By common assumption, the first step in processing a tonal melody consists in setting up the appropriate metrical and harmonic frames required for the mental representation of the sequence of tones. Focusing on the generation of a harmonic frame, this study aims (a) to discover the factors that facilitate or interfere with the development of a harmonic interpretation, and (b) to test the hypothesis that goodness ratings of tone sequences largely depend on whether the listener succeeds in creating a suitable harmonic interpretation. In two experiments, listeners rated the melodic goodness of selected sequences of 10 and 13 tones and indicated which individual tones seemed not to fit. Results indicate that goodness ratings (a) are higher the more common the induced harmonic progression, (b) are strongly affected by the occurrence and position of nonchord tones: sequences without nonchord tones were rated highest, sequences with anchoring nonchord tones intermediately, and nonanchoring nonchord tones lowest. The explanation offered is compared with predictions derived from other theories, which leads to the conclusion that when a tone sequence is perceived as a melody, it is represented in terms of its underlying harmony, in which exact pitch-height characteristics play a minor role.

To gain a better understanding of the processes by which human listeners construct musical percepts within the Western tonal system, we conducted two experiments in which the perception of brief tone series was studied. The tone series consisted of (fragments from) different orderings of the collection C 4 E 4 F## 4 G 4 Bþþ 4 and were preceded by two chords to induce a key. Two different tasks were used: (1) rating the melodic "goodness" of the tone series and (2) playing a few tones that complete the tone series. In Experiment 1, tone series of different lengths were presented in blocks. In Experiments 2a and 2b, increasing fragments of tone series were presented to examine the development of musical percepts. The majority of the data can be explained by two perceptual mechanisms: chord recognition and anchoring . Chord recognition is the mechanism that describes a series of tones in terms of a chord, a mental unit stored in long-term memory. Anchoring is the mechanism by which a tone is linked to a tone occurring later in the series. The paradigm appears to be a powerful tool for tracing perceptual mechanisms at work in the on-line processing of music.

In an analysis of the melodies used in the experiments reported by Takeuchi and Hulse (1992), it is shown that in different experiments a different number of melodies occur that are conceivable as tonal transpositions. Based on this analysis, an alternative explanation of the reported results is proposed in which both tonal transposition and key-distance play a role.

The function attributed to chords accompanying melodies depends on the theory of music perception adhered to. In a hierarchical model of music perception, chords can be viewed as local frames of reference that are used to code the tones of the melody they accompany. This view predicts that the recognition of a melody may be disturbed if the melody is presented with different chordal accompaniments. A less hierarchical conception of music perception may assume that the coding of the melodic line is relatively independent of the coding of the chords. This view leads to the prediction that melody recognition will not be influenced by the accompanying chords. These contrasting predictions were tested in an experiment in which subjects compared nine-tone melodies by using a standard-comparison paradigm. In different conditions, the standard and comparison melodies were presented with and without accompaniment, or with different accompaniments. Results show that melody recognition is unaffected by the variations in accompaniments, supporting the view that melody and accompaniment are processed relatively independently. Consequences for a model of music perception and, especially, for the perceptual function of chords are discussed.

To gain insight into the internal representation of temporal patterns, we studied the perception and reproduction of tone sequences in which only the tone-onset intervals were varied. A theory of the processing of such sequences, partly implemented as a computer program, is presented. A basic assumption of the theory is that perceivers try to generate an internal clock while listening to a temporal pattern. This internal clock is of a flexible nature that adapts itself to certain characteristics of the pattern under consideration. The distribution of accented events perceived in the sequence is supposed to determine whether a clock can (and which clock will) be generated internally. Further it is assumed that if a clock is induced in the perceiver, it will be used as a measuring device to specify the temporal structure of the pattern. The nature of this specification is formalized in a tentative coding model. Three experiments are reported that test different aspects of the model. In Experiment 1, subjects reproduced various temporal patterns that only differed structurally in order to test the hypothesis that patterns more readily inducing an internal clock will give rise to more accurate percepts. In Experiment 2, clock induction is manipulated experimentally to test the clock notion more directly. Experiment 3 tests the coding portion of the model by correlating theoretical complexity of temporal patterns based on the coding model with complexity judgments. The experiments yield data that support the theoretical ideas.