6Cognition of Music Structure

Question 1

Describe Lerdahl & Jackendoff’s (1983) Generative Theory of Tonal Music (GTTM);
What does it aim to uncover?

Answer 1

It reveals how listeners apply a system of internalised rules to interpret events (based on general psychology theory);
The principles of music cognition through deriving
the underlying ‘structural description’ of the music (through a reduction process)

Question 2

What’s the Implication Realization Model based on?;

What does it aim to explain?

Answer 2

Anticipation - a psychological state associated with expectation and prediction;
Expectation for musical events from the musical
‘surface’

Question 3

The GTTM focuses on a Musical Grammar. What is this?

Answer 3

A set of rules that explains how listeners come to hear sounds as organized music; reduction process to link the composition grammar with a listening grammar

Question 4

Describe Chomksy’s (1966) Generative model of the cognitive foundations of language competence

Answer 4

The sentences we hear/read are associated with abstract rule systems, which can be used to generate any possible grammatically correct sentence; rules take the form of implicitly learned grammars (we learn from exposure)

Question 5

Heinrich Schenker (1935) believed in an aesthetic theory to illuminate music masterpieces. How did he aim to achieve this?

Answer 5

By removing surface elaborations to reveal the deep structure of the music

Question 6

How is composition grammar represented?;

What is it dependent on?

Answer 6

As a system of rules (involves explicit knowledge)

Expertise of composer, who creates the sequence of musical events

Question 7

How is listening grammar represented?;

What is it dependent on?

Answer 7

Generating mental representation of the heard structure of the music;
Listener expertise plays a role in making sense of the musical events

Question 8

GTTM aims to identify the rules by which a listener generates a ‘heard structure’ from the ‘musical surface’. It focuses on the hierarchical orgnisation of music in terms of what four components?

Answer 8

Grouping structure; Metrical structure; Time-span reduction; Prolongation reduction

Question 9

A musical grammar must identify the kinds of structures according to two primary rules. What are they?;
Which is more flexible?

Answer 9

Well-formedness (acceptable/unacceptable) & Preference (preferred/not preferred);
Preference

Question 10

What is a limitation of GTTM, suggested by the name?

Answer 10

Refers to tonal music only

Question 11

Within the GTTM hierarchy, what does Grouping Structure describe?;
How are these represented in GTTM notation?

Answer 11

The listener’s segmentation of the music into units of various sizes, each nested within the other (e.g. motif, phrase, section, composition);
By slurs beneath the musical notation

Question 12

What does Metrical Structure refer to within the GTTM Hierarchy?;
How are these represented in GTTM notation?

Answer 12

Hierarchy of beats the listener attributes to the music; organising into regular groupings of strong & weak beats;
By two or more rows of dotted markings above the grouping hierarchy

Question 13

What does Time-Span Reduction refer to?;
What does this allow us to identify?;
How is it notated?

Answer 13

Reducing relative structural importance of pitch events (tones) within the context of heard rhythmic groups;
Hierarchy of rhythmic groups, & ‘the head’ – a single pitch/chord that is the structural point of resolution within the time-span;
Tree diagram above the musical notation

Question 14

What is the function of Prolongation Reduction?;
It denotes the breathing in & out of the music in response to the juxtaposition of what 2 factors?;
What is Prolongation Reduction less influenced by?

Answer 14

To express the sense of tension & relaxation in the unfurling music (e.g. dissonance & resolution at end of phrase);
Rhythmic & pitch;
Metrical & grouping structures

Question 15

Which two categories on the hierarchical structure are driven by preference rules?

Answer 15

Metrical & grouping structures (open to interpretation)

Question 16

Although GTTM is a much-cited theory, what is this theory not designed to frame?;
Most empirical work has been based around what?

Answer 16

Quantitative predictions (relatively few empirical research into its principles)
Preference rules

Question 17

What empirical research did Deliége demonstrate?

Answer 17

That perceived segment boundaries with standard

repertoire music are generally well predicted by GTTM rules

Question 18

What did Frankland &Cohen (2004) verify?

Answer 18

Grouping rules with artificially constructed stimuli, enabling quantitative measure of the principles that
predict grouping

Question 19

What was a major advancement in the quantification of GTTM preference rules, described by Temperley (2001)?;
What has the theory of Tonal Pitch Space by Lerdahl & Krumhansl (2007) , been shown to predict?

Answer 19

An extension to prolongation reduction using an artificial intelligence system;
The experience of tension and relaxation in
music listening (evolved from the concept of prolongation reduction)

Question 20

Narmour (1990), a student of musicologist, Leonard Meyer, formalised the Implication Realisation (I-R) Model. What does this model focus on?;
Realised intervals that match expectation suggest what?;
Realised intervals that contradict expectation suggest what?

Answer 20

Expectations for events at the musical “surface”; how listeners’ expectations are formed (e.g. 2 successive notes imply the next; the implication is realized/not);
Closure and relaxation;
Tension and continuation

Question 21

What does the I-R model seek to capture?;

The fulfilling or violating of expectations is linked to what?

Answer 21

Listeners’ strategies in music cognition (prospective and retrospective facets of perceiving, structuring & understanding melody);
Emotional responses

Question 22

What was Narmour’s central research question?

Answer 22

‘What are the specific, note-to-note principles by which listeners perceive, structure, and comprehend the vast world of melody?’

Question 23

Narmour’s assumption was that the listener’s experience of melodic structure is shaped by expectations of how a melody will continue. How are these expectations influenced?

Answer 23

By bottom-up (sub-conscious) & top-down (conscious) perceptual systems (both influence melodic expectations in separate and distinct ways)

Question 24

The I-R model broadly hypothesises that when presented with two musical events, a listener will subconsciously/consciously infer one of two general outcomes. What are they?;
These expectations can occur along which musical dimensions?

Answer 24

Similarity (A + A ‘implies’ A); Differentiation: change leads to more change (A + B ‘implies’ C)
Any musical dimension (e.g. pitch, duration, melodic intervals, etc.)

Question 25

Describe the following implicative principles according to the I-R model.
Intervallic Difference:
Registral Direction:
Registral Return:

Answer 25

Small intervals follow small intervals; small intervals follow large intervals (P5 or larger);
Small intervals continue pitch direction; large intervals reverse pitch direction;
Expects the 2nd interval to return to where the implicative interval began

Question 26

Other implicative principles include:
Proximity (shared by Gestalt view):
Closure (not the end of a piece/phrase):

Answer 26

Sml intervals are favoured (close to implicative interval end point)
Refers to syntactic event: Inhibition of the initial interval when there’s a change in registral direction, when a large interval is followed by small interval, or both)

Question 27

The melodic archetype identified by Meyer is known as what?;

What does this predict?

Answer 27

The ‘gap-fill principle’;
That following a leap, upcoming notes will turn towards the place of origin (i.e. intervallic difference, registral direction, & ‘good’ closure)

Question 28

In certain cases , the principles may conflict with each other. Give 2 examples.

Answer 28

Registral return may predict a large interval whilst other principles (proximity, intervallic difference) predict a small interval (these clashes contribute to tension created by the melodic structure); Other factors may affect expectations (e.g. tone duration, meter, harmony, etc.)

Question 29

How has empirical evidence supported the bottom-up components of the I-R model?

Answer 29

I-R model predicts how well a third note fits 2 preceding
notes; evident when participants were asked to compose the rest of a melody, irrespective of musical training;
Bottom-up expectancies work cross-culturally (e.g. Chinese & atonal music)

Question 30

What does Schellenberg’s (1996-97) Two-Factor model propose, which supports Narmour’s ideas?;
Also drawing on Narmour & Lerdahl’s work, describe Margulis’ (2005) model of melodic expectation

Answer 30

That melodic expectancy is determined by the principle of pitch proximity and pitch reversal;
It assigns expectancy ratings to melodic events and associates them with listeners’ experiences of tension across melodies.