A Study On The Factors Affecting The Perception Of Chord Consonance

The perception of chord harmony is an important role in our perception of music,which helps us understand the structure of music and influences our emotional responses to music.Many foreign researchers have conducted empirical studies on the chord consonance/dissonance and neurophysiological and psychological mechanisms.Meanwhile,there has been a large number of review articles published in China.Through a comprehensive review of foreign studies on chord consonance/dissonance,it can be summarized that subjects' perception of chord consonance may be affected by such factors as the music background of chord occurrence,music schema of listeners,their familiarity with music styles,and the acoustic characteristics of music.This dissertation sorts out the existing research literature,makes a comparative analysis of different empirical studies,and outlines some controversial problems and problems to be solved urgently in the existing research.Firstly,existing studies have produced inconsistent results on whether the experience of music can affect the perception of chord consonance.Secondly,perceiving music is an inherent cultural behavior,which may be influenced by the cultural background of the percipient and the music style type.Meanwhile,few studies have investigated the relationships between subjects with different cultural backgrounds and their music preferences,as well as their chord perception.In addition,most of the stimuli used in the study were limited to the major minor system,while few studies on the harmony of pentatonic mode.In this dissertation,two experiments are conducted to investigate the factorsinfluencing the chord consonance perception of the subjects.The first experiment mainly investigates the influence of music experience on the participants' perception of chord concordance.Most of the western theories on chord concord are derived from Helmholtz's theory,which holds that major triads and minor triads are both concord chords,as the intervals involved are all consonance intervals.They also argue that the augmented triad and diminished triad are both dissonant chords,because both the diminished fifth and the augmented fifth are dissonant intervals.Experiment 1 examines the consonance perception of the four different chord types by musicians and non-musicians.The stimulus material was presented to the subjects through a computer program,and the subjects used Likert 7-point to represent the consonance of their perceived chord by key response(1=dissonance,7=very consonance).The result shows that the order of consonance of the four chord types is consistent for both musicians and non-musicians,and the order of consonance to dissonance is: major > minor > diminished > augmented.As for major and minor chord types,musicians had higher concord level than non-musicians.In terms of the types of diminished and augmented triads,the opposite is true,as non-musicians perceive higher consonant levels than musicians.Experiment 2 investigates the influence of cultural background on the perception of chord consonance of the subjects.Subjects with different cultural backgrounds were examined during the experiment to see whether they had differences in the perception of the consonance of pentatonic chords.Pentatonic chord is a special chord structure formed on the basis of the combination of three-degree superposition and harmony in European major and minor and the combination of pentatonic mode in China.The experiment uses three pentatonic chords,including a third superimposed chord,a non-third superimposed chord,and an additive chord.The subjects were asked to rate each chord's by using a Likert 7-point scale after hearing each chord,with 1representing extreme dissonance and 7 representing extreme concordance.The experimental result shows that the Chinese subjects reported a higher concordant degree in all three chord types compared to the non-Chinese subjects,indicating that the music cultural difference affects the judgment of pentatonic chords.In addition,either Chinese or non-Chinese subjects,the order of consonance of three types of superposed chord,non-superposed chord and added chord is the same,and the order of consonance to dissonance is as the follow: triple superposed chord > non-superposed chord > added chord.This study explored different subjects' perception of chord concordance from the perspective of music training and cultural background.The results show that the order of consonance perception of the four triads is basically consistent with the results of previous studies.When rating the concordance of four types of triads,the grade difference of music professional subjects was more significant than that of non-music professional subjects.Both domestic and foreign subjects have the same perception order of Chinese pentatonic chord concordance,which provides ideas for future research on music culture.The research is based on the concept of "music" as "culture",and on the basis of cultural anthropology,it discusses and prospects the following research directions while summarizing the experience.Although cross-cultural music research is still in its infancy,if this kind of research becomes mainstream and develops,it will undoubtedly greatly promote people's understanding of music principle and broaden the horizon of music learning.