Perceptual Dimensions of Pitch and Their Appearance in the Phonological System of Music

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The vocabulary of music's basic phonological code cannot be deduced by analysing a linear flow of musical events, but should be understood as composed of units operating separately in dimensions of particular perceptual domains. Over thousands years of human musical activity, special means have been developed in each of these domains to overcome memory constraints associated with the operation of large sets of perceptual units. Within the domain of pitch, the system split into four partly orthogonal dimensions: continuous (pitch height and pitch distance) and formally categorical (pitch classes and musical intervals). In each of those dimensions the number of more or less distinct categories is restricted due to limitations of memory. It generally conforms to Miller's (1956) “magical number 7 ±2” concerning memory capacity for magnitude levels of a unidimensional sensation. The compound nature of musical pitch sensation explains memory phenomena, which Miller was unable to rationalise.

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