Register impacts perceptual consonance through roughness and sharpness

The perception of consonance and dissonance in intervals and chords is influenced by psychoacoustic and cultural factors. Past research has provided conflicting observations about the role of frequency in assessing musical consonance that may stem from comparisons of limited frequency bands without much theorizing or modeling. Here we examine the effect of register on perceptual consonance of chords. Based on two acoustic principles, we predict a decrease in consonance at low frequencies (roughness) and a decrease of consonance at high frequencies (sharpness). Due to these two separate principles, we hypothesize that frequency will have a curvilinear impact on consonance. A selection of tetrads varying in consonance were presented in seven registers spanning 30 to 2600 Hz. Fifty-five participants rated the stimuli in an online experiment. The effect of register on consonance ratings was clear and largely according to the predictions; The low registers impacted consonance negatively and the highest two registers also received significantly lower consonance ratings than the middle registers. The impact of register on consonance could be accurately described with a cubic relationship. Overall, the influence of roughness was more pronounced on consonance ratings than sharpness. Together, these findings clarify previous empirical efforts to model the effect of frequency on consonance through basic acoustic principles. They further suggest that a credible account of consonance and dissonance in music needs to incorporate register.

Retrospective Review of the Development of the Concepts of Consonance and Dissonance: On the Problem of Musical and Aesthetic as well as Physical and Mathematical Interpretation

"The research aimed at a comprehensive retrospective analysis of the development of “consonance and dissonance” as a musical and aesthetic category in physical and mathematical interpretation; defining the notion of consonance as a musical theoretical and aesthetic category, confirming the relevance of its use in physical and mathematical terminology to explain acoustic phenomena. Research methodology is based on the use of the retrospective method (or the retrospection method), which allowed identifying the theories of consonance and dissonance in the historical retrospective. The periodization method was used to find out individual stages in the development of science in order to discover the leading directions of scientific thought, identify new elements relating to various aspects of “consonance” and “dissonance”. The study of the retrospective review of the development of the notions of consonance and dissonance in the physical and mathematical interpretation involved an interdisciplinary method a way of organizing research work, providing for the interaction of music and mathematics in the study of consonance and dissonance. Scientific novelty. This study is the first to reflect the general tendency towards the mathematization of the humanities and the humanitarization of the physical and mathematical areas of modern culture. Some provisions of musical acoustics were clarified in the context of creating a harmonious conceptual structure. The article presents the author’s concept of clarifying the notion of phase in relation to the spectral structure of an audio signal based on the notion “slightly mistuned consonance”. Conclusions. A retrospective review of the development of the notions of consonance and dissonance in the physical and mathematical interpretation was carried out and presented as a comprehensive description and review of the formation of concepts in the temporal sequence of their creation. Retrospectiveness through a review of significant discoveries and achievements in music and natural science allowed tracing the formation of the theories of consonance and dissonance from the standpoint of the interdisciplinarity of modern knowledge in the humanities. The further process of the development of sound musical art technologies requires a significantly higher scientific level of their study, the creation of a coherent conceptual system based on modern physical and mathematical sciences as well as computer science to explain sound acoustic phenomena. Keywords: consonance, dissonance, mistuned consonance, overtone, harmonics, beats, phase, spectral component"

Consonance perception in congenital amusia: behavioral and brain responses to harmonicity and beating cues

Congenital amusia is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by difficulties in the perception and production of music, including the perception of consonance and dissonance, or the judgment of certain combinations of pitches as more pleasant than others. Two perceptual cues for dissonance are inharmonicity (the lack of a common fundamental frequency between components) and beating (amplitude fluctuations produced by close, interacting frequency components). In the presence of inharmonicities or beats, amusics have previously been reported to be insensitive to inharmonicity, but to exhibit normal sensitivity to beats. In the present study, we measured adaptive discrimination thresholds in amusic participants and found elevated thresholds for both cues. We recorded EEG and measured the mismatch negativity (MMN) in evoked potentials to consonance and dissonance deviants in an oddball paradigm. The amplitude of the MMN response was similar overall for amusics and controls, but while control participants showed a stronger MMN to harmonicity cues than to beating cues, amusic participants showed a stronger MMN to beating cues than to harmonicity cues. These findings suggest that initial encoding of consonance cues may be intact in amusia despite impaired behavioral performance, but that the relative weight of non-spectral cues may be increased for amusic individuals.

The Anatomy of Consonance/Dissonance: Evaluating Acoustic and Cultural Predictors Across Multiple Datasets with Chords

Acoustic and musical components of consonance and dissonance perception have been recently identified. This study expands the range of predictors of consonance and dissonance by three analytical operations. In Experiment 1, we identify the underlying structure of a number of central predictors of consonance and dissonance extracted from an extensive dataset of chords using a hierarchical cluster analysis. Four feature categories are identified largely confirming the existing three categories (roughness, harmonicity, familiarity), including spectral envelope as an additional category separate from these. In Experiment 2, we evaluate the current model of consonance/dissonance by Harrison and Pearce by an analysis of three previously published datasets. We use linear mixed models to optimize the choice of predictors and offer a revised model. We also propose and assess a number of new predictors representing familiarity. In Experiment 3, the model by Harrison and Pearce and our revised model are evaluated with nine datasets that provide empirical mean ratings of consonance and dissonance. The results show good prediction rates for the Harrison and Pearce model (62%) and a still significantly better rate for the revised model (73%). In the revised model, the harmonicity predictor of Harrison and Pearce’s model is replaced by Stolzenburg’s model, and a familiarity predictor coded through a simplified classification of chords replaces the original corpus-based model. The inclusion of spectral envelope as a new category is a minor addition to account for the consonance/dissonance ratings. With respect to the anatomy of consonance/dissonance, we analyze the collinearity of the predictors, which is addressed by principal component analysis of all predictors in Experiment 3. This captures the harmonicity and roughness predictors into one component; overall, the three components account for 66% of the consonance/dissonance ratings, where the dominant variance explained comes from familiarity (46.2%), followed by roughness/harmonicity (19.3%).

The Anatomy of Consonance/Dissonance: Evaluating Acoustic and Cultural Predictors Across Multiple Datasets with Chords

Acoustic and musical components of consonance and dissonance perception have been recently identified. This study expands the range of predictors of consonance and dissonance by three analytical operations: In the first stage, we identify the underlying structure of acoustic and musical predictors within a large set of potential variables using an extensive dataset of chords. In Experiment 1, we evaluate the current model of consonance-dissonance by Harrison and Pearce (2020) based on an generalised linear mixed model analysis a subset of three previously published datasets. This operates also allows us to optimise the predictors in the model in several ways. We bring an additional category, sharpness to complement roughness, harmonicity, and familiarity, but we also propose and assess a number of new predictors representing harmonicity and familiarity that are superior to the past formulations of the models representing these categories. In Experiment 2, the current and the optimised model are evaluated with the aid of nine full datasets that provide empirical mean ratings of consonance and dissonance for a range of intervals and chords. The results within datasets show good prediction rates for the present model (R squared=0.64) and significant improvement for the optimal model (R squared=0.77). Similar patter of differences holds for the analysis across all datasets and there is a significant improvement in the predictive rate when the model has been optimised based on the Experiment 1 analysis. In particular, the new elements, tonal dissonance, familiarity as coded by a corpus-driven predictor, and sharpness are substantial additions to account for the dissonance ratings. The discussion draws attention to the role of harmonicity, which in this analysis is captured by a predictor reflecting the knowledge of Western idiom.

Musical Expertise Facilitates Dissonance Detection On Behavioral, Not On Early Sensory Level

Consonance and dissonance are basic phenomena in the perception of chords that can be discriminated very early in sensory processing. Musical expertise has been shown to facilitate neural processing of various musical stimuli, but it is unclear whether this applies to detecting consonance and dissonance. Our study aimed to determine if sensitivity to increasing levels of dissonance differs between musicians and nonmusicians, using a combination of neural (electroencephalographic mismatch negativity, MMN) and behavioral measurements (conscious discrimination). Furthermore, we wanted to see if focusing attention to the sounds modulated the neural processing. We used chords comprised of either highly consonant or highly dissonant intervals and further manipulated the degree of dissonance to create two levels of dissonant chords. Both groups discriminated dissonant chords from consonant ones neurally and behaviorally. The magnitude of the MMN differed only marginally between the more dissonant and the less dissonant chords. The musicians outperformed the nonmusicians in the behavioral task. As the dissonant chords elicited MMN responses for both groups, sensory dissonance seems to be discriminated in an early sensory level, irrespective of musical expertise, and the facilitating effects of musicianship for this discrimination may arise in later stages of auditory processing, appearing only in the behavioral auditory task.

A dissonância métrica como elemento de análise da música do período da prática comum: resenha de Hearing rhythm and meter

Hearing rhythm and meter: analyzing metrical consonance and dissonance in commom-practice period music é um livro recentemente escrito e publicado pelo professor e pesquisador norte-americano Matthew Santa. Seguindo alto rigor científico na exposição dos conceitos, esta produção tem um forte propósito didático na explicação de conceitos teóricos sobre ritmo e métrica, centrando o discurso na análise de dissonâncias métricas. Importante para especialistas em teoria e análise musical e fundamental para estudantes de Graduação em Música, Hearing rhythm and meter deve alterar a forma com que o leitor ouve repertórios do período da prática comum. O texto que segue abaixo procura resumir os principais tópicos abordados nesta produção bibliográfica.

Consonance, Dissonance, and Formal Proportions in Two Works by Sofia Gubaidulina

Consonance and dissonance are frequently invoked in discussions of Gubaidulina’s music, particularly in terms of the composer’s intentional contrasts between timbres and her golden section-oriented formal planning. In this paper, I use the notion of dissonance to mediate between several competing theories of Gubaidulina’s music and theories of timbre more broadly. Certain passages in her Meditation on the Bach Chorale “Vor deinen Thron tret’ ich hiermit” (1993) are identified as dissonant based on her compositional theories and on sketch material from the Paul Sacher Stiftung, and on further examples drawn from her Am Rande des Abgrunds (2002). Broadly speaking, “dissonant” sounds are closer to white noise than “consonant” sounds, aligning with empirical studies of dissonance perception as well as with spectralist compositional theories. However, Gubaidulina’s music uses this extended notion of dissonance particularly musically; dissonances have specific structural roles in a work and resolve to consonances.

Exposure impacts the pleasantness of consonance/dissonance but not its perceived tension

The contrast between consonance and dissonance is a vital factor in making music emotionally meaningful. Consonance typically denotes perceived agreeableness and stability, while dissonance in turn disagreeableness and a need of resolution. The current research addresses the perception of consonance/dissonance in intervals and chords isolated from musical context. Experiment 1 explored the correlations between the seven most used concepts denoting consonance/dissonance across all the available (60) empirical studies published since 1883. The stimuli consisted of a representative continuum of consonance/dissonance. The results show that the concepts exhibit high correlations, albeit these are somewhat lower for non-musicians compared to musicians. In Experiment 2 the stimuli's cultural familiarity was divided into three levels, and the correlations between the pivotal concepts of Consonance, Tension, Harmoniousness, Pleasantness, and Preference were further examined. Familiarity affected the correlations drastically across both musicians and non-musicians, but in different ways. Tension maintained relatively high correlations with Consonance across musical expertise and familiarity levels. On the basis of the results a rigorous control for familiarity and musical expertise is recommended for all studies investigating the perception of consonance/dissonance. The findings help pinpoint how familiarity affects the perception of consonance/dissonance and demonstrates the pronounced effect of musical expertise on this.