Cultural Influence on the Perception and Cognition of Musical Pulse and Meter
Hsiang-Ning Kung · OhioLink ETD Center (Ohio Library and Information Network) · 2017
This dissertation revisited the Western contemporary theories of pulse and meter through an embodied perspective, holding that both pulse and meter are cognitive constructs based on the internal and external interactions, with the former universally perceived and the latter more culturally dependent.Contemporary Western metrical theories are based on a hierarchical structure, with pulse as a referential unit.Developed in a literary tradition, these theories are based on abstract principles rather than actual listening experiences and are therefore inadequate in most non-Western contexts, where oral traditions dominate.By critically reviewing the interaction between culture and meter, this study attempted to find a common ground for cross-cultural discussions of meter.In a behavioral experiment, 10 loops of Turkish rhythmic patterns (representing Middle-Eastern rhythms) were presented to three groups of subjects who had listening experience with 1) Middle-Eastern music (metrically and culturally familiar group), 2) Indian music (metrically familiar but culturally unfamiliar group), and 3) no experience with music of complex meters (unfamiliar group).The participants responded to pulse and meter, respectively, in the two parts of the experiment.All rhythmic patterns were presented at two tempi-one around 120 bpm (beat per minute; human's preferred tempo