Derivation of Pitch Constructs from the Principles of Tone Perception
My paper Derivation of Pitch Constructs From the Principles of Tone Perception was featured at the 12th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC) and 8th Triennial Conference of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (ESCOM). The conference is organized by the Department of Music Studies, School of Fine Arts, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music. The conference took place on July 23-28, 2012.
Paper Abstract
Recent cross-cultural studies in psychoacoustics, cognitive music theory, and neuroscience of music have suggested a direct correlation between the spectral content found in tones of musical instruments and the human voice on the formation of musical material, such as intervals, scales, modes, and chords. From an interdisciplinary point of view, the paper surveys important concepts that have contributed to the perception and understanding of musical harmony: pitch, consonance and dissonance, intervals, and chords. The theoretical model for pitch constructs is derived from the perceptual attributes of musical tones, notably from the pattern of tone intervals found within the spectra of pitched tones. Based on the psychological and biological properties of the auditory system and related cognitive systems, the model is based on the intrinsic hierarchy of vertical intervals and their relationships within harmonic sound spectrum. As catalysts for both melody and harmony, instances of musical scales of varying number of pitches within the 12-tone chromatic scale are classified. The model’s potential for generation of chords of various degrees of harmonic affinity is described and its compatibility with Western music theory suggested. This leads to a vertical aspect of musical harmony by bonding of the intervallic quality and their intrinsic structure embedded in the very tones that produce them. The model’s application in the construction of tone systems puts forward a rich discourse between music acoustics, perception, and cognition on one end, and music theory, aesthetics, and music composition on the other.
