Development of capacity to parse complex sonority

[Astrid Heyer <mroyal@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear List,

does anybody know any references pertaining to the change in people's
ability over a human lifespan to parse out elements of a complex sonority
(either harmonics from a timbre or pitches from a chord). I am aware of
some of the acoustical factors that promote such parsing (e.g.
onset asynchrony, inharmonicity, contrasting vibrato etc), but I would
love to know anything about the development of the capacity to parse when
acoustical cues are absent.  I am interested in a cohort of related
questions such as "Are there developmental windows for learning parsing?",
"is the extent to which one can parse elements from a sonority pretty much
hardwired by a certain age?" and so on.

Any suggestions gratefully received,

best wishes

Matthew Royal


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Dr. Matthew Royal
Assistant Professor
Department of Theory and Composition
Faculty of Music
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario
Canada N6A 3K7

Tel: (519) 679-2111 Ext. 5198; (519) 661-2043 [messages]
Fax: (519) 661-3531
E-mail: mroyal@julian.uwo.ca