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Related Concept Videos

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Resonance is produced depending on the boundary conditions imposed on a wave. Resonance can be produced in a string under tension with symmetrical boundary conditions (i.e., has a node at each end). A node is defined as a fixed point where the string does not move. The symmetrical boundary conditions result in some frequencies resonating and producing standing waves, while other frequencies interfere destructively. Sound waves can resonate in a hollow tube, and the frequencies of the sound...
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fMRI Mapping of Brain Activity Associated with the Vocal Production of Consonant and Dissonant Intervals
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A biological rationale for musical consonance.

Daniel L Bowling1, Dale Purves2

  • 1Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria; purves@neuro.duke.edu dan.bowling@univie.ac.at.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|July 26, 2015
PubMed
Summary

Musical consonance is best explained by biology, specifically the advantages of recognizing human vocalizations. Mathematical and physical theories do not align with accumulated evidence on music perception.

Keywords:
auditionbiologyconsonancemusicvocalization

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Area of Science:

  • Auditory neuroscience
  • Psychoacoustics
  • Music cognition

Background:

  • The perception of musical consonance remains a long-standing enigma in music cognition and auditory science.
  • Previous explanations for consonance have centered on mathematical ratios, physical acoustics, and biological factors.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the validity of competing theories explaining musical consonance.
  • To determine the most plausible biological basis for the perception of musical harmony.

Main Methods:

  • Review and synthesis of existing evidence from psychoacoustics, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology.
  • Critical analysis of mathematical and physical models of consonance against empirical data.

Main Results:

  • Evidence increasingly contradicts explanations based on mathematical simplicity (small integer ratios).
  • Physical explanations related to harmonic spectral interference are also inconsistent with empirical findings.
  • Biological explanations, particularly those linking consonance to the recognition of human vocalizations, are strongly supported by accumulated data.

Conclusions:

  • The perception of musical consonance is likely rooted in biological advantages related to vocalization recognition.
  • Biological factors provide a more robust and evidence-based explanation for musical consonance than mathematical or physical theories.