A Perceptual Experiment on Harmonic Tension and Melodic Attraction in Lerdahl's Tonal Pitch Space

Abstract

The experiment reported here provides a comparison between listeners' judgments and theoretical predictions on harmonic tension and melodic attraction using Lerdahl's (2001) Tonal Pitch Space theory. A harmonic reduction of measures 1 to 8 from the first movement of Mozart's Piano Sonata, K282 was used for the experiment. The listeners heard the 24 sequential chord pairs from the harmonic reduction and were asked, first, to judge how strongly the two chords were attached to each other and, second, if there was an increase, decrease or no-change in tension in the progression from one chord to the next. The results from the experiment showed a significant correlation between theoretical predictions and listeners' tension judgments. However, a low correlation between Lerdahl's model and the attraction judgments demonstrated that distance in semitones is a more influential factor than anchoring strength in the perception of melodic attraction. This conclusion followed from the high attraction ratings given to repeated chords or adjacent chords in which the bass is repeated or progresses by step. The most interesting result of this experiment, consistent with the theory, is the demonstration that listeners perceive an inverse relationship between tension and attraction. In other words, listeners give high-tension ratings to points of low melodic attraction and vice versa, even when they judge each factor separately. Although we obtained a convergence of results between predictions and listeners' tension judgments and demonstrated a perceptual inverse relationship between tension and attraction, further tests are needed to determine how distance in semitones and anchoring strength combine to give a measure of melodic attraction.