pitch manipulation of the synthesized acoustic waveform. MIDI-to-Singing voices can be generated automatically with special emphasis on lyrical or storytelling-styled contents that are usually discouraged by uninteresting natures of voices synthesized from traditional Text-to-speech (TTS) programs. Rule-based approaches rely on rules that describe the behavior of the pitch frequency along time to generate time-pitch values. Pitch values fluctuate within a certain range depending on the intended emotion. This MIDI-to-Singing voice synthesis relies on mapping the pitch frequency values to the 12 semi-tonal melodic scales and extracting semi-tonic intervals for each emotional state. In the current version of the system, a user can style the synthesized voice by selecting either male or female standard voice in combination with one of the predefined 12 expressive styles: Neutral, Monotonic, Lowly-pitched, Highly-pitched, Rising-pitched, Falling-pitched, Happy, Sad, Fear, Anger, Randomly-pitched, and Melody-aligning (singing) styles using a small set of musical notes. A subjective test shows that synthetic conversations based on MIDI-to-Singing with customized styles are more preferable, natural, intelligible and enjoyable than the traditional ones. Finally, the result of digital talking recordings can be heard on the web-site for the comparisons between human speech and MIDI-to-Singing synthesized speech.
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Чехович, Д. О. "Difficulties in comparing tempos and a new approach to their measurement." Журнал Общества теории музыки, no. 1(29) (March 5, 2020): 44–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.26176/otmroo.2020.29.1.004.
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Восприятие темпов парадоксально: одна и та же скорость исполнения может восприниматься как разные темпы, а относительно меньшую скорость слушатель оценивает как «особенно быстрый темп» (Ф. Вейнгартнер). На пути решения «парадокса Вейнгартнера — Штеглиха» рассматривается многообразие музыкальных шкал, существенных для восприятия ритмической энергии. Новоевропейский темп неразрывно связан с тактовой ритмикой. Специфика последней — активная роль зрительного восприятия, при посредстве которого нотные знаки (длительности) из обозначений отрезков времени превращаются в маркеры уровней акцентной структуры. Каждый знак имеет свой «вес», и в живом исполнении ритмические «массы» передаются слушателю. Темп европейской композиции XVIII–XIX веков, по определению М. Г. Харлапа, есть «количество движения» — «произведение скорости на массу». В статье предлагается авторская методика «взвешивания» счетных единиц, благодаря которой темпы выстраиваются по 20-балльной шкале. Perception of the tempos is paradoxical: the same speed of the performance can be perceived as different tempos, and the hearer evaluates the relatively slower speed as “especially fast tempo” (F. Weingartner). A possible solution of the “Weingartner – Steglich paradox” may be a variety of musical scales, essential for the perception of rhythmic energy. The new European tempo is inseparately linked with the accented meter (German: ‘akzentuierende Metrik’). The peculiarity of the latter is the active role of visual perception, with the help of which notation signs (durations) turn from symbols of time intervals into markers of levels of accent structure. Each sign has its own “weight”, and the rhythmic masses are transmitted to the hearer in a live performance. The tempo of the European composition of the 18th and 19th centuries is the “kinetic momentum” (as defined by Miron Kharlap) — “the product of velocity and mass”. This article offers the author’s method of “weighing” of beats that allows to arrange the tempos on a 20-point scale.
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Pratt, Ryan. "RELATIVE INTONATION: NON-SYMMETRICAL IMPLICATIONS OF LINEAR AND LOGARITHMIC INTERVALLIC MEASUREMENT." Tempo 77, no. 306 (September 1, 2023): 22–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0040298223000347.
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AbstractThis article investigates intervallic measurement and the tacit limitations engendered by a prevalent symmetrical perspective of measuring intervals. Various numerical and instrumental limitations and further detail of harmonic and melodic structures, such as Farey sequences, are illustrated. This approach distinguishes itself from a perspective of prime limits, explored by Harry Partch and others. A standardisation of ‘microtonal’ notation is not suggested; rather, the restrictions provided by any such standardisation are re-examined through an objective lens of ratios, to harness the generative potential of numbers. An orchestration-led approach to composition is described, where the tuning limitations of instruments are utilised for idiomatic composition. Tuning practices that ‘evade’ the octave are also discussed, including gamelan, mbira and three scales found by Wendy Carlos. The article concludes with a section on the construction of harmonic systems in the absence of instrumental influences.
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Kunikullaya, U. Kirthana, Vijayadas, Radhika Kunnavil, Jaisri Goturu, Vadagenahalli S. Prakash, and Nandagudi Srinivasa Murthy. "Short-term effects of passive listening to an Indian musical scale on blood pressure and heart rate variability among healthy individuals – A randomised controlled trial." Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology 66 (May 31, 2022): 29–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.25259/ijpp_126_2021.
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Objectives: Listening to music is entertaining but also has different health benefits. Music medicine involves passive listening to music, while music therapy involves active music-making. Indian music is broadly classified into Hindustani and Carnatic music, each having its system of musical scales (ragas). Scientific studies of Indian music as an intervention are meagre. The present study determines the effect of passive listening to one melodic scale of Indian music on cardiovascular electrophysiological parameters. Materials and Methods: After informed consent, healthy individuals aged 18–30 years of either gender were recruited and randomly divided into two groups (n = 34 each). Group A was exposed to passive listening to the music intervention (Hindustani melodic scale elaboration [Bhimpalas raga alaap]), while Group B received no intervention except for a few natural sounds (played once in every 2 min). Blood pressure (BP, systolic, SBP; diastolic, DBP) and electrocardiogram in Lead II were recorded with each condition lasting for 10 min (pre, during and post). Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis was done. Data were analysed using SPSS 18.0 version and P ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. Results: In Group A, the SBP did not change during the intervention but increased mildly after the intervention (P = 0.054). The DBP increased in both the groups during the intervention, significant in Group A (P = 0.009), with an increase of 1.676 mmHg (P = 0.012) from pre-during and 1.824 mmHg (P = 0.026) from pre-post intervention. On HRV analysis, mean NN interval increased and HR reduced in both the groups, but was significant only in Group B (P = 0.041 and 0.025, respectively). In Group A, most of the HRV parameters were reduced during music intervention that tended to return toward baseline after the intervention, but the change was statistically significant for total power (P = 0.031) and low frequency (P = 0.013); while in Group B, a consistent significant rise in parasympathetic indicators (SDNN, RMSSD, total power and HF [ms2]) over 30 min was observed. Conclusion: Unique cardiovascular effects were recorded on passive listening to a particular Indian music melodic scale. The scale, raga Bhimpalas, produced a mild arousal response. This could be due to attention being paid to the melodic scale as it was an unfamiliar tune or due to the features of this melodic scale that led to an arousal or excitation response. In contrast, the control group had only a relaxation response. Exploring electrophysiological effects of different genres, melodic scales and their properties after familiarising with the music may thus be illustrative.
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José, María, Garmendia Ridríguez, and Juan Antonio Navarro González. "Musical Scales." Irish Mathematical Society Bulletin 0035 (1995): 24–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.33232/bims.0035.24.41.
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Chen, Hayun. "Mode Harmonic Concept of Oleksandr Cherepnin’s Composer Creativity." Culture of Ukraine, no. 73 (September 23, 2021): 121–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.31516/2410-5325.073.17.
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The relevance of the topic is determined by the existing contradiction between the great importance of Olexandr Cherepnin’s compositional works, which are widely recognized in the modern cultural world and contain many innovative artistic and theoretical ideas, and the lack of proper coverage in the scientific literature. The analysis of the array of musicological literature devoted to the peculiarities of the musical culture of the XX century proves the fact that the artistic personality of O. Cherepnin and his life and creative path still generally remain beyond the attention of researchers.
The purpose of the article is to reveal the meaningful and terminological features of the mode harmonic concept of O. Cherepnin’s compositional works.
The methodology. The main methods applied in this study are systematic approach and methods of comparative and musicological (mainly mode harmonic) analysis.
The results. O. Cherepnin’s musical language has overcome a long way before it was formed into a single mode harmonic concept. This mode harmonic concept of the artist’s works was first embodied in many of his works, and then was theoretically comprehended by him and given in the article “Basic Elements of My Musical Language” (1962). Therefore, from the beginning, the features of the composer’s mode harmonic language were formed under the influence of artistic necessity and were not subjected to theoretical conceptual principles. The mode harmonic concept of the artist, which became a generalization of his creative activity and artistic ideas, is based mainly on the theory of ambivalence of major and minor. At the same time, the composer does not use the majorminor as the mode basis for his works, basing (as the author himself and researchers of his work emphasize) primarily on the theory of modality.
Cherepnin’s mode harmonic concept of musical language is based on a ninestage scale, which is considered by the composer as universal and is found in most of his works. The most separate and independent components of the ninestage scale are the three majorminor tetrachords and the two hexachords. The presence of different pitch positions of the scale allows to determine the tonal center at the level of separate fragments of the musical fabric of the work.
The harmonic vertical (harmonic structure) of the majority of O. Cherepnin’s works is also formed on the basis of the vertical segments of the specified ninestage scale. Such mode segments, which in separate works of the composer or their parts play the role of mode harmonic basis, are defined by us as “submodes” (my term — Ch. H.). The most common are tritone consonances, and each “submode” has its own chord that performs the function of the tonic one. The most important among them, according to the composer’s point of view, is a majorminor tetrachord, i.e. vertical fourtone chord. All these consonances are very diverse in their interval structure and intensity of sound. Five and sixtone chords are used by the artist much less due to their intense phonism and the need for at least an acoustic solution. Pentatone scales, which are constantly presented in an incomplete form (with the omission of one or two tones), and symmetrical modes are also widely used in O. Cherepnin’s works. Bright ethnic elements of the composer’s mode harmonic concept, which are widely used in his works, are the specific tritone consonances, called by O. Cherepnin as “Georgian trisounds”.
The topicality of the study lies in the disclosure of one of the main conceptual foundations of the multifaceted musical language of O. Cherepnin — his mode harmonic component, which has not yet been sufficiently studied.
The practical significance. The obtained results of the research allow to reveal the world importance of O. Cherepnin’s artistic figure and composer’s works, to highlight his innovative musicaltheoretical ideas and to determine the special place of the artist in the constellation of contemporary composers who actively experimented with tonalharmonic systems. The obtained conclusions generally expand the view on the nature and structure of mode harmonic thinking of composers of the XX century.
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Milne, Andrew J., and Roger T. Dean. "Computational Creation and Morphing of Multilevel Rhythms by Control of Evenness." Computer Music Journal 40, no. 1 (March 2016): 35–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/comj_a_00343.
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We present an algorithm, instantiated in a freeware application called MeanTimes, that permits the parameterized production and transformation of a hierarchy of well-formed rhythms. Each “higher” rhythmic level fills in the gaps of all “lower” levels, and up to six such levels can be simultaneously sounded. MeanTimes has a slider enabling continuous variation of the ratios of the intervals between the beats (onsets) of the lowest level. This consequently changes—in a straightforward manner—the evenness of this level; it also changes—in a more complex, but still highly patterned manner—the evennesses of all higher levels. This specific parameter, and others used in MeanTimes, are novel: We describe their mathematical formulation, demonstrate their utility for generating rhythms, and show how they differ from those typically used for pitch-based scales. Some of the compositional possibilities continue the tradition of Cowell and Nancarrow, proceeding further into metahuman performance, and have perceptual and cognitive implications that deserve further attention.
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Clough, John, Nora Engebretsen, and Jonathan Kochavi. "Scales, Sets, and Interval Cycles: A Taxonomy." Music Theory Spectrum 21, no. 1 (April 1999): 74–104. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/mts.1999.21.1.02a00040.
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Tymoczko, D. "Generalizing Musical Intervals." Journal of Music Theory 53, no. 2 (September 1, 2009): 227–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00222909-2010-003.
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Lin, Ziyong, André Werner, Ulman Lindenberger, Andreas M. Brandmaier, and Elisabeth Wenger. "Assessing Music Expertise." Music Perception 38, no. 4 (April 1, 2021): 406–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/mp.2021.38.4.406.
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We introduce the Berlin Gehoerbildung Scale (BGS), a multidimensional assessment of music expertise in amateur musicians and music professionals. The BGS is informed by music theory and uses a variety of testing methods in the ear-training tradition, with items covering four different dimensions of music expertise: (1) intervals and scales, (2) dictation, (3) chords and cadences, and (4) complex listening. We validated the test in a sample of amateur musicians, aspiring professional musicians, and students attending a highly competitive music conservatory (n = 59). Using structural equation modeling, we compared two factor models: a unidimensional model postulating a single factor of music expertise; and a hierarchical model, according to which four first-order subscale factors load on a second-order factor of general music expertise. The hierarchical model showed better fit to the data than the unidimensional model, indicating that the four subscales capture reliable variance above and beyond the general factor of music expertise. There were reliable group differences on both the second-order general factor and the four subscales, with music students outperforming aspiring professionals and amateur musicians. We conclude that the BGS is an adequate measurement instrument for assessing individual differences in music expertise, especially at high levels of expertise.
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Swallowe, G. M., T. Charnley, and R. Perrin. "New musical scales." Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 94, no. 2 (August 1993): 1166–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.406968.
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