The Relative Importance of Local and Global Structures in Music Perception

Abstract

Research in experimental psychology has emotion in music is developed by L. B. Meyer.2 shown two paradoxes in music perception. By According to Meyer, listeners are not passive, mere exposure to musical pieces, Western lis- but rather constantly develop perceptual expectteners acquire sensitivity to the regularities ancies about the possible evolution of the underlying tonal music. This implicitly acquired music. Emotions arise from the way the comknowledge allows listeners to perceive subtle poser (or the improvising performer) fulfills relations between musical events and permits or frustrates these expectancies. To some musically untrained listeners to behave as music- extent, music perception may involve cognitive ally trained listeners, notably in experimental processes comparable to those occurring when settings that tap into implicit levels of music reading a novel. Like the plot of a novel, processing. The second paradox concerns the musical structures instill suspense until the end apparent inability of the cognitive system to of the piece. deal with large-scale musical structures. The For a cognitive approach, the crucial issue musical brain, which appears to be very smart raised by Meyer concerns the nature of these when dealing with fine musical structures in anticipatory processes.3 It is well documented short temporal windows, turns out to be some- in cognitive psychology that a context generates what defective when short time structures have automatic expectancies that prepare (or prime) to be integrated in larger structures. The present the processing of probable events. Most of these paper provides an overview of both issues. We expectancies remain at an implicit level, sugstart with reviewing research on implicit learn- gesting that the underlying processes are also ing in the music domain, and then present implicit. We first present the contribution of research investigating the perception of global implicit processes to music perception, and then musical organization. turn to the time-span of the musical expectanOne of the main reasons leading human cies involved. Several music theories have beings of Western culture to develop musical underlined the crucial role played by hierarchactivities is the expressive power of music. The ical structure in Western tonal music,4 but only content of this expressivity is probably extremely a few have argued for a more concatenationist large, rendering the domain of music expression understanding of musical structures.5 Cognitive and emotion difficult to address with scientific psychology aims to understand the influence of methods.' By contrast, the perceptual processes hierarchical musical structures on cognitive proinvolved in expressive reactions to music have cesses involved in music perception. For exambeen the object of substantial research in music ple, one of the questions raised concerns the cognition. For the most part, this research time-span of perceptual anticipations, notably admits more or less explicitly that emotional whether they occur from moment to moment or reactions to music derive from the cognitive whether they encompass larger temporal winprocessing of musical sounds and structures. dows. In the latter case, expectations at a given The foundation of a cognitive approach to moment in the musical piece may be linked to