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M U S I C T H E O R Y O N L I N E
A Publication of the
Society for Music Theory
Copyright (c) 1993 Society for Music Theory
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| Volume 0, Number 3 June, 1993 ISSN: 1067-3040 |
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All queries to: mto-editor@husc.harvard.edu
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AUTHOR: Parncutt, Richard
TITLE: Commentary on Justin London's MTO 0.3 article
REFERENCE: mto.93.0.2.london.art
File: mto.93.0.3.parncutt.tlk
I'd like to return to the recent analyses of Justin London's rhythm
example by Robert Judd and myself. JL's example 3 began with the 6
notes c d e f g a, where all notes had the same duration except the
last (a) which was longer.
The story so far: I looked at the phenomenal accent of each note and
concluded that c had a "primacy" accent, a had a durational accent,
and d, f, and a were candidates for harmonic accents. RJ concluded
that the sequence could be parsed in either of two ways -- either
duple note groups with (metric) accents on d, f, and a, or triple
note-groups with accents on e and a.
The main difference between these two interpretations is the role of
the primacy accent on the first note, c. My perceptual analysis
referred to surface features heard on a first listening, while RJ
performed a retrospective analysis of possible meters, arrived at
after many listenings. In Judd's analysis, the primacy accent on c
seemed relatively unimportant "in retrospect" -- at least by
comparison to the durational accent on a.
The difference between these two analyses points to a fundamental
difference between music theory and psychology, of the kind alluded
to by Greg Sandell in his recent letter to the list. Music-theoretic
analyses generally assume previous familiarity with and understanding
of the music, and are often based on "isolating ... passages of music
and playing them several times" (a quote from Greg Sandell, somewhat
out of context -- the point I want to make is that the theorist hears
or imagines the music many more times than does the average
listener). Psychological or perceptual approaches often go to the
other extreme, exploring spontaneous responses to unfamiliar music or
sound sequences presented in the "constrained conditions of an
experiment run in a lab." I believe that a balanced combination of
these two approaches could lead to significant progress in music
theory.
The difference between the approaches of Robert Judd and myself also
involved levels of analysis. My analysis was focussed on a relatively
low or "primitive" level -- phenomenal accent. Judd's concentrated on
the next level up, the level of rhythmic strata (Yeston) or pulse
sensations (my preferred term). In a systematic approach to rhythm,
it may be useful to regard phenomenal accent and pulse sensations as
independent and distinct, by first analysing phenomenal accents, and
only then considering the resultant pulse sensations.
Which of RJ's two solutions (duple, triple) is more likely? The
relative importance of the two parsings may depend simply on the
number of phenomenal accents that coincide with pulse events. This
idea favors the duple grouping, as it involves more matching events
than the triple grouping. Another effect is that of tempo. Research
in rhythm perception (summarised by Fraisse, 1982) has suggested that
pulse sensations are confined to a restricted range of tempi centered
on about 100 beats per second ("moderate tempo"), and that most
perceived pulses lie between a half and twice that value, that is,
between about 50 and 200 beats per minute. According to this theory,
at slow tempi, the RJ's duple note groups will be closer to moderate
tempo, and will probably be preferred for that reason. At fast tempi,
the triple note groups are more likely.
The long-term aim of my research in rhythm is to develop an algorithm
that predicts perceptual properties of simple rhythms in notated or
performed music by the systematic application of a minimum number of
specific rules or principles. Principles may be either perceptually
"primitive" or specific to western music. The validity of the rules
or principles may be checked by comparing predictions of the model
with corresponding experimental results. This approach differs from
most other music theory, in which the validity of analytic rules or
principles is primarily determined by the perception and intuition of
theorists. Traditional music theory nevertheless remains the primary
foundation of, and motivation for, the model -- as well as most other
research in music perception.
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Reference
Fraisse, P. (1982). Rhythm and tempo. In Deutsch, D. (Ed.), The
psychology of Music (pp. 149-180). New York: Academic.
Richard Parncutt
McGill University
parncutt@sound.music.mcgill.ca
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