Tempo Relations in Music: A Universal?

A universal model of esthetic perception based on the sensory coding of natural stimuli

“…Universally valid principles of composition have yet to be discovered. One notable exception is the (cross-cultural) observation that music is performed according to a steady beat; if tempi change during the performance, they relate to each other by means of low order integral ratios (1:2, 2:3, 3:4, or the inverse) (Epstein, 1988).…”

Biology and Culture in Musical Emotions

“…Indeed, several aspects of musical perception appear to be universal characteristics. In processing music human beings characteristically distinguish signals from noise, perceive music in chunks, recognize a kind of equivalence between a tone and its octave, stretch octaves at higher frequencies, organize musical signals in terms of melodic contour, experience melodic patterns that ricochet back and forth between different parts of the frequency range as two melodic lines, categorically perceive pitches and rhythms (hearing slightly sharp or flat tones or slightly mistimed events as on the mark), prefer intervals with small integer frequency ratios between the tones, attend more to overall timing patterns than to the timing of specific events, utilize scales of typically five to seven tones as frameworks, experience pitches within the scale as hierarchically organized, normalize rhythm, employ tones of uneven temporal length, keep tempo in proportion from movement to movement in long works, and apply Gestalt principles to musical signals (Dowling & Harwood, 1986; Epstein, 1988; Meyer, 1956; Patel, 2008).…”

Understanding Artful Behavior as a Human Proclivity: Clues from a Pre-Kindergarten Classroom

“…Others (Golomb 1993(Golomb , 1992Kellog 1969;Lowenfeld, 1947;Lucquet, 1913) emphasize the developmental trajectory of mark making over the potential for a pervasive and persistent predisposition toward artful behavior. Empirical and theoretical research has been dedicated to exploring the universality and similarities of art forms around the globe or the biological basis for aesthetic appreciation (Aiken, 1998;Alland, 1989;Coss, 1965;De Sousa, 2004;Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1988;Epstein, 1988;Feist, 2007;Feist & Brady, 2004;Martindale, Locher, & Petrov, 2007;Ramachandran & Hirstein, 1999;Smith, 2005;Turner, 1999;Turner & Pöppel, 1988Voland & Grammer, 2003). To my knowledge, however, few scholars have explicitly and empirically explored the possibility that artful behavior itself is an inherent human proclivity, and even fewer have sought to fully understand the pedagogical implications of such a possibility (Sarason, 1990).…”