A study of the judged consonance of dyads and triads formed from chromatic intervals in the Pierce scale was carried out. One group of subjects listened to dyads in which the maximum interval was 16 steps or 3 steps more than a tritave (13 steps) and the minimum interval was 1 step. Results showed that: (1) the tritave is very consonant; (2) a single‐step interval is very dissonant; (3) intervals of 4 and 6 steps, which make up the “major” and “minor” Pierce scale chords, are relatively consonant; and (4) other intervals have a pattern of consonance which is not yet fully understood. Results also showed that the judged consonance is independent of the average frequency of the dyad. Another group of subjects judged the consonance of Pierce scale triads as well as the dyads which comprised these triads. An additive model gave an excellent fit to the data, that is, the perceived consonance of individual dyads contained in a triad predicts judgments for the triad.
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May 1986
August 13 2005
The consonance of Pierce scale dyads and triads
M. Chowning;
M. Chowning
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ 07974
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L. A. Roberts;
L. A. Roberts
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ 07974
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M. V. Mathews
M. V. Mathews
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ 07974
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J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 79, S75 (1986)
Citation
M. Chowning, L. A. Roberts, M. V. Mathews; The consonance of Pierce scale dyads and triads. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1 May 1986; 79 (S1): S75. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.2023379
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