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MELODIC PATTERNS AND

TONAL STRUCTURE:
CONVERGING EVIDENCE
ARTICLE JANUARY 1991
DOI: 10.1037/h0094138

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Psychomusicology, 70, 107-126

1991 Psychomusicology

MELODIC PATTERNS AND TONAL STRUCTURE:

CONVERGING EVIDENCE
Lola L. Cuddy
Queen's University at Kingston
Perception of tonal structure conveyed by three-note melodic patterns was studied. Patterns were the major triad, the minor triad, the diminished triad, and a
pattern consisting of three notes in adjacent locations on the cycle of fifths. Pitch
contour was either ascending (unidirectional) or reversing (changing direction).
The first experiment involved a variant of the probe-tone technique in which listeners were asked to rate each note of the chromatic scale as a key-note or tonal
center for each pattern. The second experiment collected listener's judgments of
structural goodness and of major/minor quality for each pattern. In both experiments, the greatest amount of perceived structure was associated with the major
triad with ascending pitch contour. The data support the notion that the pitch
relationships of the major triad represent a cognitive prototype for the Western
idiom.
This article reports two investigations of the perception of tonal structure in
short melodic patterns. On this topic, there is a great deal of empirical evidence
to support the notion that the perception of tonal structure is influenced by
music knowledge [for reviews, see Dowling & Harwood (1986); Frances (1958/
1988); Handel (1989); Krumhansl (1990,1991)]. Descriptions of music knowledge include abstract schematic representations of the hierarchical relations
among pitches that characterize the structure and syntax of the Western harmonic idiom (Bharucha, 1984; Dowling, 1978; Krumhansl, 1990; Shepard,
1982). Recently, however, Butler (1989,1990) has disputed the interpretation
of much of the empirical evidence, and has thereby questioned certain fundamental principles on which psychological theories of tonal structure are based.
The dispute is addressed, in the present experiments, by considering Butler's
(1989, 1990) criticisms of a report by Cuddy and Badertscher (1987). Cuddy
and Badertscher (1987) evaluated the tonal structure conveyed by three melodic contexts by means of the probe-tone technique developed by Krumhansl
and colleagues (e.g., Krumhansl & Kessler, 1982; Krumhansl & Shepard, 1979).
The contexts in the Cuddy and Badertscher (1987) study were a major triad
pattern, an ascending major scale, and a diminished triad pattern, and listeners
were asked to rate how well each of the 12 tones of the chromatic scale completed the pattern. Tonal structure was assessed in terms of recovery of the tonal
hierarchythe extent to which probe-tone judgments reflected both a focal
tone or tonic, and structural relations among other tones with respect to the
tonic (Krumhansl, 1983; Krumhansl, 1990; Krumhansl & Kessler,1982; see
also Lerdahl, 1988). The evidence collected by Cuddy and Badertscher (1987)
was that the major triad context conveyed a greater sense of tonal structure than
the other two contexts. It was suggested that the major triad was prototypic of
tonal structure.
Cuddy

107

Our notion of the prototypic nature of the major triad is consistent with a
description provided by Krumhansl (1990): "The basic idea is that within categories certain members are normative, unique, self-consistent, simple, typical, or the best exemplars of the domain.... They are reference points to which
other category members are compared.... [Certain patterns] seem somehow
'better'than others, because they are simpler, more regular, or more symmetric" (Krumhansl, 1990, p. 17). Moreover, the major triad appears to fulfill a
criterion for the tonal-harmonic scheme described by Jones (e.g., 1981, 1982).
as representative of an ideal prototype. Jones (1982) notes that the "tonalharmonic scheme reflects a listener's sense of the stable harmonic context and,
in particular, of the tonal center of a piece" (p. 2). The priority assigned to the
major triad is consistent with empirical evidence (e.g., Krumhansl & Kessler,
1982; Roberts & Shaw, 1984), with psychoacoustical theories of sensory consonance (following Helmholtz, 1863/1954), and with music theory in the Schenkerian
tradition (Schenker, 1906/1954).
In recent commentaries, however, Butler (1989, 1990) has contested the
Cuddy and Badertscher (1987) results on several grounds. First, he argues that
the probe-tone technique they used to assess tonal structure is unreliable. He
argues that it is not meaningful to identify probe-tone judgments of pattern
completion with perceived tonal structure. According to Butler (1989, 1990),
the instructions for the typical probe-tone procedure are so vague that the listener is free to set any one of a number of response criteria. Butler (1989)
suggests, however, that probe-tone judgments might reliably demonstrate effects such as primacy and recency effects traditionally associated with free
recall.
Second, Butler (1989, 1990) has accompanied his criticisms of the probetone technique with criticisms of current approaches to the study of the perception of tonal structure. In their place, Butler offers an alternative account based
on logical analysis of the interval content of music patterns, the "recognition of
critical intervallic relationships as they unfold throughout the musical performance" (1989, p. 233).
Butler (1989) cites, as compatible with his own approach, Browne's (1981)
analysis of the diatonic pitch set in terms of its interval-class content. Browne
(1981) points out that within the diatonic pitch set of seven pitch-classes, there
are 21 interval classes. There are two minor seconds (or major sevenths), five
major seconds (or minor sevenths), four minor thirds (or major sixths), three
major thirds (or minor sixths), six perfect fourths (or perfect fifths) and one
tritone (augmented fourth or diminished fifth). The frequency of occurrence
with which each interval class occurs in the diatonic set may be summarized by
the vector <254361>.
Next, Browne (1981) points out several properties of the vector, the most
important of which is the principle of unique multiplicity. "The diatonic set
contains a full range of intervallic ubiquity. The six interval-classes occur from
one to six times, and each of them a unique number of times. This constitutes a
full spread of possibilities from 'rarity' to 'common-ness'a maximum possible hierarchization" (p. 6). Note that "rarity" and "common-ness" in this analysis
refer to frequency of occurrence in the interval vector, not to frequency of
108

Psychomusicology Fall 1991

occurrence in music. Frequency of occurrence in theiMerKalmecttoadifteFr

quency of occurrence of intervals in music are not in!e^efeie<^rjespoil^^!
(Krumhansl, 1990).
vitoaq^sq srfj moi1!.
The psychological implication of Browne's (1981) analysisitstl^tscifeltona
intervalsthe "rare" intervalsare much more informative thanj^terSirhf^tri
tablishing a sense of tonalitya sense opposition" in a diatonic 'f]$d&?!iFbw&a
intervals aid position finding. Common intervals do not"(Browne, 198KfPP 8).
If listeners are sensitive to such information and rely on it for the determinate^ t
of tonal structure, the diminished triad should yield a stronger sense of tonal *
center than the major triad. The intervals contained in the diminished triad
include the rare, i.e., infrequent, interval of a tritone; according to Brown and
Butler (1981), three-note patterns including the tritone and one other member
of the diatonic set "should provide an unambiguous indication of tonal center"
(p. 48). The diminished triad B D F, for example, should implicate only the
diatonic key of C major. On the other hand, intervals contained in a major triad
logically implicate three diatonic sets or keys. The rarest interval among the
three contained in the major triad is the major third, which occurs three times in
the diatonic set. Thus, for example, the major triad C E G is a member of three
diatonic keysC major, F major and G majorand may implicate each of
these keys.1
A third aspect of Butler's (1989, 1990) criticisms is concerned with the
order of the notes of the tritone interval contained in the diminished triad. The
discovery of the tonal center of a diminished triad may be facilitated if the order
of the tones implies a subdominant-to-leading-tone progression, or a subdominant-to-implied-dominant progressionfor example, the order D F B (Brown
& Butler, 1981). According to this notion, the temporal order used by Cuddy
and Badertscher (1987) for the diminished triad context* B D B F, may not have
been optimal for the identification of a tonal center.
The two experiments reported here deal with Butler's criticisms in three
ways. The first involved a search for converging evidence for the difference
between major triad and diminished triad contexts reported by Cuddy and Badertscher
(1987). The second involved the testing of additional patterns, and the third
involved testing two different orders of notes within patterns.
To seek converging evidence for the findings reported by Cuddy and Badertscher
(1987), the first experiment reported here used a probe-tone technique. The
instructions were changed, however, from the previous instructions to rate each
probe-tone for pattern completion to instructions to rate each probe-tone as a
candidate for the key note, or tonal center, of the pattern. The second experiment collected direct judgments of structural quality and major/minor quality
conveyed by the patterns and these results were compared with results from the
probe-tone task.
The additional melodic patterns tested were the minor triad, and a pattern
called a "fifths" pattern. For the fifths pattern2, the three intervals contained in
the pattern were two perfect fifths (or fourths) and one major second, e.g.,
C F G . For both the minor triad and the fifths pattern, the logical number of
keys implicated by the interval content is greater than for the diminished triad.
Cuddy

109

The interval content of the minor triad logically implicates three diatonic keys;
the interval content of the fifths pattern logically implicates five diatonic keys.
From the perspective of logical analysis of interval content, neither pattern
should 'elicit girtunambiguous sense of tonal center and accompanying structutalrKiera#ehymnd, therefore, neither should be as strong an indicator of tonal
sff^iur&tothe diminished triad.
(o Ihdre is, however, evidence suggestive that the minor triad pattern and the
fiflfc pattern might yield a reasonably strong sense of tonal structure. With
respect to minor triads, it has been shown with the probe-tone technique that
harmonic minor triads strongly instantiate the tonality of the root of the triad
(Krumhansl & Kessler, 1982); minor triads suggested a single key to listeners
to a greater extent than did diminished triads, which tended to be interpreted in
terms of both the major and minor keys in which the chord functioned harmonically. Cohen (1991) reported a study in which listeners were asked to listen to
excerpts from the Bach Preludes and to sing the scale of the key suggested by
the excerpt. For each of the six Bach Preludes in the minor key, the four opening
notes outlining the minor triad signaled the minor tonality for listeners.
With respect to fifths patterns, the evidence is indirect. Cross, Howell, and
West (1985) reported experiments in which listeners heard three-note patterns,
including fifths patterns (pitch-class sets of the type <5, 0, 7>), and rated the
goodness-of-fit of a single tone following each pattern. The single tone was
either a member of one of the scales logically implicated by the pattern or was
an out-of-scale note. For the fifths patterns, listeners readily rejected, as "wrong,"
the note that did not fit within any of the five scales implicated by the patterns.
Moreover, the authors found that fifths patterns were more effective contexts
for producing rejections of nonscale notes than were three-note patterns containing the rare interval of the tritone (patterns implicative of only one diatonic
scale). Cross, Howell, and West (1985) concluded that "the lower the logical
scale specificity, the stronger the scalar schema" (p. 137). The authors are
careful to explain that scale identity may not be the same as key identity. However, to the extent that scale identity contributes to perceived tonal structure,
the implications of their conclusion appear to be opposite to Butler's (1989,
1990) proposals.
A final point deals with the order in which the notes of the pattern were
presented. In the present experiments, all patterns were realized either as three
notes with ascending pitch contour or three notes with reversing pitch direction, i.e., a change in pitch contour. The reversing pitch contour for the diminished triad exemplified an ordering that should, according to Butler (1989), be
especially conducive to the recovery of a tonal center. On the other hand, the
application of the Gestalt principle of "good continuation" to music patterns
(Deutsch, 1982, p. 101) leads to the prediction that tonal structure will be more
readily detected for patterns with a unidirectional pitch contour than for patterns with more complex contours. Cuddy and Cohen (1976) found that major
triad patterns with unidirectional pitch contour were more easily recognized
under transposition than were major triad patterns with a contour that changed

110

Psychomusicology Fall 1991

direction. The main aspects of the method for the two experiments will be
described next, followed by the specific description of each.
General Method
Listeners
Listeners were volunteers from the university community who had attained
at least Grade VIII Royal Conservatory level of performance in voice or an
instrument. This level is comparable to the practical component of the Grade 12
music curriculum in Ontario schools. A typical listener had received music
training at the level of a junior in an undergraduate music program. No listener
was a professional musician. Listeners ranged in age from 16 to 30; the ratio of
females to males was 2:1. They were paid $3.00 per session for participation.
Patterns
Test patterns were eight diatonic patterns of three successive notes spanning six or seven semitones. For the first four patterns, the pitch contour ascended; for the remaining four, the pitch contour reversed direction. Within
each contour (ascending and reversing), there were four patternsthe major
triad, a pattern of fifths (as described above), the minor triad, and the diminished triad. The patterns with ascending contour are exemplified by C4E4G4, C4
F4G4, D 4 F 4 A4, and B3 D 4 F 4 , respectively. The patterns with reversing contour
are exemplified by E4G4C4, G4C4F4, A4 D 4 F 4 , and D4F4B3, respectively.3 In the
experiments, the patterns were transposed to different, randomly selected, frequency locations within the overall range B3 to D5.
Fourteen practice patterns were also constructed. They were three-note
diatonic patterns within the range of an octave, and all were different from the
test patterns.
Apparatus and General Procedure
Sine-tones for each pattern were produced by a DMX-1000 signal processor under control of a LSI 11/23 host computer. The sampling rate was 19.3
kHz. The duration of each tone in each pattern was .33 s with 25 ms rise time and
fall time. Frequency values for the tones were determined according to the
system of equal temperament, with A4 = 440 Hz. The amplitude of each tone
was set according to the Fletcher-Munson loudness contours. The overall level
was adjusted to that judged comfortable by the listener, about 65 dB SPL.
In the experiments, the experimental conditions were randomly ordered
across trials, and the entire set of trials presented as a single block. The order of
trials, and the frequency location of the pattern presented on each trial, were
randomized independently for each listener. The patterns were delivered through
Sennheiser HD-424 headphones to the listener seated in a sound-proof booth.
Responses were entered on a Zenith Z19 console located in the booth and stored
in the host computer for analysis. Trials were self-paced; after responding to a
trial, the listener pressed the "enter" key on the terminal to initiate the next trial.
In both experiments, listeners were told that there were no "right" or "wrong"
answers to the tests. They were asked to respond in terms of their own auditory
Cuddy

111

"feelings or impressions." Therefore, no feedback was provided on either practice or test trials.
Experiment I
In the first experiment, listeners were asked to judge the suitability of each
of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale as a tonic or key center for each of the test
patterns.
Method
Thirteen listeners were tested. On each trial, a test pattern was presented
and was followed, after a delay of Is, by a 1-s presentation of a single tone
called a key-probe. There were 12 key-probes for each test pattern. Each keyprobe was coded in terms of pitch-class distance, from 0 to 11, from the first
note of the pattern. Each pitch-class distance was tested once for each pattern.
The timbre of the key-probes was that of a "Shepard tone" (Shepard, 1964;
see also Cuddy & Badertscher, 1987), a complex of octave equivalents for
which the amplitude envelope is shaped to obliterate a clear sense of pitch
height. Listeners were asked to rate the suitability of the key-probe as a tonic or
key-note for the pattern on a scale of " 1 " to "6," where " 1 " represented "very
good " and " 6 " represented "very poor." They were told that the timbre of the
key-probe would be different from that of the pattern, the purpose being to
remind them not to rate the key-probe for melodic continuity or completion but
as an abstract key-center for the pattern.
Nine practice patterns were each paired with each of five randomly selected key-probes. Practice trials consisted of the 45 pairings of patterns and
probes presented in random order for ratings by listeners. Practice trials were
followed by test trials in which each of the test patterns was paired with each of
12 key-probes. In the test trials, two patterns and their pairings with the 12 keyprobes were replicated (major triad pattern with ascending contour and fifths
pattern with reversing contour). The replication trials were randomly interleaved with all other trials and allowed an assessment of internal reliability.
Five additional practice patterns were embedded among the test patterns in
order to encourage the listener to expect a variety of diatonic patterns. The
order of pairings of patterns and probes, and location of the pattern within the
frequency range, were independently randomized across trials for each listener.
Each session consisted of 45 trials in the practice phase followed by 180
trials in the test phase and lasted about one hour.
Results and Discussion
For each test pattern, a set of mean ratings across the 13 listeners was
obtained for each of the 12 pitch-classes of key-probes. This set of ratings will
be called the key-probe profile for the pattern.
The eight panels of Figure 1 show the set of mean ratings obtained for each
of the eight test patterns. For purposes of illustration, the various transpositions
of each pattern have been collapsed to a single frequency locationthe note112

Psychomusicology Fall 1991

C 4 E 4 G4

E4 G4 C4

2-I
34
5H
Major Triad Ascending

Major Triad Reversing

I 1I I I I I I I I I I

I I I I I I I I I I I I

DbAbEbBb F C G D A E B F #

DbAb EbBb F C G D A E B F #

CFG

Q4C4F4

y\.
5-

Fifth Patterns Ascending.

i i i i i i i i i i i i
C Eb G

<

45"

kA^.

i i i i i i i i i i i i
DbAb EbBb F C G D A E B F I

DbAb EbBb F C G D A E B F #
4

Fifth Patterns Reversing

G 4 CEb 4

23"
5-

Minor Triad Ascending

i i i i i i i i i i i i

Minor Triad Reversing

I I I I I I I I I I I

DbAbEbBb F C G D A E B F #

DbAbEbBb F C G D A E B F #

eEb 4 Gb 4

Eb4Gb4C4

WW-

4-

4-1

5"
Diminshed Triad Ascending

Diminshed Triad Reversing

I I I I I I I I I I I I

i i i i i i i i i i i i

DbAbEbBb F C G D A E B F #

DbAbEbBb F C G D A E B F #

KEY-PROBE ORDERED BY CYCLE OF FIFTHS

Figure 1. Key-probe profiles for the eight test patterns (Experiment 1). From
top to bottom, the panels represent major triads, fifths patterns, minor triads,
and diminished triads. The left-hand column is ascending pitch contour, the
right-hand column is reversing pitch contour. The note names for the key
probes on the horizontal axis align with the notes of the specific exemplar of
each pattern given within each panel.
Cuddy

113

names exemplified in each panel. The vertical axis of each panel is mean rating.
The horizontal axis is key-probe ordered according to the cycle of fifths. The
note-names for the key-probes are assigned with respect to the exemplar of
each pattern, described further below. Exemplars for the left- and right-hand
panels are paired so that in each row key-probe profiles refer to the same pitch
content. Two panels, representing the profiles for the major triad pattern with
ascending contour and the fifths pattern with reversing contour, include the
data for replicated patterns.
The left-hand column of Figure 1 shows the mean ratings for patterns with
ascending contours. Each pattern is illustrated by an exemplar that begins on
C4, and the names of the key-probes on the horizontal axis correspond to the
note-names of the particular exemplar. The key-probe C corresponds to C4 in
the exemplars and thus corresponds to the first note of the patterns in the lefthand column. For example, for the major triad pattern with ascending contour,
both replications, the key-probe assigned the highest rating for the exemplar
C4 E4 G4 was the key-probe C. Across the transpositions of the pattern, the keyprobe assigned the highest rating for the major triad pattern with ascending
contour was the pitch class of the first note (first serial position).
The right-hand column shows the data for patterns with reversing contours.
The exemplar for each panel in the right-hand column is the reversal of the
exemplar in the corresponding left-hand column. The key-probe C in each panel
in the right-hand column corresponds to C4 in the exemplar, and, as well, to the
serial position at which C4 occurred in the exemplar. Thus it can be seen, for
example, that for the major triad pattern with reversing contour, the key-probe
assigned the highest rating for the exemplar E4G4C4 was the key-probe C. Across
the transpositions of the pattern, the key-probe assigned the highest rating for
the major triad pattern with reversing contour was the pitch class of the last note
of the pattern (third serial position).
Inspection of Figure 1 reveals that for major triad patterns, fifths patterns,
and minor triad patterns, ratings for key-probes on either side of the key-probe
given the highest rating tended to decrease in a fairly regular fashion. Ratings
for key-probes appeared systematically related to distance on the cycle of fifths;
ratings tended to decrease as distance of the key-probe increased, in either
direction, from the key-probe given the highest mean rating. For the diminished
triad patterns (bottom panels of Figure 1), ratings did not appear to be systematically related to distance on the cycle of fifths.
The ratings collected for each test pattern were subjected to ANOVA (onefactor repeated measures, conducted separately for each pattern). Table 1 shows
the results of the ANOVA. The rows in Table 1 represent the different patterns;
the columns represent the two different orders of presentation. The upper entry
in each cell is the value of the F-ratio, based on 11 and 132 df. The middle entry
is 82, the component of the numerator of the F-ratio that is an estimate of the
variability of the treatment (population) means (Myers, 1979, p.84). The lower
entry is the estimate of error variance. The second entries on each line for the
major triad pattern with ascending contour and fifths pattern with reversing
contour are the results for the replication of the pattern represented by the cell.
114

PsychomusicologyFall 1991

The correlations between profiles for replicated patterns were highly significant (for the major triad pattern with ascending contour, r (10) = .87; for the
fifths pattern with reversing contour, r (10) = .90, both/? <.001).
The entries in Table 1 show significant differences among key-probe ratings for all test patterns except the diminished triad patterns. Inspection of the
table from the top to the bottom row reveals a gradual decrease in 92. The
systematic differences among key-probe ratings were greatest for the major
triad pattern with ascending pitch contour. The results for this pattern were
followed, in order, by the major triad pattern with reversing contour and the
fifths patterns, then followed by the minor and diminished triad patterns.4 These
Table 1
Summary statistics for key-probe profiles for eight stimulus patterns (Experiment 1). The upper entry in each cell is the F-ratio for the profile data. The
middle entry is 92, an estimate of variance among the mean ratings. The lower
entry is the MS error
Pitch contour
Pattern
Major triad

Fifths

Minor triad

Diminished triad

Ascending
6.57****, 6.54

Reversing
5 g7****

.82, .82

.55

1.91, 1.92

1.47

479****

5 44**** 5.89****

.45

.50, .57

1.54

1.45,1.51

3.30***

2.64**

.28

.20

1.67

1.58

1.37

1.01

.05
1.71

.002
1.77

Note: **** p < .0001, *** p < .001, ** p < .005

decreases in systematic differences were not accompanied by a systematic increase in error variance (the listener x key-probe interaction).
The results of Table 1 indicate that the key-probe ratings were most clearly
differentiated for the major triad pattern with ascending contour, and most
weakly differentiated for the diminished triad patterns. The differences between patterns cannot be attributed to differences in the consistency of the
response strategies across listeners. Rather, for a given pattern, listeners were
i n agreement as to the degree of differentiation among key-probes.
Cuddy

115

Table 2
Correlations between key-probe profiles and standardized profiles around the
cycle of fifths (Experiment 1). The correlation for the best-fitting
standardized
profile is underlined
Pattern: Major triad ascending
Standardized major key profile
Db
Ab
Eb
Bb
F
C
G
D
-.13
.04
.06
.30
.79
.80
.20 -.24
-.23 -.20
.26
.31
.65
.79
.27 -.33
Pattern: Major triad reversing
Standardized major key profile
Db
Ab
Eb
Bb
F
C
G
D
-.11
.13 -.03
.07
.69
TL
.11 -.22
Pattern: Fifths pattern ascending
Standardized major key profile
Db
Ab
Eb
Bb
F
C
G
D
-.09
.14 -.36
.60
M
.63
.12 -.33
Pattern: Fifths pattern reversing
Standardized major key profile
Bb
F
C
G
D
.20
.21
.32
.74
J9
.26 -.15 -.39
.34
.32
.27
.54
J3
.24 -.37 -.48
Standardized minor key profile
db
ab
eb
bb
f
c
g
d
,51 -.35 -.09
.47
J5
.26
.32
.48
-.26 -.29 -.08
.43
.18
.09
.34
.85
Pattern: Minor triad ascending
Standardized minor key profile
db
ab
eb
bb
f
c
g
d
-.08
.07 -.21
.06
.49
J%
.03 -.30
Pattern: Minor triad reversing
Standardized major key profile
Db
Ab
Eb
Bb
F
C
G
D
.38
.84
,86
.37
.12 -.01 -.32 -.68
Pattern: Diminished triad ascending
Standardized minor key profile
db
ab
eb
bb
f
c
g
d
.01
.22
.21 -.09
.09
.52 -.40 -.55
Pattern: Diminished triad reversing
Standardized major key profile
Db
Ab
Eb
Bb
F
C
G
D
.60
.63
.09 -.14 -.09 -.16 -33
-.35

C4 E4 G4

Exemplar:
A
-.43
-.52

E
-.54
-.42

B
-.49
-.41

E4G4C4

Exemplar:
A
-.23

E
-.31

B
,40

E
-.72

B
-,58

Exemplar:

F#
-.46

C4F4G4

Exemplar::
A
-.63

F#
-.34
,56

F#
-.34

G4 C4 F4

A
-.60
-.43

E
-.64
-.45

B
-,52
-,50

F#
-.22
-.21

a
-.05
.06

e
-.38
-.36

b
-,41
-.66

f#
-.48
-.31

Exemplar: C4 Eb4 G4
a
.06

e
.08

b
-.30

f#
-.53

Exemplar: G 4 C 4 Eb 4
A
.69

E
-.53

Exemplar:
a
.06

e
-.08

Exemplar:
A
.27

E
-.26

B
-.29

F#
-.06

C 4 Eb 4 Gb 4
b
.03

f#
-.02

Eb 4 Gb 4 C 4
B
.02

F#
-.25

Note: For r(10) = .71, p < .005.

116

Psychomusicology Fall 1991

The next analysis examined the relationship between the key-probe profiles reported in Figure 1 and the standardized profiles for major and minor keys
derived by Krumhansl and Kessler (1982). The standardized profiles are a set of
ratings obtained for the major and for the minor key by averaging the probetone profiles for several key-defining contextschords and chord cadences.
Krumhansl and Kessler (1982) demonstrated that an abstract representation of
key relationships may be recovered from the standardized profiles and expressed
as two circular configurationsthe cycle of fifths and the cycle of thirds, respectively.
A best-fitting standardized profile was sought for each of the key-probe
profiles in Figure 1. The ratings for each key-probe profile were correlated with
the ratings for the standardized profiles for each of the 12 major and 12 minor
keys. The highest positive correlation was determined, and the key of the standardized profile yielding the highest correlation, if significant, was selected as
the best-fit. Because of the large number of correlations involved, the criterion
for significance was set at .005, higher than the conventional level.
Table 2 shows the set of correlations for the entire cycle of keys around the
best-fitting key. The correlation for the best-fitting key is underlined. The assignment of key-names in Table 2 corresponds to the exemplar of each pattern
given in the table and also in each panel of Figure 1.
Two sets of correlations are provided for the major triad pattern with ascending contour and fifths pattern with reversing contour, one set for each
replication of the pattern. In addition, for the fifths pattern with reversing contour exemplified as G4C4 F4, F major was the best-fitting key for one replication, f minor was the best-fitting key for the other. Both cycles, therefore, are
given in Table 2. It can be seen that both F major and f minor are possible
selections for best-fitting key for this exemplar.
No best-fitting key was found for either diminished triad pattern according
to the above criterion for significance, probably because, as noted above, differences among key-probe ratings for these patterns were not reliable. The
cycles containing the nearest fitting keys for the diminished triad patterns are
included in the table. It may be noted that the key of Db, the diatonic key
logically implicated by the pattern Eb4 Gb4 C4, is weakly implicated in the
correlational data.
For major triad patterns, fifths patterns, and minor triad patterns, the variance shared between the key-probe profile and a standardized profile was greater
than the residual variance. There was, however, a systematic effect in the residual variability of the key-probe profiles that lends itself to musical interpretation. For profiles best fit by a major key, the key-probe corresponding to the
subdominant was rated higher than the key-probe corresponding to the mediant.
The direction of this difference is opposite to the direction of the difference in
the standardized profile for the major key. The finding may mean that keyprobe ratings are slightly drawn along the cycle of fifths toward the key in
which the tonic note performs a dominant function. (This result is also evident
in Table 2.) The profile for the major triad chord contains a similar tendency
(Krumhansl & Kessler, 1982).
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117

A further correlational analysis was conducted to examine an alternative

account of the obtained variability in key-probe ratings. The alternative account was that ratings simply reflected the tones contained in the pattern. Two
sets of predictors were derived and will be referred to as the unweighted version
and the weighted version, respectively, of a pattern-content model. For the
unweighted version, it was assumed that key-probes were rated according to
whether or not the pitch-class of the key-probe matched the pitch-class of one
of the notes that occurred in the test pattern. Thus, the values entered for the
unweighted predictor were " 1 , " for the notes that occurred in the test pattern,
and "0" for all other notes. For the weighted version, it was assumed, in addition
Table 3
Correlations between key-probe profiles and predictors based on unweighted
version (upper entry in each cell) and weighted version (lower entry in each
cell) of a pattern-content model (Experiment 1)
Pitch contour
Pattern
Major triad

Fifths

Minor triad

Diminished triad

Ascending

Reversing

.47, .58

.45

.60, .65

.49

.89

.68, .63

.81

.72, .68

.58

.62

.68

.62

.67

.32

.68

.41

Note: For r(10) = .71, p < .005.

to the above, that greater weight was assigned to the first and last note of the
pattern (i.e., the first and third serial position). The values for the weighted
predictor were "2" for the first and third serial position of the pattern," 1" for the
middle position, and "0" for all other notes. Correlations between the keyprobe ratings and the predicted values for each version of the pattern-content
model are shown in Table 3.
The format of Table 3 is identical to Table 1. The upper entry in each cell is
the correlation obtained between key-probe ratings and the unweighted predictor values.The lower entry in each cell is the correlation obtained between keyprobe ratings and the weighted predictor values. The second entries on each
line for the major triad pattern with ascending contour and fifths pattern with
reversing contour are the results for the replication of the pattern represented by
the cell.
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Table 3 reveals a slight advantage of the weighted version of the patterncontent model over the unweighted version for eight of the ten pairs of correlations. (Correlations were higher, on the average, by about .05). Even so, the
weighted version of the pattern-content model did not suggest a more promising account of the key-probe profiles than an account based on the standardized
profiles. Correlations for the weighted version of the pattern-content model
were lower than those obtained for the best-fitting standardized profile in all
cases except the diminished triad pattern with ascending contour. Moreover,
for the weighted version of the pattern-content model, only two correlations
were significant beyond the .005 level.
A comparison between the underlined correlations in Table 2 and the correlations in Table 3 suggests that tonal hierarchy predictors usually accounted
for a greater amount of the variability in key-probe ratings than did predictors
based solely on pattern-content. This suggestion was followed by conducting
hierarchical regression on the entire set of key-probe profiles (10 patterns x 12
probes). The weighted version of the pattern-content model was entered first
into the regression and accounted for 36% of the variance (p < .001). The bestfitting standardized profile was entered second and accounted for an additional
20% of the variance (p < .001). Thus, there was systematic evidence that the
key-probe ratings were not merely indicative of pattern-content, but also contained information about tonal structure.5
The results of the first experiment suggest that the major triad pattern with
ascending contour occupied a privileged position among the patterns tested.
This pattern was associated with the greatest amount of differentiation among
the key-probe ratings. It was followed, in amount of differentiation among keyprobe ratings, by the major triad with reversing contour, and the fifths patterns.
Much weaker differentiation among key-probe ratings occurred for minor and
diminished triad patterns. This ordering did not correspond to the ordering of
the number of keys logically implicated by the patterns.
Experiment II
In the first experiment, it was found that key-probe ratings for major triad
patterns, fifths patterns, and minor triad patterns implicated tonal centers and
tonal hierarchies. The major triad pattern with ascending contour was a particularly effective context in that it yielded the strongest differentiation among
key-probes and the clearest indication of tonal structure. In the second experiment, converging evidence for this finding was sought. Rather than assessing
structure through the analysis of key-probe ratings, the second experiment collected direct judgments of structural quality or "goodness" for the patterns
(Cuddy, Cohen, & Mewhort, 1981; Garner, 1974), and judgments of major/
minor quality.
Method
There were two successive parts to the experiment; 18 listeners participated in both parts. Listeners had not participated in the first experiment. In the
first part, listeners were asked to rate the perceived structural goodness of each
Cuddy

119

pattern on a 6-point scale. It was suggested to listeners that structural goodness

referred to the degree to which the notes held together as a "good form" or
coherent pattern. On the 6-point scale, " 1 " represented "very high structure,
cohesiveness, or good form" and "6" represented "very low structure, cohesiveness, or good form." In the second part, listeners were asked to rate each
pattern on a 6-point scale for "major/minor quality" where " 1 " represented
"very strong major quality" and "6" represented "very strong minor quality."
Both parts of the experiment began with practice trials in which each of the
practice patterns were presented once and rated. The practice trials were followed by the experimental trials. The set of experimental trials contained an
example of each test pattern plus the two replicated patterns and five patterns
Table 4
Ratings of structural goodness for eight stimulus patterns (Experiment 2).
The upper entry in each cell is mean rating; the lower entry is standard
error of the mean. On the rating scale, "1" represented "very high" and
"6" represented "very low"
Pitch contour
Pattern
Major triad

Fifths

Minor triad

Diminished triad

Ascending

Reversing

1.83,2.17

3.00

.23, .27

.26

2.83

2.56,2.61

.27

.26, .25

2.61

3.78

.27

.26

3.22

4.06

.28

.27

from the set of practice patterns. As noted above, the order of presentation of
the patterns, and the frequency location within the range, were both independently randomized for each listener.
Each session, therefore, consisted of 9 trials in the practice phase and 15
trials in the test phase for ratings of structural goodness, then 9 trials in the
practice phase and 15 trials in the test phase for ratings of major/minor quality.
The entire session lasted less than half-an-hour.
Results and Discussion
Table 4 shows the mean rating of structural goodness for each of the eight
test patterns (upper entry in each cell) and the standard error of the mean (lower
entry in each cell). The format of Table 4 is the same as that of Table 1. Inspection of Table 4 yields the following observations, supported by tests of orthogonal contrasts within the ANOVA.
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Major triad patterns and fifths patterns received higher ratings of structural
goodness than minor triad and diminished triad patterns, F (1,17) = 19.59, p <
.001. Differences within the set of means for major triad patterns and fifths
patterns depended on pitch contour. For patterns with ascending pitch contours, the major triad pattern received higher ratings than the fifths pattern, F
(1, 17) = 6.54, p < .02; for reversing contours, the means were reversed, but
were not significantly different, F (1, 17) = 1.22,p > .20.
Differences within the set of means for minor and diminished triad patterns appear to favor higher ratings for minor triads than for diminished triads,
but the differences were not significant (for ascending contours, F (1, 17) =
2.37, p > .10; for reversing contours, F (1, 17) = .60 ns). For both minor and
Table 5
Ratings of majorI minor quality for eight stimulus patterns (Experiment 2). The
upper entry in each cell is mean rating; the lower entry is standard error of the
mean. On the rating scale, "1" represented "very strong major quality" and
"6" represented "very strong minor quality"
Pitch contour
Pattern
Major triad

Fifths

Minor triad

Diminished triad

Ascending

Reversing

1.39, 1.39

2.83

21, .22

.32

2.89

2.50,2.17

.29

.29, .26

5.33

4.83

.25

.25

5.33

5.06

.22

.24

diminished triad patterns, patterns with ascending pitch contour received higher
ratings than patterns with reversing contours, F (1, 17) = 15.30, p < .001. The
two means collected for each replicated pattern were similar (for the major triad
patterns with ascending contour, F (1,17) = 3.40, p > .05; for the fifths patterns
with reversing contour, F (1,17) = .06 ns). The set of standard errors was stable;
moreover, standard errors were not systematically related to mean ratings.
Table 5 shows the results for the ratings of major/minor quality. The format of Table 5 is identical to that of Table 1. Inspection of Table 5 yields the
following observations, supported by tests of orthogonal contrasts within the
ANOVA.
Major triad patterns and fifths patterns were judged to convey a strong
sense of major key; minor and diminished triad patterns were judged to convey
a strong sense of minor key. The difference in ratings was highly significant, F
(1, 17) = 90.18,/? < .0001. The differences between major triad and fifths patCuddy
121

terns were similar in direction to those found for ratings of structural goodness.
For patterns with ascending pitch contours, the major triad received higher
ratings of major quality than the fifths pattern, F (1, 17) = 20.55, p < .001; for
reversing contours, the means were reversed, but were not significantly different, F (1,17) = 1.78,/? > .15).
The slight differences between means for minor and diminished triad patterns were not significant (all contrastsp > .15). The two mean ratings collected
for each replicated pattern were similar (means for the major triad patterns with
ascending contour were identical; means for the fifths patterns with reversing:
contour were not significantly different; F (1, 17) = 1.06, p> .30). The set of
standard errors was stable; moreover* standard errors were not systematically
related to mean ratings.
In both parts of the experiment; the major triad pattern with ascending
contour was assigned a privileged position. Of all patterns tested, this pattern
was associated with the highest degree of structural quality in the first part of
the experiment and the strongest conveyor of major quality in the second part
(both overall, and in comparison to other major and fifths patterns).
Differences between the two parts of the experiment may also be noted. In
particular, the perceptual structure of minor and diminished triad patterns was
judged to be weak to moderate but the minor quality of these patterns was
judged to be clear and strong.
The reliability of the replications; and the stability of the standard errors in
both parts of the experiment, are indicators of the consistency of listeners^
response strategies for both tasks. Had minor and diminished triad patterns
elicited a greater variety of individual strategies than major triad and fifths
patterns, significantly greater between-subject variability would be expected
for the former patterns than fbr the latten
General Discussion
The initial motivation for the present experiments was to search for converging evidence to support the distinction drawn between tonal structures
conveyed by the major and the diminished triad (Cuddy & Badertscher, 1987).
Cuddy and Badertscher's (1987) data showed that a major triad pattern was
more effective in recovering the tonal hierarchy than a diminished triad pattern.
In the first experiment reported here, key-probe profiles for the major triad
patterns revealed a clear sense of key center, and contained information about
the tonal hierarchy of the key. Key-probe profiles for the diminished triad patterns did not yield reliable evidence of a sense of tonal structure. In the second
experiment, both structural quality and the sense of major modality were rated
significantly higher for the major triad patterns than for the diminished triad
patterns. These differences between the major triad and diminished triad patterns are convergent with the differences reported by Cuddy and Badertscher
(1987). Altering the order of the notes in the triads, in the present experiments,
did not reverse these findings, but, rather, preserved the direction of the differences.

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Psychomusicology Fall 1991

Supplementary evidence was provided by the testing of fifths patterns and

minor triad patterns. Findings for the fifths patternthe most ambiguous of all
patterns tested in terms of number of keys implicatedyielded data that resembled the data for major triad patterns. Key-probe profiles yielded evidence
of a strong tonal center. Ratings of structural quality and major modality were
almost as high as those for major triad patterns and significantly higher than
ratings for the diminished triad patterns.
Key-probe profiles for minor triad patterns also yielded a sense of tonal
center, but, compared to key-probe profiles for major triad patterns, the distinction between key-probes was much weaker. Minor triad patterns were judged to
be of moderate to weak structural quality, but to yield a strong sense of minor
modality. The association of weak or ambiguous tonal structure with minor
quality (also found for diminished triads) is worth pursuing; it may bear on the
affective character of minor triads and modes. Major triads are associated with
positive affect, minor with negative affect (Crowder, 1984, 1985; Crowder &
Kastner, 1989). Meyer (1956) has commented that the minor mode "is both
more ambiguous and less stable than the major mode" (p. 226). The association
of the minor mode with negative affect (i.e., anguish and suffering) he attributes
to the "deviant, unstable character" (p. 228) of the mode; it is "quasi-chromatic
and changeable" (p.224).
Examination of the results for all four patterns tested yielded no support for
any account that attributes perceived tonal structure of a pattern primarily to the
number of diatonic keys logically implicated. Moreover, there was no support
for the possibility that key-probe ratings for all four patterns merely reflected
pattern content. Key-probe ratings for major triad, fifths, and minor triad patterns also contained evidence of sensitivity to tonal structure conveyed by the
patterns.
Overall, the evidence supports the notion that the degree of tonal structure
conveyed by short melodic patterns is dependent on the ease with which a
pattern can be mapped on a stable, abstract, internally consistent representation
of the hierarchical pitch relationships of Western tonal music. A pattern such as
the major triad, which contains both psychoacoustic and cognitive cues that are
prototypic of the pitch structure of Western tonal music, readily accesses this
representation. Of the remaining patterns tested, results for the fifths patterns
most closely resembled results for the major triad patterns. This finding suggests that the fifths patterns deviated least from the prototype and accessed an
internal representation of tonal relationships more readily than did the remaining patterns.
The present data (Experiment 1), Cuddy and Badertscher (1987), and Krumhansl
and Kessler (1982) all converge on the finding that the major triad most strongly
instantiates the key of its root. This clear sense of tonal center doubtlessly
facilitates the recovery of the hierarchical relationships among tones within
that key, and relationships of that key to other keys. Such an interpretation does
not imply an "all-or-nothing" approach to tonality. Although the major triad C
E G most strongly instantiates C as a tonal center, it also implicates the two
other diatonic keys to which the triad belongsF next, and then G (Figure 1).
Cuddy

123

The point here, however, is that not all keys are implicated to the same degree.
Rather, the implication of key relationships involves a hierarchical structure.
Multiple tonalities or key-centers may exist simultaneously, but with perceptual priority assigned according to hierarchical principles of organization.
A number of issues remain to be addressed. Questions remain concerning
the cues used to detect tonal centers for patterns deviating from the prototype,
and the role of music experience in the implementation of these cues. Listeners
may have multiple strategies availablefor example, strategies to listen for
specific interval distributions, interval sequences, or implied harmonic progressions. It is promising to note, in answer to Butler's (19S9,1990) criticism
that strategies to rate probe tones are unreliable, that listeners in our experiments produced reliable responses to a given test pattern. Thus, although listeners may flexibly adapt strategies in order to deal with a specific pattern,fhey do
so consistently.
Questions remain concerning the effects of serial order of the tones ^f
melodic patterns. The data suggest that patterns with ascending pitch contour
are perceived as more structurally coherent than patterns with reversing contour (with the possible exception of fifths patterns). This finding may reflect a
general perceptual process described by the Gestalt principle of "good continuation," but given that a limited number of serial orders was tested, no firtn
conclusion can be made.
Further questions concern the role of larger contexts. According to the
present evidence, the rare interval of a tritone is not a reliable cue to tonal
structure. This finding, of course, leaves open the possibility that the tritone
may serve to consolidate or to disambiguate tonal information conveyed by
longer melodic patterns (Cuddy et al., 1981) or folk-melodies (Boltz, 198$).
However, other "predictable, prototypical aspects of a tonality" may be of greater
importance in establishing the tonal strength of a melody (Dowling, 1991, p.
307).
The present work was addressed to Butler's criticisms of Cuddy and Badertscher
(1987). It provides no support for the notton that the results obtained by Cuddy
and Badertscher (1987) were simply Artifacts of a flawed methodology. Instead, the theoretical interpretation of these results in terms of the representation of the tonal hierarchy (Krumhansl, 1990) or the stability conditions of the
basic pitch space (Lerdahl, 1988) is further strengthened by the converging
evidence of the present experiments.
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Footnotes
The above description of logical implications of intervallic patterns is simplified
by referring only to the diatonic system, and this simplification will be retained in the
present discussion. It is acknowledged that patterns may also implicate other systems,
such as the minor modes (Butler, 1989, Footnote 13). Minor systems, however, introduce additional complexities, such as the presence of several variants, and the loss of
the unique-multiplicity principle for all but the variant known as the natural or pure
minor. Including the logical implications of minor keys for the patterns studied in the
present experiments does not change their relative ordering in terms of the total number
of keys implicated. Therefore the complexities of the minor systems with respect to the
analysis of logical implication need not be introduced further here.
2
The arrangment of notes in the fifths patterns was determined by a constraint to
keep the pitch range of all test patterns similar. Had the notes been arranged to form two
successive intervals of a fifth, the span would be greater than an octave and considerably greater than the span of any other test pattern. For both arrangements, however, the
frequency of occurrence of the intervals in the interval vector, and the number of keys
logically specified, is the same.
3
Because the present experiments were not intended to provide a systematic account of order effects, the direction of the reversal was selected arbitrarily with two
constraints. The first constraint was that there be fwo instances where the contour
ascended and then descended, and two instances where the contour descended and then
ascended. The second was that the reversing contour for the diminished triad could be
interpreted as a subdominant-to-dominant progression.
4
Fourier analysis of the profiles (Cuddy & Badertschef, 1987; Krumhansl, 1990)
produced analogous results. The total amount of variance attributable to the harmonic
partials (total variability about the mean) was calculated for each profile. The ordering
of patterns from greatest to least amount of variance was major triad patterns, fifths
patterns, minor triad patterns, and finally, diminished triad patterns.
5
Because of the unreliable nature of the ratings for diminished triad patterns (Table
1), the overall hierarchical regression was also conducted excluding the diminished
triad patterns. The result was similar to that reported in the text above, with a gain of 7%
in total variance accounted for.
1

Author Notes
This research was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research
Council of Canada and the Advisory Research Committee of Queen's University. Karen
Smith and Alan Marr provided excellent technical assistance. Valuable comments on
an earlier draft were provided by A.J. Cohen, C.L. Krumhansl, and M.G. Wiebe. Editorial comments of M.R. Jones and four anonymous reviewers are also gratefully acknowledged. Requests for reprints should be sent to L.L. Cuddy, Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7L 3N6.
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