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Psychoacoustic Phenomena in Musical Composition: Wrote
Psychoacoustic Phenomena in Musical Composition: Wrote
PSYCHOACOUSTIC PHENOMENA IN
MUSICAL COMPOSITION
Some Features of a "Perceptual Geogntpby"
MARYANNE AMACHER
AMACHER
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But it was not until high speed internet that I became aware of the
many advances in auditory research acknowledging this double role of ears
in both receiving and emitting sounds, that the ear is not simply a passive
receiver as had been assumed for so many years! And I discovered an astonishing coincidence with the writing ~f my "perceprual geography" text in
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AMACHER
that ~deed. an active receiver is at work, but we still have not got a receptive group of physiologists who deal in this field. The medical profession
still has not got a clue as to why 15 kilocycles should be coming out of
somebody's ears.
them to be a curious but unimportant byproduct of the ear and of no consequence to mainline theories.
It is now sixty years since Thomas Gold's initiating hypothesis and
thirty years since David Kemp's demonstrated" ear tones" experimentally.
Intensive research activity is being carried out in laboratories all over the
world largely due to the medical advantages these investigations offer.
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Numerous srudies have shown rhat OAE's disappear after rhe inner ear has
been damaged, so OAE's are often used in rhe laboratory and clinic as a
measure of inner ear health: an ear that puts out strong OAE's at each frequency must have a strong cochlear amplifier and probably good hearing.
too. Because OAE's provide a simple, non-invasive objective indicator of
healrhy cochlear function rhey are widely used in newborn hearing screening programs. It takes only a minute to detect rhe sounds rhat signal all is
well in rhe ear.
And a number of different types of ear produced sounds have
been distinguished other than those which are stimulated from an outside
tone; for example, SOAE's are those sounds which occur spontaneously
in rhe ear and are not evoked by a stimulus tone. It is reported rhat in a
very quiet space it is possible to hear rhe SOAE's of another person you.
are close to. Whereas it is of course the evoked type of ear response rhat
we meet in composing.
\~
Important recent work has been made by Brownell, Hudsperh,
Ashmore, Mammano and many orhers. An interesting video demonstration:
http://www.hhmi.org/lectures/webcast/ondemand/97webcast3/amp
lifier.htrnl
The fact rhat rhe ears produce rheir own tones is now completely
taken for granted by rhe scientific community. However, despite the wide- .
spread compositional interest in various psychoacoustic phenomena, s.uch
as beating tones and other phenomena this astonishing function of our ears
is simply not yet acknowledged consciously by rhe musical community in
rheory or in musical composition.
This is a mystery to me! And very strange! Hearing plays such a
critical role in composing, rhat recognizing and acknowledging rhe range of
what our ears do in response to the music we create would seem to be particularly desirable to pursue more explicitly and understand further!
How many more years will it take to achieve this acknowledgement? Another sixty?
More details will be available at lunch. I'm afraid we haven't even
made it to breakfast yet!
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AMACHER
3 James Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
COLLOQUIUM
Maryanne Amacher
Institute Fellow
will discuss
intervals he selects for his music. By his choice of musical intervals, the composer prepares for the existence of specific response tones that will be
perceived along with the acoustic tones in the music, that will'" sound" in
the listener's ears and brain, rather than in the room: he "ghost writes" the
scenario. "Additional tones," just as acoustic tones, may be considered a subjective aspect in the listener's musical experience, but certainly need not be
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+ "Additional tones" are considered "phenomena" to be understood by the psychoacousncian, instead of "response tones"
which are induced. by the composer_ when
he selects certain acoustic intervals. I suspect this is one reason why the kind of
~ understanding needed for creating
d.velop<d.
[;i
dfit;;::>more
I-~'---
AMACHER
work seeks ways of composing with "additional tones," so that tones originating within human anatomy exist in their own right, i.e., become
perceptually more than an accident of acoustic tones in the room, attain
conscious interplay with them. To do this I have developed what I call a
"perceptual geography;" which allows me to prepare for the existence of
these tone sensations, by distinguishing them in time and space, perceptually.
The response tones we create as a result of the acoustic space we are
in, matter to me as a composer. Tones in 'the room affect our mind and our
body. The latter respond by c~eating new tones. What I am calling "perceptual geography" is the interplay, the meeting of these tones, our processing
of the given. I distinguish where the tones originate, in the room, in the ear,
in the brain, in order to examine this map and to amplify it musically. I want
to listen more carefully, to what are innate and perhaps even distinctly
human capabilities. This involves developing a music which more clearly
lets us "hear" some of these responses, lets us "know" that given acoustic
intervals are indeed affecting responses in our ears and brain. It is a music
which emphatically ~ attention to what is happening to us.
With traditional musical instruments, the experience of our processing is more or less subliminal, because energy is distributed over such a
complex spectrum. This aspect of the musical experience can be enhanced
with the addition of simple tones, produced electronically, because they are
capable of concentrating energy at certain specific frequencies. Simple tones
allow us to present clearly the structure of the interval-the ratio characterizing the interval. This amounts to a "reinforcing" of something very basic,
that we have previously "known" and experienced "less clearly" in music;
the same interval given by two musical instruments would contain much
more harmonic information.
, I am sure that past composers understood much of this and would
have liked to pursue it further. Today, this music can exist because of the use
of simple tones, produced electronically, in musical composition, and can be
developed because of the computer-and with the knowledge from modem research in musical acoustics-it is time to take these further steps.
In the music I am describing, superpositions created in ears and
brain are reinforced. Tone responses can emerge from subliminal existence
and become truly "audible" recognizable experiences. I use simple tones,
selected purposefully for these reinforcement functions; musical instruments create the timbre of the tone structure, and relate specifically, in
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'"
residues of the "real" tones. In composing, the "real" (i.e. the acoustic tone)
"is chosen and the others result; they are accidents we come to depend on.
My work is in bringing response tones to surface, removing the subliminal
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AMACHER
status. the perceptual glue binding them to (a). The work seeks ways of
composing with response tones, so that (b) and (c) exist in their own right,
i.e., become perceptually more than accident of acoustic tones in the
room-attain conscious interplay with them.
My recent works, Remainder, Labyrinth Gives Way to Skin,
Listening At Boundary are steps towards developing the proposed music.
They explore situations at boundaries of perception: scenarios existing
between acoustic space and mind interpreting pattern, subjective threshold,
body resonance. I have developed this music intuitively so far by intense
listening research-recognizing, identifying, attempting to understand
implications of the various musical phenomena I experienced. I later found
many of these to be characterized by events-superpositions resulting from
given acoustic stimuli-talting place within neural and auditory anatomy,
described best in the research of Roederer' and Oster', notably, specific
interval (Roederer) and sound level (Oster)
~ 2. The composition of spatial dimenstudies. Nott 2
sion acoustically (sound "within the
room"}--composing a phrase so that some
There is much more to do, however,
of the tones are experienced nearby,
some at a distance, some locatable, some
and I could make these further studies (and
ambiguous, has continued to be an important parameter in my music. Since we are
compositional implementations) best at the
more or less without musical models for
studying acoustic depth and sound localArtificial Intelligence Laboratory, MIT, and'
ization, models have been selected from
environmental spaces. One such space was
at the Computer Music Program, Music
a site at the Boston Harbor. Here, distant
sound could be heard clearly and simultaDepartment, MIT, Cambridge, Mass.-as well
neouslywith nearby sound--sound occuras continuing past collaborations with musicians
ring near the microphone, installed on a
partially open window facing the ocean.
at Harvard University, and in NewYork City.
For four years the sounding space was
I.2
More details
ma
liml:,
intervals produced in the room (a) which stimulate additional tone sensations in the ears (b) and in the brain (c). One group of intervals I will
be studying are those which Roederer refers to as "1St order superpositions." These originate in the cochlear fluids and result from interactions
between overlapping resonant regions along the basilar membrane.
I find it useful, when" 1st order superpositions" are stimulated,
to think of the listener responding-not to the real world primary
sources-but to certain EXTREMELY RESONANT INSTRUMENTSwithin the anatomical structures of the inner ear. We "hear" tones, other
than the given acoustic tones, being created in our ears, as the membrane
vibrates in response to the given acoustic tones.
The second group of intervals in the study produce sensations of
tone and!or pattern modulations which are not present in the cochlear
fluids at all. These exist in the brain, originating from the interaction of
neural signals, after they have been combined at the medullar or midbrain
levels. The processing here is more intricate than the previous resonant
responses. When" 2nd order superpositions" are stimulated, we "listen"
to what our auditory system--<:APABLE OF DETECTING EXTREMELY
SUBTLE CHANGES IN THE FORM OF THE VIBRATION
PATTERN-perceives as it responds to the given acoustic tones. This is
a very special. beautiful feature to consider! In effect we "hear" an evolved
sensitivity, extracting information on details of the vibration pattern.
(Subjective pitch originates here.)
Where in this anatomy, or perceptual geography, does Jhe choice
of perceptual mode enter the composition as a "conscious" musical parameter? Do we have purely neural melodies, or do we combine them with
cochlear or combination tone melodies for a given phrase. In the proposed music, choice of an acoustic interval in (a) the room, will frequently be determined by the tone or pattern modulation this interval
produces in (b) the cochlea or (c) the brain.+ For
+ Occurrence of 1St order combination
tones, no doubt enriches perfonnance of
example, suppose we want to bring a tone x
traditional music, and contributes acci(98 Hz) to a tone structure we are composing.
dently to what is generally regarded as
timbre in much decuoruc music. By the
Consider the kind of local relations being develvery narure of synthetic sound, 1st order
phenomena can be pronounced. However,
oped between (a) (b) (c) dimensions. These
when there is no conscious interplay prepared by the composer w establish experimany be offsetting a certain kind of tonal depth,
ence of (a) (b) (e) dimensions, what we get
to perceive in such a case, is an odd noiseor distinguishing adjacent melodic tones
like modulation occurring in space (a).
between (a) (b) and (c). Depending on what is
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AMACHER
2.0
1st order combination tones become extremely interesting in terms of perceptual geographies. Within a certain frequency range, such tones may
sometimes not "sound" as though they are being produced IDiliin the ears,
i.e., exist entirely in (b) space, at all, (compared with another group of
"tones" which distinctly does). They "sound" as though they are occurring
in (a) space, in ambiguous room space, "in air", not localized. But what is
particularly interesting, is that because such tones are only apparent to (a)
space, not localized as an acoustic tone in (a) often is, a number of interesting harmonic and other musical advantages are present, and I wish to investigate these further.
Ear tones created within (b) space in my experience, not only seem
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to contribute a special depth to the experience of sound in (a) space, but also
AMACHER
stimulating certain specific sensorial responses. My work involves developing a music which lets us know experientially that given acoustic intervals
are indeed affecting responses in our ears and brain, let us hear some of
these responses vividly.
This music can exist because we are able to produce simple tones
electronically, and can be developed because of the computer. Because ordinary instruments have very complicated spectral energy distributions, the
experience of our processing is more or less subliminal, though it is a major
part of the musical experience-our ears and brain creating the additional
tone sensations and shapes to given acoustic intervals. This aspect of the
musical experience can be enhanced with the addition of simple tones, produced electronically, because they are capable of concentrating energy at
certain specific frequencies. Simple tones allow us to present clearly the
structure of the interval-the ratio characterizing the interval. This amounts
to a reinforqng of something very basic, that we have previously known and
experienced less directly in music; the same interval given by two musical
instruments would contain much more harmonic information. When simple tones are selected specifically, as the acoustic intervals for this purpose,
superpositions being created in ear and brain are reinforced. Response
tones can emerge from their subliminal existence and become truly audible
recognizable experiences. It.lli a matter of composing-preparing for their
existence in time and space, perceptually. The composer ghost writes the
scenario. The selection of acoustic intervals may be determined now by
choices made regarding particular tone sensations to be created in ear and
brain spaces. Tone responses in ear and brain are no longer merely an accident of the acoustic tones compositionally, but now playa critical role in
selecting those tones by the composer.
Programmable acoustic equipment is necessary for examining
sufficient detail, range, and combining possibilities of the many intervals,
needed to be compared for specific compositional purposes, and related to
musical instruments in the compositions. The music I am describing can be
developed through these kind of pre-compositional studies. Digitally controlled acoustic equipment is critical to this work, because of two important
features: the precise tuning requirements, and most important this music
can be developed illlb:: through direct auditory experience.
To ~ and compose with response tones, one must experience
them! Many research hours must be spent listening and examining the expe22
One level of the music, most basic to ~he project description, consists of
specific sets of acoustic intervals, composed of simple tones, produced
electronically. These are composed to create particular superpositions in
ear and brain spaces, and are often accompanied by musical instruments
and other sound spectra for timbre. However, it is the specific function
of the intervals here to initiate creation of particular ear tones andlor
pattern modulation melodies in (b) and (c). Another group of tones are
composed for the musical instruments. These relate specifically, in pitch
or interval relationships, in melody, rhythm, timbre to tones andlor
patterns our ears and brain will be creating in (b) and (c).
An interplay is cultivated between musicians and tone sensations.
It is intricate. Frequently-subtle tunings, close interval relationships.
Complementary timbres tinge to a greater or lesser degree. The musicians
embellish, improvise with human-given tone responses.
Our responses to the basic intervals perhaps are distinctly human
ones. They exist in all musical experiences. They are basic, mechanistic in
that they go on without us-whether we know it or not. In the music I am
describing, simple tones now bring attention to what goes on without us.
We listen to it. Musicians weave tones around our response tones
as they are being created. Energy is created in the interplay. It feels itself.
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AMACHER
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