Tonality perception and comprehension: Pitch‐interval interactions

Abstract

Two experiments investigated the influence of pitch and melodic interval on tonal comprehension and melodic expectation. The stimulus examples for both experiments were composed of a tonal context example followed by a two‐tone melodic fragment. The two‐way factorial design had 12 levels of ending pitch and 25 levels of melodic interval (all intervals within one octave of ending pitch). Subjects in experiment 1 rated how well the melodic fragment fit into the context example tonality. Ratings were three‐dimensional: (1) pitch‐interval interactions corresponding to a diatonic hierarchy, (2) perception of the dominant and tonic, and (3) perception of the three major diatonic triads. Subjects in experiment 2 sang their expected continuations to the melodic fragment. The continuations were influenced by factors similar to those of experiment 1. Continuation profiles could be reconstructed by multiplying corresponding entries from pitch and interval marginal mean profiles, implying that pitch and interval continuation production systems are functionally independent and produce a single response profile by means of a cross‐correlational decision mechanism. Ratings and continuations can be explained by a harmonic mapping model, where the harmonics of a response tone map onto those of the tonic and the first tone of the fragment.