Complex Melodies Research Articles

Harmony of senses: Exploring the impact of sound aesthetic features' on taste imagery

People reliably associate visual aesthetic features such as curvature and symmetry with tastes. In the present study, considering the transitive hypothesis of crossmodal correspondences, we evaluated whether these findings would extend to the relationship between sound aesthetic features and tastes, and whether feature-based congruency or affective priming would explain the influence of melodies on taste imagery. In Experiment 1, we evaluated how people associate different melody profiles (balanced vs. unbalanced, smooth vs. jagged, symmetrical vs. asymmetrical, simpler vs. more complex) with different tastes (sweet, sour, bitter, salty), as well as the melodies' associated fluency, valence, and arousal. Smooth and complex melodies were perceived as sweeter, jagged and unbalanced melodies as sourer, asymmetrical and jagged melodies as more bitter, and jagged and balanced melodies as saltier. In Experiment 2, we selected the most strongly associated aesthetic sound dimension with tastes, namely contour, and evaluated whether crossmodal congruency, based on crossmodal correspondences, or affective priming would influence people’s sensory and hedonic imagery associated with sweet and sour foods. In the imagery tasks, the participants showed higher sour ratings in the sourness task and higher sweetness ratings in the sweetness task. In the sweet imagery task, smooth melodies led to sweeter and less sour food imagery, whereas jagged melodies in the sourness task led to more sour and less sweet food imagery. These results favour the crossmodal congruency explanation rather than the affective alternative, which we ponder in the general discussion.

Featured Poet Kiki Petrosino: “The Red Earth of Terra”

Featured Poet Kiki Petrosino: “The Red Earth of Terra”

Fundamental Frequency Contour (Melody) of Infant Vocalizations across the First Year

Introduction: The fundamental frequency contour (melody) of cry and non-cry utterances becomes more complex with age. However, there is a lack of longitudinal analyses of melody development during the first year of life. Objective: The aim of the study was to longitudinally analyze melody development in typical vocalization types across the first 12 months of life. The aim was twofold: (1) to answer the question whether melody becomes more complex in all vocalization types with age and (2) to characterize complex patterns in more detail. Methods: Repeatedly recorded vocalizations (n = 10,988) of 10 healthy infants (6 female) over their first year of life were analyzed using frequency spectrograms and fundamental frequency (f0) analyses (PRAAT). Melody complexity analysis was performed using specific in-lab software (CDAP, pw-project) in a final subset of 9,237 utterances that contained noise-free, undisturbed contours. Generalized mixed linear models were used to analyze age and vocalization type effects on melody complexity. Results: The vocalization repertoire showed a higher proportion of complex melodies from the second month onward. The age effect was significant, but no difference was found in melody complexity between cry and non-cry vocalizations across the first 6 months. From month 7–12, there was a further significant increase in complex structures only in canonical babbling not in marginal babbling. Melody segmentations by laryngeal constrictions prevailed among complex shapes. Conclusion: The study demonstrated the regularity of melody development in different vocalization types throughout the first year of life. In terms of prosodic features of infant sounds, melody contour is of primary importance, and further studies are required that also include infants at risk for language development.

Usage of Deep Learning and Blockchain in Compilation and Copyright Protection of Digital Music

In order to explore the application of deep learning algorithms in arrangement and composition, and the role of blockchain in the protection of digital music copyright, a monophonic melody composition model based on the deep generative adversarial networks (DCGANs) is constructed firstly, and the composition performance of the model is analyzed using hymn as input sample in this study. Later, the multi-instrument co-arrangement (MICA) model based on the multi-task learning is proposed, and the composition performance is analyzed by taking the actual music as an input sample. Finally, the improved practical byzantine fault tolerance (IPBFT) algorithm is proposed, and a digital music copyright protection system is designed based on the blockchain in this study. The results indicate that the accuracies constructed DCGANs model in predicting the Soprano and Alto voice melody are higher than those of the DeepBatch model by 2.29% and 3.32%, respectively. The performance on the harmony score, note accuracy, Levenshtein similarity (LS), notes distribution mean square error, and empty as well as the convergence speed of the constructed MICA model are better than those of other models. The average transaction per second (TPS) value of the proposed IPBFT algorithm in the real digital music copyright protection system is 3469, which is superior to other blockchain technologies. Finally, the digital music copyright protection system is achieved, the error rate of completing the request is 0% in the state of many users operating concurrently, and a high TPS value can be guaranteed. In short, the DCGANs and MICA models pointed out in this study can be used in the composition of monophonic melodies and complex melodies, and the digital music copyright protection system based on the blockchain has excellent performance in practical applications.

“You Can't Dance to It”: Jazz Music and Its Choreographies of Listening

Central to dominant jazz history narratives is a midcentury rupture where jazz transitions from popular dance music to art music. Fundamental to this trope is the idea that faster tempos and complex melodies made the music hostile to dancing bodies. However, this constructed moment of rupture masks a longer, messier process of negotiation among musicians, audiences, and institutions that restructured listening behavior within jazz spaces. Drawing from the field of dance studies, I offer the concept of “choreographies of listening” to interrogate jazz's range of socially enforced movement “scores” for audience listening practices and their ideological significance. I illustrate this concept through two case studies: hybridized dance/concert performances in the late 1930s and “off-time” bebop social dancing in the 1940s and 1950s. These case studies demonstrate that both seated and dancing listening were rhetorically significant modes of engagement with jazz music and each expressed agency within an emergent Afromodernist sensibility.

Misattribution of musical arousal increases sexual attraction towards opposite-sex faces in females.

Several theories about the origins of music have emphasized its biological and social functions, including in courtship. Music may act as a courtship display due to its capacity to vary in complexity and emotional content. Support for music’s reproductive function comes from the recent finding that only women in the fertile phase of the reproductive cycle prefer composers of complex melodies to composers of simple ones as short-term sexual partners, which is also in line with the ovulatory shift hypothesis. However, the precise mechanisms by which music may influence sexual attraction are unknown, specifically how music may interact with visual attractiveness cues and affect perception and behaviour in both genders. Using a crossmodal priming paradigm, we examined whether listening to music influences ratings of facial attractiveness and dating desirability of opposite-sex faces. We also tested whether misattribution of arousal or pleasantness underlies these effects, and explored whether sex differences and menstrual cycle phase may be moderators. Our sample comprised 64 women in the fertile or infertile phase (no hormonal contraception use) and 32 men, carefully matched for mood, relationship status, and musical preferences. Musical primes (25 s) varied in arousal and pleasantness, and targets were photos of faces with neutral expressions (2 s). Group-wise analyses indicated that women, but not men, gave significantly higher ratings of facial attractiveness and dating desirability after having listened to music than in the silent control condition. High-arousing, complex music yielded the largest effects, suggesting that music may affect human courtship behaviour through induced arousal, which calls for further studies on the mechanisms by which music affects sexual attraction in real-life social contexts.

What musicians do to induce the sensation of groove in simple and complex melodies, and how listeners perceive it.

Groove is the experience of wanting to move when hearing music, such as snapping fingers or tapping feet. This is a central aspect of much music, in particular of music intended for dancing. While previous research has found considerable consistency in ratings of groove across individuals, it remains unclear how groove is induced, that is, what are the physical properties of the acoustic signal that differ between more and less groove-inducing versions. Here, we examined this issue with a performance experiment, in which four musicians performed six simple and six complex melodies in two conditions with the intention of minimizing and maximizing groove. Analyses of rhythmical and temporal properties from the performances demonstrated some general effects. For example, more groove was associated with more notes on faster metrical levels and syncopation, and less groove was associated with deadpan timing and destruction of the regular pulse. We did not observe that deviations from the metrical grid [i.e., micro-timing (MT)] were a predictor of groove. A listener experiment confirmed that the musicians' manipulations had the intended effects on the experience of groove. A Brunswikian lens model was applied, which estimates the performer-perceiver communication across the two experiments. It showed that the communication achievement for simple melodies was 0.62, and that the matching of performers' and listeners' use of nine rhythmical cues was 0.83. For complex melodies with an already high level of groove, the corresponding values were 0.39 and 0.34, showing that it was much more difficult to “take out” groove from musical structures designed to induce groove.

Breaking News

Breaking News

The Effects of Musical and Linguistic Components in Recognition of Real-World Musical Excerpts by Cochlear Implant Recipients and Normal-Hearing Adults

Cochlear implants (CI) are effective in transmitting salient features of speech, especially in quiet, but current CI technology is not well suited in transmission of key musical structures (e.g., melody, timbre). It is possible, however, that sung lyrics, which are commonly heard in real-world music may provide acoustical cues that support better music perception. The purpose of this study was to examine how accurately adults who use CIs (n = 87) and those with normal hearing (NH) (n = 17) are able to recognize real-world music excerpts based upon musical and linguistic (lyrics) cues. CI recipients were significantly less accurate than NH listeners on recognition of real-world music with or, in particular, without lyrics; however, CI recipients whose devices transmitted acoustic plus electric stimulation were more accurate than CI recipients reliant upon electric stimulation alone (particularly items without linguistic cues). Recognition by CI recipients improved as a function of linguistic cues. Participants were tested on melody recognition of complex melodies (pop, country, & classical styles). Results were analyzed as a function of: hearing status and history, device type (electric only or acoustic plus electric stimulation), musical style, linguistic and musical cues, speech perception scores, cognitive processing, music background, age, and in relation to self-report on listening acuity and enjoyment. Age at time of testing was negatively correlated with recognition performance. These results have practical implications regarding successful participation of CI users in music-based activities that include recognition and accurate perception of real-world songs (e.g., reminiscence, lyric analysis, & listening for enjoyment).

Relation of melody complexity in infants' cries to language outcome in the second year of life: A longitudinal study

This study is part of the German Language Development Study's prospective longitudinal research programme on infants from birth until the age of 3 years. Thirty‐four infants were retrospectively classified into two groups (normal/delayed) by their language skills at 2.5 years of age. Frequency spectrograms and melodies of about 11,000 cries from the first 16 weeks of life were analysed using a CSL 4400. A Melody Complexity Index was calculated at monthly intervals. Infants with less than 45% complex melodies in their cries during the second month were found to be almost five times more likely to develop a language delay as infants with a higher proportion. For infants above the cut‐off of .45, development of a language delay condition could be ruled out with a probability of 89%. Although the results need to be interpreted cautiously, the data indicate a possible relation between early melody development and later language outcome.

Learning to play music in later adulthood: A personal perspective focusing on the piano.

As compared to young children, older adults have knowledge of musical grammar and considerable lifelong exposure to specific music pieces. Hence, it is argued that techniques for teaching children to play the piano are not the most effective for adults. A method for teaching piano to adults is proposed that shares elements with second language acquisition. The argument is based on personal experience of the author who began studying piano at the age of 60 years and acquired proficiency to perform classical works of considerable difficulty in a relatively short time. The argument is also consistent with the psychological views of Kohler and Bartlett. References to particular examples of classical works of Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, and Chopin illustrate the perspective of acquiring musical skill in later life. The purpose of this paper is to argue for a new method of adult learning of music (especially piano playing) that is both fast and practical. In formal instruction of piano playing, music teachers normally start with simple melodies and move eventually to more complex melodies, using such traditional textbooks as the Beyer which is written for early beginners. In the case of adults, however, such a method of learning may not be necessary. The present author proposes a more economical, practical, and efficient method of learning music with particular relevance to piano playing. The structure of music resembles the structure of sentences written in a foreign language. An adult who has experienced learning foreign languages, or who is acquainted with different kinds of languages, can probably learn to read musical notation faster than those adults without such linguistic experience. Just as written and spoken languages consist of sounds, rules for word combinations, word order (grammar), stops, phrases, articulation, paragraphs, and chapters, so in the same way, music consists of musical sounds that ascend or descend in steps along the musical pitch continuum in a rule governed fashion. The manner in which each sound is combined and transformed produces harmony and forms parts and phrases. In addition, in contrast to young children, adults have wide experience and knowledge of many good melodies. Adults have memorized these melodies and often can sing them. The problem is how to read the notes written by composers in order to transform these good melodies into notes on the piano keyboard. Even when adults know the melodies, they still must learn the basic rules of musical notation and of musical expression. This is the same as children's or mature adults' conscious and unconscious knowledge of the rules of grammar, including how a sentence or phrase is composed before it is spoken. My own experience is based on starting to play the piano after the age of 61 years, in 1993. I have been taking lessons since then even though after just five years, I reached the stage of playing Beethoven's Opus 57(the Appassionato), in particular the first and the second movements. I successfully performed in amateur recitals for small groups after learning some easy classical music, such as Mozart's Andante Cantabile (Opus 545), Schumann's Traumerei, Chopin's Nocturn Opus 9-No. 2, Etudes, Opus 28-15 (the Prelude of Raindrops), and Grande Valse Brillante Opus 18.1 would like to explain my steps to success in so quickly learning to play the piano and to give performances that have received great applause. The Basic Theory of Adult's Learning of Music: The Cognition and Comprehension of the Compositional Structure of Music In order to understand a composition and to play it on the piano, one must grasp the basic principles of tonal notations in a manner comparab Ie to learning the pronunciation and grammatical rules when acquiring a foreign language. These rules consist of at least the following eight principles, based on E. Taylor' s ( 1990) Music Theory in Practice (pp. 4-23) : 1. Time values (i. …

Process and Morphology in the Music of Mozart

In earlier studies I have suggested that once a patterned process is begun it tends to be continued to a point of relative stability.1 As a result, patterned processes imply more or less specific modes of continuation and more or less probable points of closure or realization. In tonal music there are innumerable instances of such implicative processes: for example, triadic and changing-note melodies, bar forms and antecedent-consequent periods, harmonic sequences through the circle-of-fifths, fourth-species counterpoint relationships, anapest rhythmic groups, and so on. The realization of an implicative process may be either proximate or remote. Complex melodies, for instance, usually generate a number of alternative processes. Some of these alternatives will achieve relative stability before, or more often at, the point of closure. Realization is proximate. Other implicative processes will transcend closure: that is, they will be temporarily suspended and then resumed, reaching a point of relative stability after other alternative patterns have reached closure or after novel patterns (with their own implicative processes) have intervened. In such cases, realization is remote. Finally, there are cases in which realization does not occur at all.

Absolute time estimates as a function of complexity and interruption of melodies

Absolute time estimates were obtained to melodies having three degrees of complexity and two states of interruption (with and without rests), the melodies occurring at three durations. Although not statistically significant, mean time estimates were longer for more complex melodies and longer for uninterrupted melodies.