The perception of melodic closure : a study of the factors influencing final note choice to achieve melodic closure : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Applied Psychology at Massey University

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~ M elo dic Cl - o --- s ure

A s t udy of

the

fac tor s inf l ue nc ing final note c ho ic e t o a chi e ve

ruelodic clos11.re ~

A thesis presented in partial ful fil~ent

of the requirements for

of Master of A ..rts in

Appl ied Psycholog-J at l'lassey University

Bry c e A n dr ew Mi l ls

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The Perc ept io n of M e l od ic Closur e

A study of the factors influencing

m el odi c closure.,

A thesis presented in par tial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree

of r~12.ster of }tr·ts i 11

Appl ied Psychology at Massey TJnj_v·ersity

Bryce A ndrew Mi lls

'9

1\ck.noi1l eC.gemen t s

Abstract'

C hapt e r I

Introd.uc ti on

Ch apter II

Revi ew of the Li teratur e on Closure

Chapter III

The ~12 of the Eese~rch

Chap ter IV

~he Design of the ~ese~rch Chanter

v-

.Results

Chapter' ¹lI

Discussi on of 3esults

Chap ter V II

Sum~a~y, Conc¹usions, and Impl icat ions Append.ix 1

Vius i c aJ.

_-:...ppendix 2

2t imuli, Design

A .

Response Sheet, Design ~.

Appendix

3

Musical

Stimul i, Design

B.

iv

,..,

I

:Z,

. /

23

~,O

4. 7:.

. ../

60

r '1 0 ,

Appendix 4 62

r~usical Stimuli, Design C.

Appendix

5 6 3

Design A.Proportion of 0ubject Choices

~aying Glosea or Not Closed,Given Tonic or NonTonic.

Apper:dix 6

Analysis of Variance. Design B.

Bibliography

i i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In the presentation of this thesis, I would like t o ackno~ledge the valued assi stance of

Don I-1cA1pine for their advice, guidance, and encouragement.

I·'Iy -~,)j_f.? tTocel:rr1 a.r1.a. 0L1.r~ childr'e:n ± .. or tl1eir pati ence and suppor t.

Staff of West End School, Intermediat e Normal School, Pal merston North, and Palmerston North Teachers Col lege Music Depart cent, for allowing access to subject s for testi ng.

Eighty patient subjects ~ithout whose participat ion this study would net have been possible.

Carol yn Hook ·;;ho conducted. the co7"."lputer search at Washington State University.

X

iv ABSTR.4CT

This study investigates the notion of closure forward by gestalt theorists in reference to visual perception but applies it to aural perception of simple mel odies . Specifically the study focusses on the final note chosen to effect melodic closure. It addresses the question of the selection of the final note and at tempts to ascertain what major factors influence its selectiona

To achieve this, three basic groups of subjects wer e tested; (1 ) children, - two groups of 20 ~al es and 20 fernales ~ one g~eoup .. ·10 years old. ar.!.d. the othe:c· --·12 ,/ c·ar··s

old (2) 20 mal e and 20 female young a.d..i.llts~ 18, - a.nd -10 per:fo:r!ning musici2ns wi tb 2.n SJi __ ur·essed

:pre:fer enc,3 fo:r· tra.di tional -:.,iestern classical .n,_lsic s.nd .. '!CJ r;erformi11g nrusicians ~t1it;h a.n e):~pressed. pref·erer1ce !'or jazz

and non-conventional music. From the first two groups a r~r_,d0m, s~.mn1P n __

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alternative treatment and the application of t he Wi t~in Embedded Figures test.

The first two groups were presented with a recor~ing of four simple melodies each played seven times pr oviding a different final note. Twent y-eight i tes3 were tnerefore provided and subjects were required to indicate whet her or not they felt satisfied with the melody as a completed

The group of trained musicians were given in

conv-entional notation the ... ~irs t

·

1·

t

-oars or -~ a simp e . 1

and asked to complete i t exercising their own choice as to contour and the instrument used.

V

The random sample extratted from groups 1 and 2 were taught a simple unfinished melody on a meta.lophone and

asked

to provide

two not~s to complete

^; _Jo."''^~-_. They were al ^t"JO tested on the Witkin Embedded Figures Test ascertain whether cognitive

sty l

e was a relevant factor or not.·

The results presented show that subjects do have clear preferences for melodic closure. The tonic of the perceived key is

s

ignificantly chosen

to

effect

closure

but the degree of preference is tune specific and influenced by melodic con.touro

The

research also shows that closure choices are

mediated by age, sex, and cognitive style, and the interaction of these factors.

Design A provides cl ear evidence of mediation of closure

by

melodic contour while Design

B

demonstrates that the

i nteraction of sex and cognitive style is a significant factor influencing melodic closure.

A degree of conflict between results obtained in Design A and Design B suggests that the major factors influencing

closure are tune specific.

Design C demonstrates that there is a difference in the way musicians of different ^:i styles:, affect melodic closure.

However

the difference was the reverse of that expected -

n Jazz ¹¹ musicians showed greater preference for tonic closure than did ¹¹Traditional¹¹

musicians.

This research demonstrates that people do have a definite

preference

t

o

effect

melodic

closure with the tonic of the perceived key but this oreference is not uniformly applied.

Vr

It is affected by tune ·specific factors, as well as the subject factors of age, sex, cognitive style, and the interaction of all rour factors.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This research arose out of

the

intergration of two different aspects of research in musi.co The first involved work on the dichotic processing of melodies put forward by Kallman & Corballis

(1975)

^{in w}hich i t was noted t hat

unsophisticated nusical listeners processed their music holistically in the right hemisphere , while sophisticated lister1ers nrocessed their music analyticall;r \-~1t1.i<.;h is a left hemisphere illode. The second research emphasis that

influenced this work was based on the notion of Gestalt psychologists and theorists who posit that people seek to complete their perception of visual stimuli (an.d possibly aural stimuli) in such a malll."'ler~ that it is simple ur1i tar}:o-, and closed~ The final factor influencing the present research was the personal obse~vation during musical performances that a great majority of a musical audience seem unable to tolerate chordal accompaniments that do not resolve to the tonic. In one instance this was very

evident when a

-

sonr: ^'--' was left unresolved on a D sus 4

chord. The audience was ¹¹restless¹¹ but when resolution to D major was provided some 10 - 15 seconds later, the

audience returned to their previous ¹¹settled¹¹ condition.

As a result of the interaction of these three inputs, the question was asked - What is the basis of this

"restlessness" and what ending is necessary for people to feel satisfied with the melody? That resolution to the tonic was not the only possible conclusion was

suspected because nu.i-n.ercus jazz 1uusicians do not re sol v e their music to the tonic, either me lodical ly or chord. o.l.ly.

I t appeared that the umusical rule'! regarding r esolution

tc t lifl i;onic did not nece~sarily satisfy ci..i l listener~r:;,

indeed some ~ought resolution to some other note.

Considerable work has been_presented addressins ~he visual aspects of

2

It was reasoned that i f perception did follow Gestalt theory ( Vurpillot 1976) t11e11 th.:i..s sbould 2,.lso t,e ev-iclent: in atu"'lal

perception, not just visual perce?tion. Ta this extent thon this present r esearch does. ta a degree, tes~ Gestalt theory.

ro achieve the aims of the research

it

Nas deemed necessary to work wit h three basic groups of subjects:

children, young adults, and perfbraing musicians . To study whether or not there is a dev~lcp3ental &spect involved ~he ident i ty of each group ;,:as prcs~rved., 3.S ·,;as -rhe expreS3ed musical preferences of the perforr::ing musiciansq

the melodic perception of a sample of people covering a wide range of age, and musical experience, and attempted. to discover whether people did effect melodic closure with a

Gestalt

type

factor, and if so w hat t his

factor was, and what influenced its selection.