Joe B. Buttram

Perception of Musical Intervals

To investigate the influence of interval quale, pitch distance, tonal context, and relative distinctiveness on identification of musical intervals (harmonically presented), a test was devised. Ss (n = 2749) were required to make identifications under different conditions designed to assess the influence of the factors. The test consisted of five versions of the same material, one serving as a control. Tests for differences in mean accuracy of identification were significant (P = .01) for all versions. Observation of the order of difficulty in recognition showed significant changes in position and the distribution of errors occurred in the five versions (P = .01).