Canons and Contestable Cadences in Brahms's Op. 118 No. 4

Brahms's F minor Intermezzo, Op. 118 No. 4 prominently employs the fusty compositional technique of strict canon at the octave. Yet Brahms embeds this canon in music that is anything but fusty: as I demonstrate, unexpected features abound in the textures, dissonance treatment, modulatory schemes, and motives with which Brahms girds the canon. The movement's approach to cadences is also remarkable. The presence of a continuous canon automatically precludes all voices coming to rest simultaneously, but Brahms further attenuates the piece's cadences. Most notably, in this movement Brahms avoids traditional authentic-cadence closure entirely, writing not a single cadential progression from a root-position C major chord to a root-position F chord. Instead, I argue that Brahms effects tonal closure by using the augmented sixth chord, which supplants the dominant's usual function. He does this most obviously by repeating the augmented sixth sonority in prominent positions within the ternary form's final A section. I also show that Brahms artfully foreshadows this chord's importance in the initial A section, where he successively tonicizes each member of that harmony.

“I Don’t Like Sunsets”: The Semantics of the Symbol of the Sunset in Dostoevsky’s Novel The Adolescent

The article is the continuation of a study on the symbols of sunset in Dostoevsky’s works. Developing the idea of the ambivalence of the Unfading Light, the author shows how this idea is revealed in the novel The Adolescent. The originality of its disclosure is determined by the diegetic form of narration and the age-related psychology of the character-narrator, which is unique for Dostoevsky’s novels. Inclined to attach an exaggerated importance to his own thoughts and feelings, the adolescent captures and analyzes in detail his reactions to the light of the setting sun. This makes it possible to trace their dynamics, which corresponds to the dynamics of his growing up. It is noted that the semantics of the symbols of sunset is explicated not only in monologic episodes but also in the scenes that are seen through the eyes of Arkady. In these episodes, the semantics of the symbol is revealed indirectly: being hidden for the characters themselves (including the diegetic narrator), it is revealed to the reader through the description of their external actions and reactions. At the same time, the reader is prepared to comprehend the symbolic meaning of the image through reflections of Arkady, who definitely does not like the sunset in the first part of the novel and is able to joyfully react to it after the encounter with Makar. The appearance of this character in the novel significantly increases its “luminosity”: all scenes and monologic episodes, which reveal the ambivalence of the symbols of sunset, are concentrated in the third part of the novel and prepare that major chord of universal reconciliation and incipient transformation that sounds in the finale.

“I Don’t Like Sunsets”: The Semantics of the Symbol of the Sunset in Dostoevsky’s Novel The Adolescent

The article is the continuation of a study on the symbols of sunset in Dostoevsky’s works. Developing the idea of the ambivalence of the Unfading Light, the author shows how this idea is revealed in the novel The Adolescent. The originality of its disclosure is determined by the diegetic form of narration and the age-related psychology of the character-narrator, which is unique for Dostoevsky’s novels. Inclined to attach an exaggerated importance to his own thoughts and feelings, the adolescent captures and analyzes in detail his reactions to the light of the setting sun. This makes it possible to trace their dynamics, which corresponds to the dynamics of his growing up. It is noted that the semantics of the symbols of sunset is explicated not only in monologic episodes but also in the scenes that are seen through the eyes of Arkady. In these episodes, the semantics of the symbol is revealed indirectly: being hidden for the characters themselves (including the diegetic narrator), it is revealed to the reader through the description of their external actions and reactions. At the same time, the reader is prepared to comprehend the symbolic meaning of the image through reflections of Arkady, who definitely does not like the sunset in the first part of the novel and is able to joyfully react to it after the encounter with Makar. The appearance of this character in the novel significantly increases its “luminosity”: all scenes and monologic episodes, which reveal the ambivalence of the symbols of sunset, are concentrated in the third part of the novel and prepare that major chord of universal reconciliation and incipient transformation that sounds in the finale.

Affective experiences to chords are modulated by mode, meter, tempo, and subjective entrainment

Mode and tempo are known to influence affective experiences during music listening. While mode (major/minor) is associated with emotional valence (positive/negative), tempo (slow/fast) is associated with emotional arousal (calm/excited). Heart rate (HR) and respiration rate (RR) are also thought to adapt (entrain) to the tempo, leading to emotion elicitation via afferent feedback mechanisms. Here, we tested the influence of mode, tempo, and entrainment on affective experiences by recording HR, RR, and self-reported subjective entrainment and affect measures while participants ( N = 20) listened to major and minor chords embedded in slow and fast isochronous, metrical, and random sequences. Though there was no effect of tempo on HR or RR, both were faster during major and metrically random chord sequences, respectively. Slower HR positively predicted visceral entrainment (VE) ratings, the extent to which one feels one’s internal rhythms changing, and fast tempo positively predicted motor entrainment (ME) ratings, the extent to which one feels like moving. Compared to minor chords, fast major chord sequences induced more feelings of vitality (positive, high arousal), while minor sequences induced more feelings of unease (negative, high, and low arousal). Both ME and VE positively predicted pleasantness ratings and positive emotions, and negatively predicted negative emotions.

Speech Companions: Evaluating the Effects of Musically Modulated Auditory Feedback on the Voice

Changing the way one hears one’s own voice, for instance by adding delay or shifting the pitch in real-time, can alter vocal qualities such as speed, pitch contour, or articulation. We created new types of auditory feedback called Speech Companions that generate live musical accompaniment to the spoken voice. Our system generates harmonized chorus effects layered on top of the speaker’s voice that change chord at each pseudo-beat detected in the spoken voice. The harmonization variations follow predeter-mined chord progressions. For the purpose of this study we generated two versions: one following a major chord progression and the other one following a minor chord progression. We conducted an evaluation of the effects of the feedback on speakers and we present initial findings assessing how different musical modulations might potentially affect the emotions and mental state of the speaker as well as semantic content of speech, and musical vocal parameters.

Musical Harmony in Electric Hearing

A cochlear implant (CI) restores hearing for profoundly deaf patients by transmitting sound to an array of electrodes that stimulates the inner ear. The small number of frequency bands and limited transmission of temporal fine structure affects the music perception. The present work investigates the pleasantness of chords and chord sequences in adults using such electric hearing. In the first task, participants compared chord types according to their perceived pleasantness. Normal-hearing listeners judged the major chord and the minor chord as the most pleasant ones compared to other chord types. CI users appraised the major chord as more consonant than other chord types. The second task used four-chord sequences, half of which ended on an authentic V-I cadence. In the other presentations, the final tonic was replaced either by a transposed major chord or by a dissonant chord. The participants had to judge whether the ending was conclusive. While normal-hearing listeners preferred authentic cadences, all but one CI user assessed the modified cadences as similarly satisfying. The results indicate that CI users appreciated consonance of isolated chords to a certain extent similar to normal-hearing listeners. Nevertheless, the majority of CI users fail to register the musical syntax in the harmonic progression of cadences.

Distortion and Western Music Chord Processing

Guitar distortion used in rock music modifies a chord so that new frequencies appear in its harmonic structure. A distorted dyad (power chord) has a special role in heavy metal music due to its harmonics that create a major third interval, making it similar to a major chord. We investigated how distortion affects cortical auditory processing of chords in musicians and nonmusicians. Electric guitar chords with or without distortion and with or without the interval of the major third (i.e., triads or dyads) were presented in an oddball design where one of them served as a repeating standard stimulus and others served as occasional deviants. This enabled the recording of event-related potentials (ERPs) of the electroencephalogram (EEG) related to deviance processing (the mismatch negativity MMN and the attention-related P3a component) in an ignore condition. MMN and P3a responses were elicited in most paradigms. Distorted chords in a nondistorted context only elicited early P3a responses. However, the power chord did not demonstrate a special role in the level of the ERPs. Earlier and larger MMN and P3a responses were elicited when distortion was modified compared to when only harmony (triad vs. dyad) was modified between standards and deviants. The MMN responses were largest when distortion and harmony deviated simultaneously. Musicians demonstrated larger P3a responses than nonmusicians. The results suggest mostly independent cortical auditory processing of distortion and harmony in Western individuals, and facilitated chord change processing in musicians compared to nonmusicians. While distortion has been used in heavy rock music for decades, this study is among the first ones to shed light on its cortical basis.