The Harmonic Minor Scale Provides an Optimum Way of Reducing Average Melodic Interval Size, Consistent with Sad Affect Cues

Abstract

Small pitch movement is known to characterize sadness in speech prosody. Small melodic interval sizes have also been observed in nominally sad music -at least in the case of Western music. Starting with melodies in the major mode, a study is reported which examines the effect of different scale modifications on the average interval size. Compared with all other possible scale modifications, lowering the third and sixth scale tones from the major scale is shown to provide an optimum or near optimum way of reducing the average melodic interval size for a large diverse sample of major-mode melodies. The results are consistent with the view that Western melodic organization and the major-minor polarity are co-adapted, and that the structure of the minor mode contributes to the evoking, expressing or representation of sadness for listeners enculturated to the major scale.Submitted 2012 September 4; accepted 24 September 2012. KEYWORDS: minor mode, sadness, melodic interval, scalesKRAEPELIN (1899/1921) identified five characteristics of sad speech: (1) low overall pitch, (2) small pitch movement, (3) quieter, (4) mumbled articulation, and (5) slower speaking rate. Over the past century, Kraepelin's clinical observations have been confirmed through controlled experimental studies. With regard to small pitch movement, sad vocal prosody is more "monotone" compared with normal voice (Banse & Scherer, 1996;Bergmann, Goldbeck & Scherer, 1988;Breitenstein, van Lancker, & Daum, 2001;Davitz, 1964;Eldred & Price, 1958;Fairbanks & Pronovost, 1939;Huttar, 1968;Skinner, 1935;Sobin & Alpert, 1999;Williams & Stevens, 1972). Wide pitch excursions are associated with high physiological arousal, such as occurs in joy or anger. By contrast, low variability of the fundamental pitch (F0) is characteristic of low arousal, including both sad voice and sleepy voice.In historical and cross-cultural studies, music-related sadness is one of the most commonly described affects. In his volume De Medicina, the first century Roman physician Aulus Celsus described how "playing soft music" might be used to treat the mental stupor thought to be caused by an excess of black bile-a condition Celsus described by its literal Latin term, melancholia. Similar descriptions of music's ability to evoke or temper sadness can be found in many historical texts spanning many cultures, including ancient Egyptian, Chinese, Hebrew, Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit sources. Apart from historical sources, there also exist both ethnographic and empirical descriptions of grief-or sadness-related musical experiences in many cultures. Laments, sorrow songs, dirges, elegies, and mourning-song traditions are evident around the world, especially in eastern Europe (e.g., Mazo, 1994;Seremetakis, 1991;Wilce, 2009), Africa (e.g., Anyumba, 1964Nketia, 1975), the Middle East and Asia (e.g., Naroditskaya, 2000;Racy, 1986;Wilce, 2002), and Oceania and Australia (e.g., Feld, 1982/1990Magowan, 2007;Moyle, 1987).Sadness has been one of the most commonly studied affects in resea...

Major-Minor Tonality, Schenkerian Prolongation, and Emotion: A commentary on Huron and Davis (2012)

“…Schenker explained the stepwise filling-in of intervals between harmonic tones with the term Zug (linear progression), which is a form of prolongation (Forte & Gilbert, 1982). 3.Most interesting for the present study, transition probabilities depend on scale degrees relative to the tonic. As Huron and Davis (2012) showed in their Figure 2, which is the same as Figure 9.7 in Huron (2006), some scale-degree transitions are much more common than others. The most common transitions in major-key melodies are the falling steps from 5 to 4, 4 to 3, 3 to 2 and 2 to 1-consistent with points 1 and 2 above.…”

“…Evidently we have not, but things are moving in a promising direction. The contribution by Huron and Davis (2012) is a significant step towards a new explanation, and it also has interesting broader implications. In this extended commentary, I will present a new approach that builds upon their work.…”

“…Huron and Davis (2012) additionally showed that a part of this difference is inherent in the structure of major and minor scales, in combination with typical patterns of transition between scale steps: if one takes a typical major melody and lowers scale steps 3 and 6 by a semitone, then the average interval size is optimally reduced. I present an alternative theory of the origin of major and minor scales/keys and their emotional connotations.…”

“…In the following, I will combine this approach with Huron's findings to construct a new explanation for the emotional connotations of major and minor keys that brings together ideas and approaches from both humanities and sciences. Huron and Davis (2012) observed that the pitch range of speech is larger in happy than sad speech, and asked whether the same is true for music. A comparison of major and minor melodies shows that the answer is yes, but the difference is rather small.…”

A Perceptual Study of Scale-degree Qualia in Context

“…However, there appear to be some qualitative aspects that are not learned statistically. Specifically, the association of both happy/sad and bright/dark with high/low (respectively) have been associated with ethological cues (Huron, 2015;Huron & Davis, 2013;Kraepelin, 1899Kraepelin, / 1990Morton, 1977). Studies have suggested that the association with bright/dark and high/low (respectively) may be an intrinsic characteristic of perception (e.g., Marks, Hammeal, & Bornstein, 1987).…”