Why Not Study Polytonal Psychophysics?
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Date
2007-01
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Empirical Musicology Review
Abstract
The relative consonance/dissonance of 2-tone intervals is well
understood both experimentally and theoretically and provides a strong foundation for
explaining why diatonic scales or their subsets are used in most musical cultures.
Frequent textbook assertions notwithstanding, however, the consonance of intervals
fails to account for the basic facts of harmony (3 or more tone combinations). We have
recently shown (Cook & Fujisawa, 2006) how consideration of 3-tone psychophysics
can explain the fundamental regularities of diatonic harmony. Distinct from the
dissonance of 2-tone intervals, 3-tone combinations introduce an effect described by
Leonard Meyer (1956) as harmonic “tension”: when a third tone is located midway
between an upper and a lower tone, the chord takes on an unresolved, unstable, tense
character – a psychoacoustical property inherent to the diminished and augmented
chords. If the effects of the upper partials are included in a formal model that includes
both 2-tone and 3-tone effects, the perceived sonority of the triads (major>minor>
diminished>augmented) is easily explained.
Description
Keywords
harmony, psychophysics, dissonance, tension, major mode, minor mode
Citation
Empirical Musicology Review, v2 n1 (January 2007), 38-44