The perception of metrical structure: Experimental evidence and a new model
Christopher Lee · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1987
This paper presents experimental results which are in conflict with existing theories of metrical interpretation [H. C. Longuet-Higgins and C. S. Lee, Perception 11, 115–128 (1989); H. C. Longuet-Higgins and C. S. Lee, Music Perception 1, 424–441 (1984); F. Lerdahl and R. Jackendoff, A Generative Theory of Tonal Music (MIT, Cambridge, MA, 1983); D. J. Povel and P. Essens, Music Perception 2, 411–440 (1985)] and a new model, based on the algorithm in Longuet-Higgins and Lee (1982), which accounts for the main features of these results. Musically sophisticated subjects listened to sequences of identical tones in various rhythmic arrangements and transcribed them using standard musical notation. The results disconfirmed key predictions of all four theories, in that subjects displayed a general reluctance to choose interpretations containing an upbeat. However, the results did show that subjects were more prepared to avoid syncopated interpretations than those in which long notes occurred on weak beats. These tendencies are accounted for in the model by the assumption that the listener initially takes the first note of a sequence as the downbeat and is reluctant to abandon this (or later) hypotheses. But the occurrence of syncopations constitutes strong counterevidence and the occurrence of long notes on weak beats weak counterevidence, which can overcome the listener's conservatism. [Work supported by Nuffield Foundation, Royal Society and SERC.]