Music Perception and Cognition

In this paper, we introduce a new approach to computer-aided microtonal improvisation by combining methods for (1) interactive scale navigation, (2) real-time manipulation of musical patterns and (3) dynamical timbre adaption in solidarity with the respective scales. On the basis of the theory of well-formed scales we offer a visualization of the underlying combinatorial ramifications in terms of a scale labyrinth. This involves the selection of generic well-formed scales on a binary tree (based on the Stern-Brocot tree) as well as the choice of specific tunings through the specification of the sizes of a period (pseudo-octave) and a generator (pseudo-fifth), whose limits are constrained by the actual position on the tree. We also introduce a method to enable transformations among the modes of a chosen scale (generalized and refined “diatonic” and “chromatic” transpositions). To actually explore the scales and modes through the shaping and transformation of rhythmically and melodically interesting tone patterns, we propose a playing technique called Fourier Scratching. It is based on the manipulation of the “spectra” (DFT) of playing gestures on a sphere. The coordinates of these gestures affect score and performance parameters such as scale degree, loudness, and timbre. Finally, we discuss a technique to dynamically match the timbre to the selected scale tuning.

Foncubierta and Gant explore ways of awakening the
senses for language learning. They state that music and images not only
favour students’ active participation, but also activate learners’ previous
knowledge and personal experiences and help them to find stories to share
in class

The emergence of local expectations in listeners of music has been occasionally explained by assuming a sort of musical syntax or grammar. While sharing some superficial qualities, music and language structures are working differently: language syntax is organized in a hierarchical system, working only context-sensitively (the applicability of syntactical rules is influenced by the context), whereas musical structures, especially harmonic progressions, emerge mainly out of constructive, context-dependent processes (the context is able to establish completely new structural principles). Collected examples from musical literature of western tonal music across styles and epochs show five main principles of musical structure-building that distinguish musical models from syntactical rules: Constructivity, mappability, contextuality, individuality and contingence. The main influence of frame and context on musical expectations can be especially demonstrated by means of a harmonic progression frequently used in empirical studies as assumed syntactical violation: the neapolitan sixth chord succeeding the dominant. As a consequence, a re-interpretation of the empirical data should consider the specific context of the observed effects: they might be more a result of the introduction of the listener to a redundant stylistic model instead of the application of syntactical rules proper. According to the provided examples, structural expectations of listeners appear to be rather combinations of general familiarity to styles and composition principles, individual preferences and local framing. Based on these historical and systematic arguments, the structure of music seems to be flexible and integrative, and not bound to a syntax system.

This article was edited in several versions from 2008 to 2012 and originally published 2014 in the Research Catalogue at:
http://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/114391/114392

We present a new Dynamic Tonality MIDI sequencer, Hex, that aims to make sequencing music in and across a large variety of novel tunings as straightforward as sequencing in twelve-tone equal temperament. It replaces the piano roll used in conventional MIDI sequencers with a two-dimensional lattice roll in order to enable the intuitive visualization and dynamic manipulation of tuning.

In conventional piano roll sequencers, a piano keyboard is displayed on the left side of the window, and white and black note lanes extend horizontally to the right, into which a user can draw a sequence of notes. Similarly, in Hex, a button lattice is displayed in its own pane on the left side of the window, and horizontal lines are drawn from the center of each note to the right. These lines function as generalized note lanes, just like in piano roll sequencers, but with the added benefit that each note lane's height is always proportional to its pitch, even if the user changes the tuning. The presence of the button lattice on the left side of the window illustrates exactly which buttons a performer would play in order to replicate the sequence when playing a physical button lattice instrument.

Behavioral and brain rhythms in the millisecond-to-second range are central in human music, speech, and movement. A comparative approach can further our understanding of the evolution of rhythm processing by identifying behavioral and neural similarities and differences across cognitive domains and across animal species. We provide an overview of research into rhythm cognition in music, speech, and animal communication. Rhythm has received considerable attention within each individual field, but to date, little integration. This review article on rhythm processing incorporates and extends existing ideas on temporal processing in speech and music and offers suggestions about the neural, biological, and evolutionary bases of human abilities in these domains. Commonalities Underlying Rhythm in Music, Speech, and Animal Communication? Across all cultures in the world, humans synchronize to and move with musical rhythms. Similarly, we seem to neurally synchronize with rhythm in speech, which captures our attention, regularizes speech flow, may emphasize meaning, and facilitates interaction with others [1]. However, compared to music, rhythm in speech is more difficult to define and commonalities across the two domains remain elusive. Discrepancies between these domains begin with the fact that, while rhythmic behavior is often based on quasi-periodic repetition of steady intervals, for musicologists and linguists alike a simple periodicity-based definition is incomplete. One conceptual obstacle arises from conceiving human rhythmic behavior as a single monolithic entity rather than a multi-component phenomenon [2,3]. Clearly defining and empirically differentiating sub-components of rhythmic phenomena across domains (our first comparative task) will allow researchers to specify similarities and differences. We can then attempt to integrate insights from comparative animal work to help resolve the biological and evolutionary foundations of human rhythm cognition (our second comparative task). This review article aims to compare and integrate conceptions of rhythmic behavior in music, speech, and animal communication. We start by isolating the multiple mechanisms underlying rhythm cognition, identifying four core sub-components. We then discuss how these components are manifested in different domains, identifying commonalities and differences. We next consider how rhythm at the signal level interacts with brain rhythms, and which neural systems support integration of the cognitive mechanisms underlying rhythm processing. Finally, adopting an evolutionary perspective, we reflect upon how comparative data concerning rhythm, although still sparse, can inform our understanding of the biology and evolution of rhythmic sub-components.

We present 1) a novel unified conception of science, cognition and phenomenology in terms of the Klein Bottle logophysics, 2) as a supradual creative agency based on self and hetero-reference and multistate logic associated to the non-orientable topologies of the Moebius strip and Klein Bottle surfaces, 3) the Golden ratio in several areas of biology (particularly genomics), cognition, perception, physics and music, and the multiple biochemical codes of life ; 4) semiosis and topological folding in the génesis of life ; 5) the torsion geometries and non-orientable topologies, and apply them to 6) human-bodyplan, neurosciences, music cognition, structure and processes of thinking, particularly Quantum Mechanics, creativity and the logics of the psyche; 7) a universal principle of self-organization and the genesis of life, the π-related visual cortex and holography; 8) as an harmonic principle in the brain's pattern formation, pattern recognition and morphogenesis, and the topological paradigm to neuroscience; 9) higher-order cybernetics, ontopoiesis and autopoiesis in Systems Biology,the psyche's bi-logic; 10) a rebuttal of Dr. Liu et all's PLOS article claiming the appearance of Phi in genomes as accidental, in terms of the supradual ontopoiesis hereby presented and by reviewing several codes of life discovered by Pérez, which elicit their unity already starting at the level of the periodic table of elements and Life compounds atomic mass; and 11) the Golden mean in the rituals of whales.

Music is often associated with the emotions of nostalgia and longing. According to previous survey studies both nostalgia and longing are among the most common emotions evoked by music (Juslin, 2011). Despite nostalgia’s significance as a musical emotion, research on the specific properties of music that might contribute to this particular emotion has been scarce. A recent empirical experiment by Lahdelma and Eerola (2014) sought to explore whether single chords could be effective at conveying musical emotions to listeners, which spanned complex emotions such as nostalgia/longing. According to the results, single chords such as the minor triad, the minor seventh and especially the major seventh communicated the emotion of nostalgia effectively. The aim of the current paper is to raise several possible explanations that might account for single chords’ ability to convey the emotion of nostalgia. In these explanations we consider cultural, music-theoretical and psychoacoustic issues, as well as their possible interactions. The three proposed candidate explanations are (1) learning, (2) intrinsic emotional connotations arising from tonal relations, and (3) clashing conventions arising from concurrent yet separate affective associations, stemming from certain triad and interval combinations. Finally, we propose experimental designs for future research to empirically test these explanations.

We identify a class of periodic patterns in musical scales or meters that are perfectly balanced. Such patterns have elements that are distributed around the periodic circle such that their 'centre of gravity' is precisely at the circle's centre. Perfect balance is implied by the well established concept of perfect evenness (e.g., equal step scales or isochronous meters). However, we identify a less trivial class of perfectly balanced patterns that have no repetitions within the period. Such patterns can be distinctly uneven. We explore some heuristics for generating and parameterizing these patterns. We also introduce a theorem that any perfectly balanced pattern in a discrete universe can be expressed as a combination of regular polygons. We hope this framework may be useful for understanding our perception and production of aesthetically interesting and novel (microtonal) scales and meters, and help to dis-ambiguate between balance and evenness; two properties that are easily confused.

Perfect balance: A novel principle for the construction of musical scales and meters. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278683682_Perfect_balance_A_novel_principle_for_the_construction_of_musical_scales_and_meters [accessed Jun 19, 2015].