Pitch Perception

Transcript

Pitch is a sensory attribute on which sounds may be ordered on a series, called psychophysical scale, from low to high. Pitch plays an important role in the perception of both music and speech. In music, melody and harmony can be defined, respectively, as organization of sequences and simultaneous combinations of pitch. In speech, pitch is a central element of prosody, contributing to the definition of the meaning of utterances; moreover, in tonal languages such as Mandarin and Vietnamese, different pitch contours can give different meanings to otherwise similar words. Because of its centrality in utterances and musical messages, pitch is accurately differentiated perceptually and elaborated cognitively.

Pitch depends mainly on frequency but is not independent of other elements. Research has shown that tonal expectations, as well as intensity, duration, and musical context in which the stimulus is heard, influence pitch perception. Researchers focusing on pitch perception delve into these issues and develop theories about how pitch is processed by the ear.

Many scholars have focused on pitch perception. Some of them, such as Vincenzo Galilei and Marin Mersenne, gave primary attention to the physics of sound, whereas others, such as Aristoxenus and Joseph-Guichard Du Verney, addressed perception and musical experience. Many researchers elaborated theories of pitch perception, focusing on the way that the auditory system encodes the frequency of pure tones, which are simple sine waves at a single frequency. Pure tones are rarely heard in real life, because [Page 871]they are generated by mechanical devices or electronic oscillators. Other scholars concentrated on the way the auditory system determines the pitch of complex tones, which are naturally produced sounds, like notes produced by musical instruments. Any complex tone is made up of a number of different components, called partials. A complex tone is usually experienced as a unitary sound, but individual partials can be heard if attention is directed appropriately.