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Some new pitch paradoxes and their implications.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1992 Jun 29; 336(1278):391-7.PT

Abstract

This paper explores two new paradoxical sound patterns. The tones used to produce these patterns consist of six octave-related harmonics, whose amplitudes are scaled by a bell-shaped spectral envelope; these tones are clearly defined in terms of pitch class (C, C#, D, and so on) but are poorly defined in terms of height. One pattern consists of two tones that are separated by a half-octave. It is heard as ascending when played in one key, yet as descending when played in a different key. Further, when the pattern is played in any one key it is heard as ascending by some listeners but as descending by others (the tritone paradox). Another pattern that consists of simultaneous pairs of tones displays related properties (the semitone paradox). It is shown that the way the tritone paradox is perceived correlates with the speech characteristics of the listener, including his or her linguistic dialect. The findings suggest that the same, culturally acquired representation of pitch classes influences both speech production and also perception of this musical pattern.

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Authors+Show Affiliations

Deutsch D
Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla 92093.

MeSH

Acoustic StimulationHumansMusicPitch DiscriminationPitch PerceptionPsychoacoustics

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article

Language

eng

PubMed ID

1354379

Citation

Deutsch, D. "Some New Pitch Paradoxes and Their Implications." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, vol. 336, no. 1278, 1992, pp. 391-7.
Deutsch D. Some new pitch paradoxes and their implications. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1992;336(1278):391-7.
Deutsch, D. (1992). Some new pitch paradoxes and their implications. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 336(1278), 391-7.
Deutsch D. Some New Pitch Paradoxes and Their Implications. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1992 Jun 29;336(1278):391-7. PubMed PMID: 1354379.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Some new pitch paradoxes and their implications. A1 - Deutsch,D, PY - 1992/6/29/pubmed PY - 1992/6/29/medline PY - 1992/6/29/entrez SP - 391 EP - 7 JF - Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences JO - Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci VL - 336 IS - 1278 N2 - This paper explores two new paradoxical sound patterns. The tones used to produce these patterns consist of six octave-related harmonics, whose amplitudes are scaled by a bell-shaped spectral envelope; these tones are clearly defined in terms of pitch class (C, C#, D, and so on) but are poorly defined in terms of height. One pattern consists of two tones that are separated by a half-octave. It is heard as ascending when played in one key, yet as descending when played in a different key. Further, when the pattern is played in any one key it is heard as ascending by some listeners but as descending by others (the tritone paradox). Another pattern that consists of simultaneous pairs of tones displays related properties (the semitone paradox). It is shown that the way the tritone paradox is perceived correlates with the speech characteristics of the listener, including his or her linguistic dialect. The findings suggest that the same, culturally acquired representation of pitch classes influences both speech production and also perception of this musical pattern. SN - 0962-8436 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/1354379/Some_new_pitch_paradoxes_and_their_implications_ L2 - https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.1992.0073?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub=pubmed DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -