A cross cultural analysis of musical timbre perception:comparison between Chinese and Western culture

Abstract

Objective:To assess the musical timbre perception ability of normal hearing subjects with different cultural background, and to analyze the correlation between cultural differences and timbre perception.Method: Forty Chinese normal hearing adults(CNH) and 40 normal hearing adults from other countries(FNH) participated in this study.The Mu.S.I.C test was applied for the assessment.The correct rate of musical instrument recognition and numbers of instrument identification of each participant were recorded. Instrument Identification Test was performed with tenor，soprano ,and 5 representative musical instruments from different families of musical instruments ,and the Instrument Detection Test was performed with mixing sounds of musical instruments.Result:The correct rate of musical instrument recognition in FNH and CNH was（95.58±8.90）% and（89.40±13.13）%（P<0.05）, respectively.The correct rate of numbers of instrument detection in FNH and CNH was （80.50±16.32）% and（73.25±21.17）%（P>0.05）,respectively. The correct rate of CNH was lower than those of FNH for the trumpet, the oboe and the xylophone. Participants in both 2 groups were more easily failed to recognize the oboe and the trumpet compared the other musical instruments, especially in CNH group.Conclusion:Subjects with Western culture performed better than Chinese subjects on timbre perception. Cultural differences have a significant impact on musical timbre perception.