Re: [tuning] Digest Number 989

On 11 Dec 2000 tuning@egroups.com wrote:

>
> "The pairs with little ambiguity tend to have their first tones in the
> pair on opposite sides of the chroma circle. Those that can be heard both
> ways are found in between. If you were to envision the 12 chromatic
> pitches in series as the numbers on the face of a clock, pairs in which
> the first member is in the upper half of the clock will result in more
> descending perceptions, and those in the bottom with more ascending
> perceptions. Pitch classes at the top or bottom of "the clock" are the
> least ambiguous. This can be seen in the figure below which represents the
> proportion of times each interval pair is heard as descending for a
> hypothetical subject."
>
> ? How does the position in the circle of fifths mean anything here?
> An absolute pitch effect?? The study claims that these tendencies are
> consistent within a geographical area, but differ across geographical
> areas. ??

As I remember it, the pitches aren't arranged around the clock in the
cycle of fifths, but in ascending/descending chromatic order. You might
hear the pairs this way, where upper-case means higher:

C
B C#
bb D
a Eb
ab E
g f
f#

so that the line falls between B-F and Bb-E pairs, whereas I might hear it
this way:

c
b c#
bb D
a Eb
ab E
G F
F#

so that the line falls between the pairs G-C# and D-Ab... The claim re
geographical areas was that there was a correlation between the way you
hear the pairs and the pitch tendencies of the people speaking your native
language where you grew up. I think the study groups in the original
research were in California and in the UK somewhere. Presumably people
tend to speak with a lower average frequency in one of those areas than in
the other, and it was suggested that the note that was closer to the
average speech frequency would be perceived as lower of the pairs.

There were lots of arguments about the validity of the geographical
correlation in the pages of Music Perception, and later studies couldn't
reproduce the correlation.

cheers --Jon

on 12/11/00 2:26 PM, tuning@egroups.com at tuning@egroups.com wrote:

> Slonimsky's book has a different system - as I understand it he splits the
> scale into equal divisions of intervals and then "interpolates" approaches
> to each tone. For example, when the scale is split in thirds (say C, E, G#,
> C) he then builds scales by approaching E, G#, and C from a half step below,
> half step above, and combinations of same. The book is called "Thesaurus of
> Scales and Melodic Patterns" and the emphasis is on the patterns.
>

I encountered this book years ago in my then-local music conservatory
library. I must've renewed it about a dozen times, before finally returning
it. It's a wonderful resource, and I've been looking around for a copy of my
own ever since. I believe it's out of print, if anyone knows where to find a
copy, please let me know.

Seth

------
Seth Austen
http://www.sethausten.com
email; seth@sethausten.com

--
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