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The Transition Between Noise (Disorder) and Structure (Order)

Stephen Handel

in Perceptual Coherence: Hearing and seeing

Texture refers to the surface characteristics of an object resulting from the quality and arrangement of its particles or constituent parts. One extensive set of experiments focused on the ... More

Texture refers to the surface characteristics of an object resulting from the quality and arrangement of its particles or constituent parts. One extensive set of experiments focused on the segmentation into discrete regions of visual stimuli composed of dots or micropatterns. The original work contrasted different statistical distributions of the lightness of the dots, but soon shifted to the geometrical properties of the micropatterns. Another extensive set of experiments focused on the perception of emergent global surface properties created by the successive transformation of random noise patterns. For visual Glass patterns, transformations can lead to the perception of rotation, radial expansion, symmetry, contour, and linear movement. For auditory noise patterns, repetition can lead to the perception of pitch. It is important to distinguish between direct passive perceiving and attentive active perceiving. Structure in the physical world may not be perceivable.Less

Tuning in to Very Fast Events: Pitch Perception

Mari Riess Jones

in Time Will Tell: A Theory of Dynamic Attending

This chapter demonstrates that entrainment applies to very fast events, namely sounds with high frequencies. To illustrate this, prominent approaches to pitch perception are sketched along with basic ... More

This chapter demonstrates that entrainment applies to very fast events, namely sounds with high frequencies. To illustrate this, prominent approaches to pitch perception are sketched along with basic pitch perception phenomena (e.g., virtual pitch perception). In this chapter, multiple frequency components comprise a single complex sound, and people must judge the pitch of this collection of frequencies. Both a successful psychoacoustic theory of pitch perception and a dynamic attending approach offer valid explanations of various phenomena surrounding the pitch of such sounds. This suggests the potential of entrainment in describing pitch perception (i.e., entrainments at fast time scales). The perception of consonance and dissonance is also considered, where dissonance is linked to complex synchronicities termed attractors. Finally, this chapter introduces oscillator clusters, a group of endogenously entrained oscillations.Less

On absolute pitch, and the disaggregation of chords

Adam Ockelford

in Applied Musicology: Using Zygonic Theory to Inform Music Education, Therapy and Psychology Research

Many young people who are blind or on the autism spectrum have highly developed pitch-processing abilities, among which is the capacity to ‘disaggregate’ chords—to identify their individual tonal ... More

Many young people who are blind or on the autism spectrum have highly developed pitch-processing abilities, among which is the capacity to ‘disaggregate’ chords—to identify their individual tonal components. This ability is striking as it is so far removed from the norm: most musicians struggle to say how many notes there are in a chord if the number rises above three. The matter of chordal disaggregation is of interest to music educators (it is taken to be an important element of musicality as well as a fair means of assessing it) and it has intermittently engaged the interest of music psychologists too. However, little attention has been paid to the strategies that listeners may bring to bear in undertaking the task. This chapter analyzes the performance of two musical savants and a skilled jazz musician with absolute pitch in disaggregating chords ranging from four to nine notes.Less

The Several Dimensions of Pitch: (1993/2003)

James Tenney

Larry Polansky, Lauren Pratt, Robert Wannamaker, and Michael Winter (eds)

in From Scratch: Writings in Music Theory

James Tenney explains the different mechanisms behind the simultaneous and consecutive relationships between pitches using ideas from evolution and neurocognition. He suggests that there are two ... More

James Tenney explains the different mechanisms behind the simultaneous and consecutive relationships between pitches using ideas from evolution and neurocognition. He suggests that there are two different aspects of pitch perception and that one of those aspects can also be thought of as multidimensional. In considering such fundamental questions regarding the nature of auditory perception, Tenney refers to the evolution of hearing and considers two complementary if not contradictory things: distinguish between or among sounds issuing from different sound sources, and recognize when two or more sounds—though different—actually arise from a single sound source. The first mechanism is the basis for what Tenney calls the contour aspect of contour aspect of contour pitch perception. The other aspect of pitch perception has to do with the temporal ordering of the neural information. Tenney concludes by proposing a psychoacoustic explanation for contour formation based on the ear's temporal processing.Less

John Cage and the Theory of Harmony: (1983)

James Tenney

Larry Polansky, Lauren Pratt, Robert Wannamaker, and Michael Winter (eds)

in From Scratch: Writings in Music Theory

James Tenney examines some of John Cage's theoretical ideas and their possible implications for a new theory of harmony that he argues requires new definitions of “harmony,” “harmonic relations,” ... More

James Tenney examines some of John Cage's theoretical ideas and their possible implications for a new theory of harmony that he argues requires new definitions of “harmony,” “harmonic relations,” etc.; such definitions, he contends, will emerge from a more careful analysis of the “total soundspace” of musical perception. Tenney begins with a discussion of the current disparity between harmonic theory and compositional practice before explaining what a true theory of harmony should be: a theory of harmonic perception (one component in a more general theory of musical perception) consistent with the most recent data available from the fields of acoustics and psychoacoustics but also taking into account the extended range of musical experiences available to us today. Tenney outlines the conditions that such a theory ought to satisfy and goes on to consider a multidimensional space of pitch perception called harmonic space.Less

Intracerebral Evoked Potentials in Pitch Perception Reveal a Functional Asymmetry of Human Auditory Cortex

Catherine LiéGeois-Chauvel, Kimberly Giraud, Jean-Michel Badier, Patrick Marquis, and Patrick Chauvel

in The Cognitive Neuroscience of Music

This chapter examines the tonotopic organization of the human auditory cortex using intracerebrally recorded evoked potentials studied as a function of the anatomical recording site. The sensitivity ... More

This chapter examines the tonotopic organization of the human auditory cortex using intracerebrally recorded evoked potentials studied as a function of the anatomical recording site. The sensitivity of a neuronal population to a given frequency is determined from fluctuations in auditory evoked potential (AEP) amplitude between different recording sites in the primary auditory cortex and surrounding secondary areas like the planum temporale. The chapter particularly explores the tonotopic organization of the human auditory cortex in both cerebral hemispheres. In the right hemisphere, clear spectrally organized tonotopic maps wre observed with distinct separations between different frequency-processing regions. AEPs for high frequencies were recorded medially, whereas AEPs for low frequencies were recorded laterally. However, in the left hemisphere, this tonotopic organization was less evident, with different regions involved in the processing of a range of frequencies. The hemisphere-related difference in the processing of tonal frequency is discussed in relation to pitch perception.Less

Introduction to “Contributions toward a Quantitative Theory of Harmony”: (1979)

James Tenney

Larry Polansky, Lauren Pratt, Robert Wannamaker, and Michael Winter (eds)

in From Scratch: Writings in Music Theory

James Tenney presents the introduction to his 1979 essay “Contributions toward a Quantitative Theory of Harmony.” In this introduction, Tenney discusses the history of consonance/dissonance, paying ... More

James Tenney presents the introduction to his 1979 essay “Contributions toward a Quantitative Theory of Harmony.” In this introduction, Tenney discusses the history of consonance/dissonance, paying attention to the semantic problem, relations between pitches, qualities of simultaneous aggregates, and contextual as well as operational and functional senses of consonance/dissonance. He also explores the structure of harmonic series aggregates, focusing on harmonic intersection and disjunction, harmonic density, and harmonic distance and pitch mapping. Finally, he considers problems of tonality by analyzing harmonic-melodic roots and the “tonic effect,” along with harmonic (chordal) roots, the “fundamental bass,” and a model of pitch perception in the auditory system. In an epilogue, Tenney describes new harmonic resources as well as prospects and limitations of his contributions.Less