Tonpsychologie

Abstract

The German polymath Carl Stumpf (1848–1936) influenced one of the most significant philosophical developments of the early twentieth century: his student, Edmund Husserl, founded modern phenomenology. In a distinguished academic career spanning more than five decades, Stumpf also contributed to the growth of Gestalt psychology and ethnomusicology. An accomplished amateur musician, he used experimental methods to further the scientific study of music theory. His best-known work, first published in two volumes between 1883 and 1890, rigorously investigates the psychology of tone and music, ranging in coverage from physiology to acoustics. Its aim is to elucidate the effect that sounds have on various psychological functions. In Volume 2, Stumpf focuses on describing how the mind responds to listening to different sounds at the same time. He addresses the fusion of different sounds as well as distinguishing between sound and noise.

Crossmodal correspondences: A tutorial review

“…Smith & Sera, 1992), 4 given that magnitude (regardless of the particular dimension under consideration) appears to be represented in the same way by the brain (see Walsh, 2003). Third, crossmodal correspondences may occur when the terms that people use to describe the stimuli in the two dimensions overlap, as for the words "low" and "high," which are used to describe both the elevation of a visual stimulus and the pitch of a sound (see Gallace & Spence, 2006;Martino & Marks, 1999;Melara, 1989b;Mudd, 1963;Stumpf, 1883). As we will see later, these three kinds of crossmodal correspondence-statistical, structural, and semantically mediated-may have different consequences for human information processing.…”

“…One of the most oft-cited examples of this class of correspondence is that documented between pitch and elevation. According to Stumpf (1883), pretty much every language uses the same words, "low" and "high," to describe stimuli that vary in pitch. Given that we use the same adjectives to describe the elevation of visual stimuli, linguistically mediated correspondences may underlie a third class of crossmodal correspondence (e.g., between pitch and elevation).…”

“…; Carello, Anderson, & Kunkler-Peck, 1998;Coward & Stevens, 2004;Grassi, 2005;Marks, 2000;McMahon & Bonner, 1983;D. R. R. Smith, Patterson, Turner, Kawahara, & Irino, 2005;Spence & Zampini, 2006;Stumpf, 1883). The frequency of acoustic resonance of a body also depends on its mass, its tension, and so forth.…”

Commentary on "Asynchronous Preparation of Tonally Fused Intervals in Polyphonic Music" by David Huron

“…As such, onset synchrony has no tendency whatsoever. Similarly, from the time of the classic early studies by Stumpf (1890), 'harmonicity' (defined in roughly Pythagorean terms) has been identified as the primary acoustic factor giving rise to a perceptual phenomenon known as 'tonal fusion.' In short, 'tonal fusion' refers to the formation of a unified percept in the perceptual domain, whereas 'onset synchrony' refers to a pattern variable in the acoustic domain.…”

Asynchronous Preparation of Tonally Fused Intervals in Polyphonic Music

“…Using data on tonal fusion collected by Stumpf (1890) and by DeWitt and Crowder (1987), Huron (1991a) showed that, compared with a pitch-proximity-controlled distribution of intervals, the frequency of occurrence of an interval (in polyphonic works) is negatively correlated with the degree to which that interval promotes tonal fusion. Moreover, a multiple regression analysis showed that 89 percent of the variance in Bach's interval "preference" (i.e., interval Z-scores) is accounted for by the twin goals of avoiding tonal fusion and pursuing tonal consonance.…”