Are Musical Tastes Indicative of Musical Capacity?

Abstract

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE iS a complex process which involves the integration of the elements of musicpitchn timbren loudness, and duration into meallingful wholes. It occurred to this investigator that a test of musical capacity which could somehow get at this ability to integrate might be superior to tests which involve only the perception of differences in the elements of music taken in isolation. The problem then became one of discovering measurable factors of music which in themselves constituted the end products of such integration. Furthermore, it seemed likely that such factors should be measured only under conditions analogous to those occurring in musical performance. From the viewpoint of the psychologistn the tests employed by musicians themselvesn such as those used at musical competition-festivalsn for exasnple, give promise of providing factors of musical behavior which deserve such consideration in the assessment of musicality. A well conducted musical competition is in fact a psychological test of musical capacity. In the larger competitions which utilize a committee of judges, the opinions are usually in close agreement. In the Northern-California Music Festival, for which the writer acted as festival chairman in 1952, a correlation of .80 was obtained between individual ratings of twenty-seven judges, judging in pairs or as panels of three. This datum would indicate that there is something approaching unanimity among experts with regard to the qualities deemed desirable in music as performed, and also, that the performer's ability to give expression to these qualities may be graded with some degree of accuracy. Although the adjudicator considers intonationn tone qualityn and rhythm in making his judgment of the performer, the appropriate manipulation of these elemental factors in music to obtain a desired interpretation is held to be important evidence of musicality. The important heading, General Ef ect, found on the adjudication sheet, provides for the assessment of factors which cannot easily be categonzed otherwise. To determine the value of these esthetic judgments-i.e., judgments in appropriateness-in the assessment of musicality, an investigation was made by the writer at the University of California in Berkeley. The major hypotheses of this investigation were that esthetic judgment may function as an organizing factor of the elements of auditory imagery (pitchn timbre, loudness, and duration); that, thereforen individual differences in musical capacities must depend as much upon individual differences in esthetic judgment as upon judgment with regard to the elements of auditory imagery; that esthetic judgment is based on a pattern of organized perception; and that developed judgment, or taste, is a cultural derivative, though perhaps dependent upon innate esthetic tendencies. lXtUSiCal capacity was defined aS the potentiality of a person for musical attainment as conditioned by the total pattern of causesn partly hereditary and partly environmental. A preliminary Test of Esthetic