Copyright © 2004 Society for Music Theory
6.2.1 Key Profiles
[1] The Krumhansl & Kessler major and minor key profiles (see Figure 6.2.1a) were derived from experimental measures. In the experiments, listeners were asked to rate each scale degree according to how well it "fit" in a major or minor context. In general, listeners rated diatonic tones more highly than chromatic tones. Among the diatonic tones, the highest rated were the notes of the tonic triad.(83)
Figure 6.2.1a. The Krumhansl & Kessler major- and minor-key profiles.
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[2] Huron’s study(20) found that doubled scale degrees fit the Krumhansl-Kessler profiles very closely. However, Huron did not control for spacing, inversion, and other confounding factors. Our own results, which control for these factors, give only mixed support to Huron’s interpretation. (See §6.2.) Like the Krumhansl-Kessler profiles, our results give low scores to the chromatics and leading tone. But unlike the Krumhansl-Kessler profiles, our results do not give the highest scores to the notes of the tonic triad.
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