The_Oxford_Handbook_of_Music_Psychology_----_(Part_2_Music_Perception)

Chapter 7: Tonal Cognition

Overview of Tonal Music

• Definition: The term tonal music encompasses a variety of Western musical styles across different periods, including Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern, as well as popular genres like jazz, rock, reggae, and salsa.

• Common Ground: Despite diverse sounds, these styles share common features, notably the foundation on a chromatic scale consisting of 12 pitch classes.

• Diatonic Scales: The 12 pitch classes are subdivided into diatonic scales of seven tones, highlighting the combinatory nature of Western music.

Tonal and Event Hierarchies

• Musical Structure: Western music exhibits a hierarchical organization where events vary in importance, with ornamental events enhancing aesthetic expression but not crucial to the piece's structure.

• Hierarchy Example: A melody perceived in C major sounds different when played backward in B major, altering the relationships and perceptions of tones.

• Tonal vs. Event Hierarchies: Tonal hierarchies refer to broader structural regularities stored in long-term memory, while event hierarchies arise from specific musical contexts during performance.

Intra-key and Inter-Key Hierarchies

• Key Definitions: The tonal system includes 12 different keys, each centered around a tonic tone. Major keys and minor keys exhibit different interval patterns.

• Probe Tone Method: Research indicates the tonic (e.g., C in C major) is the most critical tone, followed by other scale degrees. This establishes profiles for major and minor keys based on perceived goodness of fit.

• Chord Structure: Chords consist of at least three tones and their relationships contribute significantly to musical structure, with certain chords deemed more important based on their relation to the tonic.

• Musical Distances: The proximity of keys on the chromatic circle affects their cognitive relationships; closely related keys share more pitches and chords than distant ones.

Models of Tonal Hierarchies

• Tonal Pitch Space Theory (TPST): A multidimensional space representing tonal hierarchies and their connections to musical events and chords, allowing quantification of hierarchical distances.

• MUSACT Model: A connectionist approach representing tones, chords, and keys in a network where activation signals establish tonal relationships and hierarchies, differing in architecture from the TPST.

Influence of Tonal Hierarchies on Perception

• Perception of Mistuned Notes: Studies show that mistuning's perceptibility is affected by the relationships within tonal hierarchies. Musicians adjust the pitch of notes to align with hierarchical importance, enhancing listener comprehension.

• Melodic Perception: The ability to identify changes in melodic contour is influenced by tonal context, showing that hierarchical importance can affect how melodies are recognized and processed.

• Emotional Responses: Emotional evaluations of music are quicker and more accurate when pieces are presented in the same key, underscoring the importance of tonal context in emotional expression.

From Tonal Hierarchies to Event Hierarchies

• Integration with Rhythm: The structural significance of notes is intertwined with rhythm; for instance, a tonic might be ornamental in certain rhythmic contexts.

• Dynamic Possibilities: This interplay between tonal and event hierarchies allows composers to create an extensive variety of expressive musical pieces and styles.