The Categorical Perception of the Music Scale a Challenge before the Microtonal Music

• Main Author: Ivan Kostadinov Yanakiev
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Belgrade Center for Music and Dance 2018-02-01
• Series: Accelerando: BJMD
• Subjects: categorical perception; microtonal music; musical pitch; psychology of music; musical temperament; edo; kyle gann
• Online Access: https://accelerandobjmd.weebly.com/issue3/the-categorical-perception-of-the-music-scale

The text examines the phenomenon of categorical perception of musical pitch as defined by John Sloboda (1999), Jane A. and William Siegel (1977), Stefan Koelsch (2012), and William Yost (2013), in their researches in the field of music psychology. The paper states the hypothesis that the current system of dividing the octave in twelve equal semitones do not employ the human physical capabilities for defining pitch to their full extend. On the contrary, the reviewed literature testify for the existence of a strong tendency to categorically label and perceive non equally tempered intervals with different but close to each other magnitudes (widths) as the same. This tendency is stronger in professionally trained musicians than in non-musicians. A short historical excursion to the 21 tone 1/6 syntonic coma meantone temperament, recommended by both Leopold (1856) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1965), is included as an example for better utilization of the musicians’ potential to distinguish pitch and intervals, which had been employed in practice. The text continues with a brief overview of the theory behind generating intonations and temperaments, based on the Equal Division of the Octave (EDO) method. Finally, a short exemplary reference to Kyle Ganns’ cycle “Hyperchromatica” (2015) is made alongside with quoting his personal attitude and commentary towards the performers’ general interest for microtonal music. The paper concludes that the categorical perception of pitch in the context of the twelve-tone equal temperament may be regarded as the main challenge, which the microtonal music is facing.