Music Cognition - music/brainwave research using 12-EQT

Subject: Use of 12-EQT based intervals in test sounds for music/brain research leads to misleading conclusions, wrong actions based on the flawed results

In the recent tuning issues some things have been said about very interesting results of research on brain wave responses measured for subjects listening to different musical intervals. In one experiment, effects produced by a "consonant" major sixth (frequencies 166 Hz and 99 Hz) were contrasted with those produced by a "dissonant" minor seventh (166 Hz and 93 Hz). Elsewhere it's stated that the laboratory uses the pitches of the 12 note equal tempered scale in its work in the music/brain area of research. Actually, the interval: 166:99 frequency ratio is about 10 cents wide from the just 5:3 major sixth - somewhat closer than the 12-EQT major sixth which is about 15 cents wide.

This research is not only leading to fairly broad conclusions regarding music appreciation and music's place in childrens' education but also has connections with music therapy, hearing aid testing and development, and likely other important areas of socially beneficial technology.

Use of 12-EQT based frequencies in the research would seem to have the great advantage of an almost universal standardization. Some "bosses" striving for the absolute best might demand that research which they have anything to do with be standardized to 12-EQT. There may be business and commercial pressures driving this, too.

The question is: Does the comparing of a 166 - 99 Hz "consonance" with a 166 - 93 Hz "dissonance" lead to a measured brain wave experimental result close enough to even be in the same ballpark as a result obtained through comparing a just consonant interval produced by tones having frequencies in the ratio 5:3 with a "dissonant" interval with tone frequencies in the ratio 16:9 (or 9:5 or even a 7:4 "dissonance")?

In a groundbreaking book published in 1990: "Cognitive Foundations of Musical Pitch" Dr. Carol Krumhansl describes a body of experimental work with listeners in which the studies "employed equal-tempered tuning". This book may be setting the tone for research in the area.

I'm as sure as I can be that 12-EQT is so far different from either integer frequency ratio based just intonation or the mean tone temperament - on which western classical music is based - that music psychology and neurobiology research performed using tones of the 12-EQT scale will be found to be so flawed that much of it will have to be thrown out and the research done over. I can picture in my mind people being given hearing aids based on "cutting edge research" which somehow disappoint them although they are supposed to be the ultimate in scientific correctness!

I believe a lot of lost time and money could even now be avoided if researchers really appreciated how great a difference in psychological effect there was between the sounds of intervals, chords, and music in 12-EQT vs those sounds in just intonation or mean tone temperament.

However the momentum which 12-EQT now has in music and in technology and research connected with music and music psychology will make it hard to convince researchers to even consider the possibility that using 12-EQT in their research could weaken the value of their work. If they listened carefully to honest recorded demonstrations of musical passages or even brief phrases juxtaposed in contrasting intonations (12-EQT vs just intonation or 12-EQT vs mean tone temperament) - several times - they might be unexpectedly surprised - and see things in a different light. Recordings of piano passages performed with a single piano in contrasting tunings (retuned) are excellent for showing the clear - to some, striking - differences. There is no unbreakable law of nature that a piano must be in 12-EQT.

If it could be done, though, the value to musical art and the overall social benefit might be enormous! R. David Hill