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Published: June 1992

A perceptual investigation of polytonality

William Forde Thompson & Shulamit Mor 

Psychological Research  54, 60–71(1992)

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Summary

Four experiments investigated the perception of tonal

structure in polytonal music. The experiments used
musical excerpts in which the upper stave of the music
suggested a different key than the lower stave. In
Experiment 1, listeners rated the goodness of fit of
probe tones following an excerpt from Dubois's Circus.
Results suggested that listeners were sensitive to two
keys, and weighted them according to their perceived
importance within the excerpt. Experiment 2 confirmed
that music within each stave reliably conveyed key
structure on its own. In Experiment 3, listeners rated
probe tones following an excerpt from Milhaud's Sonata
No. 1 for Piano, in which different keys were conveyed
in widely separate pitch registers. Ratings were
collected privacy
Your across three octaves. Listeners did not
associate each key
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confirmed that the music within each stave reliably
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conveyed key structure on its own. It is suggested that
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when one key predominates in a polytonal context,
other keysSettings
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Allthe overall perceived
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tonal structure. The influence of long-term knowledge
and immediate context on the perception of tonal
structure in polytonal music is discussed.

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Affiliations

1. Department of Psychology, Atkinson College, York

University, M3J IP3, North York, Ontario, Canada

William Forde Thompson & Shulamit Mor

Corresponding author

Correspondence to William Forde Thompson.

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Thompson, W.F., Mor, S. A perceptual investigation of

polytonality. Psychol. Res 54, 60–71 (1992).
https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00937134

Received02 July 1991

Issue DateJune 1992

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DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1007/BF00937134

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