A critical and comparative review of the various methods currently used in experimental studies of tonality induction is presented. First, we deal with pitfalls in the selection of subjects, specifically focusing on the issue of contrasting more-experienced and less-experienced listeners. Next, we discuss some dilemmas with respect to the selection of stimuli. In particular, we compare the (dis) advantages of using real music stimuli with the (dis) advantages of artificial stimuli, distinguishing in the latter category between prototypical stimuli (e.g., chords or scale fragments) and tonally complex or even polytonal stimuli. Finally, we consider the (dis) advantages of various possible experimental paradigms, notably the production of a tonic and tonal center, the probe-tone paradigm, and tonality rating. For each of the three methodological subdomains, we propose recommendations for improvement.

Fundamental problems and dilemmas for the study of tonality induction are reviewed. I focus on two different, although related types of research impediments. The first is the fuzziness of the key notion "tonality" itself, which leads to divergent conceptualizations of tonality induction, such as "key finding," "tonal induction," "tonal center perception," and "tonal feeling." I argue that the fuzziness is largely due to the lack of welldefined historical or otherwise categorical boundaries of "Western tonal music." The second impediment arises from various dualities in music, notably tone versus note representations, tonal versus intervallic representations, horizontal ("leading voice") cues for tonality induction versus vertical ones ("fundamentals"), and tonal versus temporal tonality induction cues. (Dis) advantages of various interpretations of tonality induction and of solutions of the dualities in question are considered. A few recommendations for reconciliation between currently divergent theoretical approaches to tonality induction are suggested.

Listeners' ability to infer the mode (major vs. minor) of a piece of Western tonal music was examined. Twenty-four subjects, divided into two groups according to their level of musical expertise, evaluated 11 musical stimuli, selected from J. S. Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier". The stimuli included both unambiguous and ambiguous examples of the two modes, as well as one example of a modulation (from minor into major). The stimuli consisted of unaccompanied melodic openings of compositions, each containing 10 tones. Stimulus presentation and evaluation took place in nine progressively longer steps, starting with presentation of the first two tones, followed by their evaluation on a continuous scale, with 0 = "extremely minor" and 100 = "extremely major," and ending with evaluation of the complete stimulus. The results showed that mode inference followed the prescribed modes and tended to become more definite with increasing stimulus length. Experts were generally more definite in their inferences than were nonexperts. Surprisingly, the temporal structure of stimuli also appeared to affect mode inference. The degree of definiteness of mode judgments did not systematically differ between the two modes. It was concluded that listeners are able to infer the mode of a piece of music in the absence of explicit harmonic cues. The generalizability of the results with respect to music pieces of late periods in Western music history and the impact of different musical genres on mode inference are discussed. /// Onderwerp van onderzoek betrof het perceptuele onderscheid tussen majeur en mineur. Vierentwintig proefpersonen, verdeeld in twee groepen die verschilden in nivo van muzikale expertise, evalueerden 11 hen onbekende muziek stimuli, gekozen uit J. S. Bach's "Wohltemperierte Klavier". De stimuli bevatten zowel ondubbelzinnige als ambigue voorbeelden van de twee toonsoort geslachten, alsmede een voorbeeld van modulatie (in dit geval van mineur naar majeur). De stimuli bestonden uit ongeharmonizeerde melodische openingen van composities, elk 10 tonen lang. Stimulus aanbieding en (majeur/mineur) evaluatie vonden plaats in negen toenemend langere stappen, beginnend met de aanbieding van de eerste twee tonen van een stimulus, gevolgd door een evaluatie daarvan (op een continue schaal met 0 = "uitgesproken mineur" en 100 = "uitgesproken majeur"), en eindigend met de evaluatie van de complete stimulus. De resultaten lieten zien dat de evaluaties de profilering der voorgeschreven toonsoortgeslachten volgden en stelliger werden met toenemende stimulus lengte. De experts bleken doorgaans zekerder in hun kwalificaties dan de nonexperts. Verrassend genoeg bleek ook de temporele struktuur der stimuli de beoordeling te beïnvloeden. Geconcludeerd werd dat luisteraars in staat zijn om het geslacht van de toonsoort waarin een muziekstuk staat te identificeren in afwezigheid van expliciete harmonische informatie. De generalizeerbaarheid der resultaten met betrekking tot muziekstukken uit latere perioden in de Westerse tonale muziekgeschiedenis alswel de mogelijke invloed van verschillende muzikale genres op de majeur/mineur interpretatie werden ter discussie gesteld.

A model of key finding is presented for single-voiced pieces of tonal music. Each tone is input as a pitch class and a duration. The model makes a parallel search for the key in the scalar and chordal domains, taking into account primacy and memory constraints. The model has been tested for a range of tonal music including the fugue subjects of J. S. Bach's Wohltemperierte Klavier (WTK). The notated key was usually found after a few processing steps and from then on remained stable— but was still sensitive to modulation. The performance of the parallel-processing model was compared with the performance of key-finding models previously proposed by Krumhansl and Schmuckler and by Longuet-Higgins and Steedman. The comparison showed that the new model's most distinctive features, implementation of parallel key search in the scalar and chordal domains, as well as the implementation of search-restricting factors, primacy and memory, make the new model a powerful and plausible alternative to the other models. Subsequently, the parallel-processing model's perceptual plausibility has been tested in two experiments, in which 20 musically well-trained subjects had to produce the key(s) of eight WTK fugue themes (Experiment 1) and to rate the key transparency for seven contrapuntal variations of the A minor subject of J. S. Bach's Kunst der Fuge (Experiment 2). A substantial concordance between listeners' judgments and the key inferences produced by the model was found in both experiments. Conceptual limitations, such as the model's disregard for the potential impact of recency on key finding and for expectations from functional implications of tone order, are discussed. Potential extensions of the model are suggested, as well as ideas for further perceptual studies in which the model might be tested in a more advanced manner than in the present study.

Evidence is reported for the existence and the perceptual relevance of a hitherto rather unattended regularity of melodic patterns in Western music. An inquiry into the occurrence of within-octave melodic intervals in a large variety of examples of Western music showed small intervals to be predominantly descenders and large ones to be ascenders. The perceptual relevance of the distributional regularity in question was tested. Subjects were required to discriminate between computer-generated melodic patterns that were endowed either with the discovered regularity of shape distribution over intervals or with the reversed structure. The results were convincingly positive. Music-theoretical intuitions of Meyer (1956, 1973) are used to account for the data and to claim their generalizability to non-Western melodic patterns. Finally, the outcome of this study is discussed with respect to its relevance to various musicological and music-psychological issues.