Perceiving implied harmony: the influence of melodic and harmonic context

Abstract

Two experiments investigated the influence of melodic and harmonic context on the obviousness of pitch changes in 3 Western tonal melodies. In Experiment 1, listeners with different levels of musical skill heard standard melodies followed by comparison melodies in which single pitch changes could occur. In-key pitch changes that were not implied by the local harmony were judged more obvious than in-key pitch changes that were so implied. This effect was influenced by the surrounding context of melodic line and chords and was absent when the context contained chords that were not consistent with the harmony implied by the melodic line. In Experiment 2, with similar listeners, implied harmony effects were eliminated by removing parts of the melodic line, indicating the relative importance of melodic context as a determinant of implied harmony. Questionnaire data suggested that knowledge of tonal relationships was tacit, even in many trained listeners.