Re: Req: pitch-to-physical space mappings, refs

["Gregory J. Sandell" <sandell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>
> Ask a young violinist to play a given note "higher" and they will
> probably raise the whole violin. Ask a cellist to play the note
> higher and they have to decrease the height of their hand. An so
> on and so forth.

I have observed that I use the words "high" and "low" to my non-musician
subjects in music perception experiments, pitch is not the only or most
natural attribute that they match to this dimension.  When I recently
asked several listeners to describe the timbre difference between and
oboe and English horn playing the same note, many of them would say
something of the sort, "the second one is higher".  Some would insist that
this was the best descriptor even after I called their attention to
pitch space having "high" and "low" attributes.

Greg Sandell

--
Gregory J. Sandell, Research Associate, sandell@sparky.parmly.luc.edu
Parmly Hearing Institute, Loyola University Chicago
6525 N. Sheridan Chicago IL 60626 USA voice:773-508-3976 FAX:773-508-2719
WWW: http://www.parmly.luc.edu/sandell/