Reduced memory representations for music

Author(s): Palmer, C., Pollack, J. B.

Journal/Book: Cognitive Sci. 1995; 19: 355 Chestnut St, Norwood, NJ 07648. Ablex Publ Corp. 53-96.

Abstract: We address the problem of musical variation (identification of different musical sequences as variations) and its implications for mental representations of music. According to reductionist theories, listeners judge the structural importance of musical events while forming mental representations. These judgments may result from the production of reduced memory representations that retain only the musical gist. In a study of improvised music performance, pianists produced variations on melodies. Analyses of the musical events retained across variations provided support for the reductionist account of structural importance. A neural network trained to produce reduced memory representations for the same melodies represented structurally important events more efficiently than others. Agreement among the musicians' improvisations, the network model, and music-theoretic predictions suggest that perceived constancy across musical variation is a natural result of a reductionist mechanism for producing memory representations.

Note: Article EW Large, Ohio State Univ, Dept Comp & Informat Sci, 2015 Neil Ave, Columbus, OH 43210 USA

Keyword(s): TONAL MUSIC; PERFORMANCE; PITCH; PERCEPTION; METER; TIME

Zurück | Weiter