Minor third (Al Bregman )

Subject: Minor third
From:    Al Bregman  <bregman(at)HEBB.PSYCH.MCGILL.CA>
Date:    Fri, 28 Jan 2005 22:09:04 -0500

Dear List,

Jeremy Day-O'Connell wrote (via Pierre Divenyi):
"My own hypothesis is that the minor third represents a compromise between
two opposite tendencies, one vocal, one perceptual: 1) the _smaller_ the
interval, the easier to produce a consistent vocal tone on the two notes;
2) the _larger_ the interval, the easier the task of melodic "scene
analysis" in noisy real-world situations."

Regarding the second point, I would imagine that the opposite would be
true:  the larger the interval, the more difficult it would be to track the
sequence in a noisy real-world situation.  Small intervals favor coherence;
in an A-B sequence, the larger the interval between A and B (i.e., the
smaller the similarity between them), the greater  the likelihood that one
of the sounds (A or B) will find a more similar sound to group with than
the other sound of the A-B sequence.

This means that BOTH the vocal ease and the perceptual coherence would
favor small intervals.

Al


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Albert S. Bregman,
Emeritus Professor
Psychology Dept., McGill University
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