BY

University of Amsterdam

In this survey of the publications in the field of the pcjcholcgy of music, it was not possible to deal with all that has been published in estern Europe, The space which was allotted and the fact that a number of publications were not available, e.g. those of Burt, Sjiistrand and Wing’s thesis, forced us to restrict ourselves to the works which have been published during the last three decades. Even then a selection of the material was necessary.

The following themes were dealt with: Bahle’s investigation into the psychological processes involved in composing; investigations into the nature of the perceptions of musical structures, the phenomena of tonality, some tests in the field of psychology of music, the work of Rev&z an investigation of Wellek into the field of the sense of absolute pitch.

THE PROCES OF MUSICAL COMPOSITI~~N

The first investigator of this difficult proble was Julius Bahle, who noted, that the mere listening to compositions es not form a basis for conclusions concerning their conception and ori , which led him towards

two unique experiments. By means of the first of these two (2) he tried to investigate how musical motifs and melodies are formed, with the second experiment, he traced the composing of songs (7). In the third of his more extensive studies (10) he endeavors, starting from t se two experiments, to approximate the genesis of “musical inspiration”. is other pubhcations contain either a part of these three works, or studies preceeding to them.

Inwstigatiom of the genesis of musical Gestalts

The 13 .mbjects-1 1 professional musicians and two students of music- were given groups of tasks. 1. The so-called tasks of expression (Ausdrucks- aufgaben) b.1 which the subjects were asked to give musical expression to

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their momentary "mood'", to a feelings of joy, sadness, sorrow9 pride, agony “‘representing tasks” (~~sbildun asked to represent mus juggler. 3. The so called “‘formal subjects were asked to arrange earlier, compose a new theme, or u

‘The use of the piano was all themselves of it. If derring the Ees melody or musical motif, the se to make the attempt at home. The results were written down in musical notations by the subjects.

Of course not all the subjects reacted in the same manner. ith the 5rst of the above mentioned, tasks, it turne out e.g. that those subjects, for whom music in the first place is an expression of emotional experiences, the emotional content in the stimulus-word, had to be experienced before, if they were to arrive at any musical expression of it; the experience is for them a necessary condition. If the subjects were in a relatively “neutral mood”, they had to adjust themselves to the emotion to be expressed; if they were already in an emotional mood, a re ustment to it was necessary. This readjustment did not always succeed. le was able to distin two psychical processes, that which is musically expressed and that starts the production-process. The latter is independent of the emotional content to be expressed, it acts as an agent and gives a direction to the whole production-process. Besides this it appeared, that the productive mood was influenced by several external circumstances, like quiet or noisy surroundings, the weather situation, the seasons, etc., by which the production process can be stimulated or hindered. Certain non-musical activities, such as walking and climbing mountains, proved to be stimulators of the productive mood.

Earlier musical experiences are of importance in three ways for the tiding of new motifs :

1. In the simplest case, one reproduces a familiar tone-complex in its entirety: the total reproduction his le;ids to a purposive arrangement of a theme of one’s own, compos t an earlier date, or of one of an other mmposer, as e.g. in a variation-form, but sometimes, too, it may lead to “unconscious plagiarism”.

4

2. From one or more reproduced tone-complexes, individual Gestalt- moments are abstracted, as e.g. the key, time etc., which are then united innto a new motif: the abstractive reproduction.

he case of know1 e of musica? theory,

ates into the emotion expressive movements

n moments suitable to be expressed musically; they usical motives, or they are at least the

The so called “speech-molody”, i.e. the variation ortant factors towards the

) of Gestaltmoments of the experience into musical Gestaltmoments, i.e. by estalttransferences

movements may be converted into musical motifs here, by imitation or by the formation of analogies of the motor dynamics. The imitation dominates, if the expressive movements of an emotional experience are airead.y of an acoustical nature, such as singing, laughing, crying and the like; if they are not of an acoustical nature, then they allow of a transference into rhythmical, dynamical and even melodical motifs.

In our opinion it is out of the question that tota stalts are h trans- fered; they are only Gestaltmoments, whereas le’s term estalt- transferences” creates the impression of transference of total Gestalts. The total Gestalt of an extra-musical experience can ompletely be expressed in music, as it contains aspects which cannot be slated into music at all

ahle found that it was not the emotions selves which give the altmoments for musical expression, but the expressive movements

which accompany these emotions. In the case of “agony” (e.g. the motifs idly, excitedly, by which the agitation of the flightm the irregular heart-beat was expressed in irregular gony found its ex.pression in chromatic rising tone-sequences,

The musical expression now rests on the discovery of those Gestalt- moments of the expressive movements, which can be converted into rhythmical, dynamical and melodical forms. In the “representing tasks” the essentials are the musical representation of observed or imagine expressive movements of others, or the representation of real ev

ahle maintains. The musical form may serve as “communication”

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g&e) of the composer’s own expressive ovements or of t Frequently the subjects change the expression tasks into representing tasks as e.g. with “‘pride” wher n one case the introspectio thus: ‘“1 picture myself a p man walking”. The affect walking is herl: assimilated in the musical motif; the pri experienced by the composer himself, but v&i& accompany “pride” in other people. t&ion-methods may applied simultaneou was rare in the case elf Bahle’s subjects. his is indicated by t tlhe task to express “sorrow”: to the personal experience of “sorrow” was added the image of the attitudes and movements of “a man broken by

es the personal expressive movements, the irzgine af another person was represented here too in the musical motif.

The ““formal. tasks” were added, because a preliminary investigation had shown that there were some subjects who rejected the other n&s entirely: they refused to express in music “anything extra-musical”. These composers only aimed at reaching in aesthetical musical effect; for them is the only purpose the composition of musical forms. Non-musical experiences, as e.g. literary or other artistic experiences, may indeed inspire them to compose, but the run-musical contents are not expressed in music. These would be mainly intellectual Gestahungsprocesses, with the total elimination of all traces of “pathos”. The process resulting from all this, is called by Bahle “the Gestaltung of formal motifs.” It is here a matter of a tentative or systematic exploitation of the legitimate possibilities inherent in the tone- system and cf musical formplay.

The results here are short melodies and musical motifs, which Bahle incorrectly calls “‘musica!, forms”. For the term “musical form” is an expression currently used in music, which means the form of a first, second, e’tc. part of 2 composition, such as a sonata-form, a fugue, a rondo, etc. In t.he field of the psychology of music one should guard against misuse of musical ter,ms and expressions.

The second experiment, the so-called ‘“Fernexperiment”, which attempted to explore experimentally the composition of songs, was set up as follows:

To 32 comyl rs-among whom onnegger, renec, M.alipiero, Orff, Schtinberg and Strausz-Bahle sent 8 poems with the request to put one or more of them to music. The introspection was facilitated fry the additaoh of a questionnaire (7; p. 10-12). If they found none of the poems suitable

PSYC USIC: SOME EU 277

for this purpose, to put another poem of their own lete the questionnaire as soon an

accurately as possible after the completion of the composition.

~eie~~i~ling factors in chasing the texts for the ‘~~e~~expe~i~e~t”

Stilar to the fi rst experiment, it was also found here, oems, the emotional content of which were literary weak texts, texts of which

the contents were too intellectual (zu gedanklich), an texts of which the philosophical or religi s content was not in keeping with those of

oser. The content h o be expressionable in music, i.e. the poem swer to the musical aesthetic forms, as e.g. a three-part song-

form, etc. In the actual experiment it became clear that if the composer was ‘nated by an “idea” which he wished to express musically, erect manner of text-selecting resulted. Hc choo a text

him to achieve his artistic intentions. From Bahle concluded, that the text became a means to an end, wihich may lead to changes in the text, in order to make them more suitable to the composer’s musical intentions, e.g. the repetition of particular parts of it. The expe further proved that, if in the pinion of the composer, the poem expresses “all that can be sai :” with literary means, it was also rejected: “if the poet ha:; already expressed everything, nothing remains to be composed”. ahle does not state, however, which were the criteria for such a statement.

ith the help of biographical material Bahle followed the development of a number of composers. He distinguished three phases which are relatively clearly separated. The “example phase” (Vor base) in which the corn- poser was still influenced by his teachers and redecessors. During this phase it was the question of the imitation of aracteristics and means of expression of a master which the composer had chosen as’ his example. With this example the matter did not end; successively other examples made themselves felt, which affect each other and by which certain tensions were caused. ahle is of the opinion that this leads to the first actually artistic problems, which finally results in the “counterpart-phase” (Gegenbild- phase) in which very long intervals in mposing often occur and in which ablwe all things traditions are rejected. this phase what is new is prepared negatively, extreme experiments are done, so that this phase cannot be seen as an entirely unproductive one. The composer has to surmount the difficul- ties of this period, which in favourable cases takes place by selecting what has positive or negative value for him. If this phase is surmounted he

278

reaches his own way of composing, his OWII styk in which his own artistic rinciples are more stabilized, the socalled “01wn style-phase” (

is relatively constant not rigid, but putting its sta creates. F

The “composition method?

Naturally these are also d&etermine ment. The character of his proble in the development of the diRerent ses, but the manner in which the development affects the method of composition, is o indicated when

able deals with the counterpar in which phase his subjects are methods” Bahle gives:

1. Improvising

In the whole of the composing-process improvising has the function of finding new motifs and suitable means of expression. Composing has its general problems, which concern every composer and its specific problems, which result from that which the composer aims at repreeEc&lg or ex- pressing. Improvising may supply :the raw material for the latter and may 1e:ad to the discovery of musical values which at first he has not intended or sought intentionally. These values therefore may bc used in the present composition5~ or in later work.

2. The finding of means by reproduction and by the formation of analogies

hen improvising, ne:w motifs may be hit upon, but they are not entirely to be seen as independant of previous experiences. They #are founded upon a routine-like actualising of acquisitions gained by experience, study, traditions and experiments. The inspiration is not the beginning of the creative a&Q, but it forms a climax of preceding activities (IO), IvIotifs may also be borrowed from others and they may be ied purposively whereby they are changed in most cases. are a.cquired by studying the works of others, which then leads to the formation of analogies. Through routine certain means of expression and their applications become un- conscious; many traditional musical forms are taken over in this way as means of expression.

3. Experimentation

predominates in the counterpart-phase, What is original hed by way of a conscious activity. Even when problems

arise, experimentation is often used as a method of solving them. New

ression are always found after a long period of systematic work; it is ~re-erni~eIltly t

phase.

S to the discovery of cal means of expression, the structure of the ton erial. The problem is to

find the structural MO nts in a non-musical ience, which are suitable into a musical stru

ription of the is reproduction of Gestalt-moments the expressive movements which accompany an emotional

experience may contain rhythmical elements, suitable of being integrated into musical motifs. oreover the pitch variations of speech in de declama-

ortant part in discovering melodies. hle’s work has presented us with a number of interesting

problems in the psychological processes involved in composition. sh e to ad(;l here some critical remarks.

n we look at the ~a.1 structures in the song-composition we the possibility, that these structures can have

two sourses. In the first place the expressive movements that accompany the emotions evoked by the reading of the text and secondly the rhythm the poet gave to his text. The possibility of a “conflict” between these two and the way in which the composer may deal with this, is not considered. The expressive movement is not necessarily rel to a specific emotion. It remains questionable whether the sam ical motif is always related to the same expressive movements. omment seems to be justified when we look at the musical moti ‘s subjects. Some of these motifs used for the expression of “sorrow” were publishe and in these musical notations varieties of rhythmical structure are present.

When we look at the wording in which the tasks were given (2) we notice ahSe for;;ets that words like sorrow, joy, etc., are muhivaknt.

are the differences in rhythmical structures related to this mutivalence? ith the dechunation of a poem, the pitch-variations of speech differ. interpretation of the poem as a w.hole may also differ widely.

faced e.g. with the following problem: how are the pitch-variations of human speech with the declamation of’ a poem, melodically interpreted by a

ough not of direct bearing on our problems, Frijda’s dissertation (14)

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gives cues which may be of the greatest importance far further psycholo:gical exploration of the field ot’ musi or the present it n;ay be suffic.ient to quote the following: t comes to the fore in the expression is not the feeling, but the expressive radical of it.” radical Frijda means : “that aspect of feeling, which can be converted into a striving action or into one by IIE~S of whit a definite position is chosen, which again can be expressed in the behavior . . . . he expression has no immediate bearing un th.e feeling as experienced. . . The smile is not the expression of joy, but of something that also occurs in joy, in com- placency, in health, etc. The meaning of the expression itself is narrower than the totalities in which they occur.” (14; p. 57)

This being the case we can conclu at the same expressive movements may be related to different emotions. oreover, it is not known, whether from these movements the same moments are always derived by trans- ference in musical Gestalts. Consequently it is impossible to say, in general, on which emotions the musical expressions are based. Adding verbal “explications” to a. composition cannot always be effective either, because of their multivalent character.

The following schematical representation of the relations between emotions and their expression, we take from De Groot (15). These schemes have a larger signification for him, than we are giving them here.

A is an emotional experience, which finds musical expression in A’. In spite of the above mentioned uncertainty we must assume that a certain relation exists between A and A’, that they form a complex of re!ationships. We may put it thus: A” represents A and this totality De Groot calls “a resemblance” or “a symbolic comparison” (15; p. 248). Thus between A and A’ there must exist some relation. What is the “tertium comparationis” in this comparison? This is always at least one essential qualitative and/or structural moment in the experience of the human subject, of A and A’. These qualitative and structural moments showing conformities in tile experience of A and A’ are then the Gestaltmoments derived from the expressive movements and their transference into musical expression

Applying this scheumatical representation to the investigations of we may conclude, that he explored the processes of composing, when a composer tries to express his emotion A into a musical composition A’.-

owever: can the listener “understand” what the composer wanted to express in his composition? Bahle himself points to the communicating (kundgebende) function of ,a musical composition, because the final purpose is the listener’s appreciation of the composition. Far from attempting to sive an answer to this question, it seems necessary to state this problem

EAN STUDIES 281

somewhat more precisely, so that the corn lexity Of this Communicating func.. scape US and prevent Us from drawing premature ConciUsions.

y reaches the listener t oke emotions which the

tf the composer now becomes the A of a an ROW begin to study the piece and, having

erform it for an audience. This sequence of ted schematically as follows :

&_-__- ~c’-----~p-~_--~pl---_ _A1

AC is the emotional experience of the composer which he expresses in his

composition Ac’ ; is the emotional experience of the performer evoked by the composition A,‘; AD’ is the performance itself; Ar is the emotional experience of the listener, aroused in him by this performance. But what happens before the “communication” (kundgabe) of the composer reaches the listener? Le. what is the nature of the processes, taking place between the two points AC’ and A1 in our representation? Another factor which is involved in this complicated sequency af processes is the diversity between different performances of the same piece by the same performer and by different performers. Of this entire complex of processes able investigated the relationships between AC-----AC‘.

We do not wish to criticize themethud of his investigations, but we must raise a few critical notes with regard to the inadequacies in the piablications of his findings.

n the first place Bahle gives to few musical notations, with the result t it is impossible for the reader to follow his conchrsions in their entirety

Secondly he fails to give any musical-theoretical s of the compositions of his subjects. consequently we must rely u e verbal information wh;ch he obtained from his subjects. The ver ation itself however is a result of Gestalt-transferences with reg ompositions of his subjects! Thirdly Bahle does not reveal how the composer precisely arrives at the Cestaltung as such of his melodies andlarger musical forms. Fourthly the role of the intellect in the proces of composing is nowhere adequately dealt with. Finally the part played by orchestration in musical expression is omitted.

But whatever the criticism on Rahle’s work may be, his contributions will remain of the greatest importance for the psychology of music. It is to be regretted that hitherto this work has not been continued.

If we keep in mind the sehematicst; representation which we employed to indicate the psychological processes involved in the complexity of events ranging from the composer’s emotion AC to the appreciation of the listener

282 CAMKLE JACOBS

A,.r, we notice in the litterature on the psychology of

phenomena occuring “between” ApF-----Al have also important investigations. A choice investigations are discussed may incl the perception of musrcal fu,rms and into the aptitude of perceiving “tonali

INVESTIGATION OF THE PERCEPTION OF SICAL STRTKTURES

In co-operation with A. Moles, Frances (11) investigate the perception of musical forms by 60 subjects varying in age from 16 to 20 years. subjects had never been instructed in the theory of music, but most of them were regular concert-goers. The findings obtained with these subjects were compared with those of a group of professional musicians of 25 to 55 years of age. The set-up of the experiment was as follows : all subjects were asked to listen to recordings of two piano-compositions, namely Schubert’s Impromptu op. 142 no. 2 and the Fugue from the Chromatical Fantasy and Fugue by J. S. Bach; thus every subject heard the same performance of the compositions. The compositions have very difrerent structures. The first is hree-part form which is usually indicated by the scheme A-B-A. A and are here clearly different from each other; has dominating triplet-figures, which do not occur in A. The subjects were required to wave a hand upon perceiving a part or a subdivision of it. The same procedure was followed with the Fugue by sch. But here the subject is confronted wilth an entirely different musical structure, that of the fugue. Every time the theme returns the subjects had to point it out. The theme occurs 11 times so that subjects had to recognize it 10 times. Only the fust time the theme ocxurs “for one voice”; in all other cases it forms a part of a polyphonical whole, out of which it has to be recognized. The results were obtained in the following manner.

Each time the subjects recogniz a part or a subdivision of a part in the composition of Schubert i.t -was down by the experimentator in the musical score. The same procedure was followed with the fugue of I3ach. In this way points of greater or lesser frequency could be distinguished on the musical score with empty spaces in between. The points of frmquency were traced. to see whether they concurred with the actual divisions in the musical score. The investigators summa~:ized their results as follows : “the m-idy uneducated make the impression of listening to a text, the language of which is not understood.” The investigators concluded further that in

ive the structure of a musical composition, one should possess

EAN STUDJES 283

s which act as fr es of refi:renee. ssess such frames of th works as music”

of perceiving the ks as a three-part form and as a fugue.

at are the implications of the statement: ‘“these subjects appreciated made by the authors and on what grounds can they

atement? If musical forms have expressional value, they must usical forms before they can have expressional value.

The non-r~usi~l~y educated could not perceive them as musical forms and therefore nc; cxpressi 1 value could be attached to them by the first group

group of subjects clearly distinguish the musical two compositions are very well-known to profes-

sional musicians. ven very well trained musicians do not always perceive the form of a composition at once by hearing it played for the first time. Frequently the characteristics of the form become clear to them only when the musical score has been studied carefully and not only by listening to a composition.

Frances also investigated the perception of melodies (12). He chases melodies “without rhythm”, i.e. meloeies consisting of tones of equal length, here crotchets. Frances was only concerne with the investigation of the melodic factor which, according to him, only exists in changes of pitch. had three groups of subjects: g,*oup A were “musically illiterates”,

group were performers nd group (3 were lete musicians”, as Frances calls this group. e used melodies of or 9 tones. Every melody was played twice to the subjects; the set time one tone was changed and the subjects were acquired to in te which tone in the melody is changed, The melodies differed in five respects :

1. the course of the melody ascended, in pitch; 2. the melody descended; 3. ascending in the beginning, later on descending; 4. at first descending, later on ascending; 5. ascending and descending at regular periods. One group of melodies was “strictly tonal”; the other group was “atonal”.

The tones dm,nged were: the first, the highest or lowest, the final tone or tones in between.

Changes in the first and final tones were easily localized. Then followed the highest and the lowest tones and finally the tones in between.---In all groups of subjects the recognition of the change prcdu=d only a gradual difference. of the melody was tioo long to be memorized at (once, it was

284 CAMILLE JACOBS

subdivided into, or reduced to some conspicuous parts. These parts, accord- ing to Franc&s, form the “poles’” of the auditive attention. The relative preference for the extreme pitches of the tonal melody not come to the fore in the atonal melodies. But the preference for the initial-and final-tone was &arly demonstrated. In the preference for the change of tones there was no difference between the three groups of subjects. he changes of the extreme pitches were the more easily perceived if these tones had an impor. tant melodical function.

From his findings Franc&s concluded that musical education does not cause any fundamental difference in the perception of melodies. If this conclusion can be justified, this may be an important factor in the AD’ ---A, relation and also for the use of melody perception in tests.

Some critical remarks must be raised here. Firstly Fran&s’s conclusion suggests that only the changing of the

extreme pitches with more important melodical functions were more easily experienced, here we should like to raise the following questions:

a. Which important melodical functions had these extreme pitches? b. If the other tones of the melodies had important melodical functions,

what were the results of changing their pitch? Furthermore, the terms “tonal” and “atonal” are not terms applicable

here, as both are terms with reference to more-part music and not to one- part music (21). In our discussion of the investigation done by Franklin (I 3) we shall return to this problem.

The Tonality-Phenomenon

In the theory of music the concept “tonality” is not clearly defined. Perhaps the best description of it is given by Badings (1): “Tonality is a grouping of tones which occurs in the human perception of music around a tone-centre called “tonic”. We might call tonality a harmonic field-action, which arises as soon as a number of stereotyped tone-relations has aroused this field sufficiently strong in our consciousness.” adings further states that this can bc done most rapidly with the cadence I-IV-V-I, but of ccjurse there are many more possibilities.

But what precisely are the “specific tone-relations” which define the harmonic field? Which psychical processes are at the basis of this phenom- enon and how far do adjustments to the rules of our western music play s part here? Theae questions have not been answered at all.

The fact that “a melod:v normally ends on its tonic”, is taken by Franklin (13) as a startingpoint for his investigations. If a subject can find the “tonic” when a melody is broken off immediately before its ending, he has shoaled

QLOCY OF MwSIC: so 285

Franklin maintains, that he possesses “tonal musical talent” (T. his investigations the subjects were required to give the final tone of a melody by singing, whistling, OK hEming it. course the melody had to be unknown to them and for this pur-pose ranklin composed one-part melodies of seven tones, all in crotchets. Initially an attempt was made to nach diRcrences in difficulty by varying the interval between the penultimate tone and the final one, ul it was shown that the melodies were not of “unequivocal ton ith one-part melodies this could however “hardly he avoided”. So lin decided to compose two-part melodies in which this difficulty could be avoided more easily. Here, too, the melodies were broken off after the penultimate tone and the subjects had to give the final tone in the way mentioned above.

It often happened that the subjects did not give the tonic but the third or the fifth, which ranklin considered as substitute-tonics, because they are parts of the tonic-chord. If the third was given as the final tone the subjects got a good mark, because, as Franklin states, this tone could scarcely be interpreted otherwise than as belonging to the tonic chord.

As far as the one-part melodies is concerned Franklin makes here the same error in the theorqj of music as ran&s did. The melodic laws cannot be explained from the concept of the ajor mode. “Tonal multivalence” is an inadequate term here. The intenability of this tendency to explain rhe melodic laws from the concept of the major mode is demonstrated by Snuts van Waesberghe in his “Textbook of melody” (21). In tall investiga- tions into the psychology of music we meet with the difficulty that too little is known of the psychological foundation of the theory of music. Can the musical phenomena be explained by the psychological laws already known to us, or dlsl other psychological laws, still unk own to us, exert their influence’!

One of the advantages of Franklin’s work is that all the experimenta: material has been added in musical notations. Another adva.ntagc is the numerous aspects of the tonality-problem that are exposed here. Frar klin himself regards his T.M.T.-test as far from finished, which we should like to endorse, without wishing to detract from the importance of this pub- lication.

TESTING MUSICAL ABILITY AND APPRECI.ATION (24)

Starting from a preliminary investigation with test-items which are similar to the papers set in music-exa.minations (in England), Wing tries to arrive at a test, which might satisfy both musicians and psycllol(%ist:;.

‘Ft:rminological confusion is exclu d from the beginnin e fo~o~~g explanation of terms used :

‘“Score” is here used in its common p~y~h~logicd meani ot in the sense of “musical score”.

“Notation” is used for all written music. “Musician” is used to include those WOO CO ose, conduct,

write about, or seriously listen to music. “Musical ability” is not taken here in the limited sense of “ability to play

an instrument”, but with Wing it also means the speed o earning to pidy a musical instrument, ability to perform t e al*eral tests a ability to carry out such musical abilities as composing.

tion” is the power to recognize or evaluate artistic tever is “good” and “wrong” is decided upon by

experts and their evaluationH are compared with those of the subjects, usical capacity” includes ability and musical appreciation. In his

efforts to construct the test Wing was of the opinion, and rightly so, that the manner in which the musician examines the pupil is undesirable from the scientific point of view. ecause musicians do not use sta.ndardized methods of testing, they do not distinguish between aptitude and attain- ment (24). The musicians training is in the first place an artistic one. But Wing rightly states, that all this does not mean that their questions asked at thz music examinations could not be used as possibk: items to construct scientifically acceptable tests. Like almost all European psychologists of music he rejects the so-called “atomistic type” of tests, which in fact means the rejecting of the findings of Seashore and his school. Above ail, Wing wishes to start from sound musical material and therefore he begins with items which are on the same musical level as the usual examination questions. These items are all carefully examined on their test value which finally brings him to the following items:

1. Chord-analysis: detecting the number of tones played in a single chord ;

2. Pitch-change: detecting a change of a single tone in a repeated chord; 3. Memory: detecting d change in a short melodic phrase; 4. Rhythmic accent: judging the better rhythmic accent in two per-

formances of the same piece ; amony: judging the more appropriate of two harmonisations of

6. Intensity: judging the more appropriate mode of varying loudness (crescendo, decrescendo, etc.) in two performances of t.he same meiody;

7. hrasing: judging the more appropriate phrasing (grouping of tones

staccato playing,) in two perfo

item was considere satisfactory if it sh the whole test-ba ery, because it cou

that “it is assessing some musical capacity’ anything new to the test and was om-

stical considerations, ing also takes into rations of which the wing may be added

here by way of example. hen ~~om~aring two intervals a phenomenon presented itself which

Bculties. The comparison of e.g. two octaves-let us say C-C’ =-gave low scores for subjects, who had high scores with other

items. A, further investigation with subjects whose musicality had already and who were asked to give introspections, brought to

light the following. “I heard the first interval and labe ed it an octave; the second was played and my immediate reaction was : seventh”. (24; p. 45). The secosnd in.terval was heard not by itself but in relation to the first.

ing maintailjs that thisais the normal way in which musicians listen to music. For that reason the item was omitted in the test. In his discussion of R&W te;:;, Franklin (13) points to the same phenomenon as a possibility, but the introspection giv here proves the supposition to be correct. Franklin explains this as monstration of “tonali(y feeling”. This feeling demonstrates itself whenever succeeding tones are given. Our auditive perception brings them in relation to each other.

Comparison of ihe items of rig’s test with those of RPvPsz

In his test for rhythm ing plays the same me1 wice with different accents, from ich the subjects must choose that ich they think to be the better one 6&z, on the other hand, gives rhythm as the subdivision of a bar (19). Were two different things are at stake. ut what is precisely the difference between them? Cv~Csz firstly gives his subjects “toneless” rhythm and secondly “melodic” rhythm. In the first case, however, the beat which he indicates with a metronome-sign is extremely high, so that. motorically it may already he difficult to imitate it by “clapping”. In the second item the subjects are aske... 14 to reproduce the rhythm of a played melody, by clapping their hands. But here in the items 6-9 and. 12 of his test, the rhythmical pattern is changed by the rhythm of the accompaniment, which causes d%iculties. To what extent the items of both these tests are equivalent should be established by fu.rther investigation. - ing does not

test the regional sense of pitch; he gives no hearing tests at all of this type.

288 CAklILLE JACOBS

Revesz gives his test for regional hearing as follows: on the piano a tone is struck, while the subject stands with his back to the piano; then he must indicate this tone on the piano. According to RCvksz this is possible as soon as one is slightly informed about the position of the piano keys. Subjects who had not received any musical education, would not be at any disadvantage as compared with those who did have such an education.

Tn chord-analysis Wing asks his subjects to give the number of tones which constitute the chord played to them. &Gsz asks his subjects to sing the tones of the chord, or if this is impossible, they are allowed to strike the tones on the piano. Again two different things are implied here, which are not directly to be compared. Revesz also tests the relative pitch in a

anner which Franklin rightly criticizes, as we have already pointed out. CvCsz’ subjects were asked to sing an interval starting from another tone

than the int:ervals given to them as an example, i.e. a matter of transposing intervals. In connection with this Franklin (I 3; p. 79) states: if subjects are told to transpose the third c-e to d-f-sharp, it will often happen that they sing an f. He explains this as a demonstration of subject’s having “tonal musical talent”, as this f belongs to the C m.ajorscale and not the f-sharp.

The above mentioned harmony-test of Wing differs entirely from that of RCvCsz. The latter asks his subjects to imitate by singing (succesivelp) the tones of a chord of two or more tones. Here we certainly prefer Wing’s test-item, but we agree with RCvCsz, when he states that the following item is much more efficient. He plays four-part cadences, authentic and plagale ones and asks his subjects to sing the different parts. Subjects who do not sing easily because of lack uf training or otherwise may be at a disadvantage here. For this reason Wing rejects such items. Sometimes one may find that musical subjects do not have any difficulties with singing, but as far as our experience goes, such difficulties do occur. Furthermore disadvantages are also present when subjects are asked to indicate the melodies heard on the piano, as in Rev&z test. Because apart from hearing, the factor of motorical skill, even if it may be slight, also plays a part here. The indication may therefore be so defectif that the total melodical structure is destroyed. Ia such a case no scoring is possible.

Wing rejects the possibility of the testing of the creative ability (23 ; p. 2% while Revesz is of the opinion that this a.bility can be tested in the following manner. He gives a simple melody and breaks it off before the end. Subjects were required to complete the melody. Furthermore subjects were required to find a suitable harmonic accompaniment to a melody, In his efforts to construct suitable test-items for creative ability Wing concluded that too considerar.ble knowledge of music is required. Subjects who do not have

such a knowledge ;nnd experience cannot perform the test an ing rightly requires unconditionally that “lack of opportunity” should not cause any

disadvantage and therefore he rejects the item as it was constructed by Rh%Z.

Wing’s memory-item oes not explicitly occur in R6vCsz’ test. However,

when the latter asks for an imitation of a melody, memory certainly is

involved. n the other hand the items 6 and 7 of ing’s do not occur in Rev&z’. go we see the tests differ in many respects and it would he worth

while to compare them with regard to their validi.iy and reli

The reader is at :he disadvantage when he reads Wing’s tes notations are given by ing. An example of this disadvantage is demon- strated in the memory test, where the description only reveals the changing

of the first, the second, etc. tone of the melody. It is quite justified to suppose, that changing a tone which is important with regard to his melodic

function (21), might cause important changes in the melody, through which

the orientation as to the number of the tone in the melody could be hampered. In the construction of the test this ;;hould not be overlooked. As far as the test for phrasing is concerned, one can get the impression from Wing’s

work, as if phrasing could only come about by pauses between the tones. This seems to us not in agreement with the facts. The phrasing of a melody

may, a.o., also be shown to full advantage, by changing the strength of the successive tones of the melody, so that the latter surely can be seen as a

means to phrasing the whole. - The same criticism may be applied to Lowery’s

phrasing r:est (18). - It is therefore by no means clear why Wing used “inten-

sity” and “phrasing” as to separate test items. over phrasing may

also come about by means of little variations in sp e rubato) and by a

slight lengthening of the tones. Consequently we ot see why phrasing

by mean; of httle pauses is to be preferred abrave the other possibilities.

As Wing rightly stresses musical appreciation for testing purposes, he

should have taken these facts into account.

The prognostic value of ,psychological tests in music

Can a test predict if a subject can be musically educated with reasonably

favourable results? Can a test predict if the person in question can become a professional musician? If the test-results are fa.lourable, the inference may be made that he be given music lessons. However attention should be drawn

to the fact that as yet a scientificahy founded method of teaching music

hardly eCsts. (16, 17). The arbitrariness in teaching methods is too large to allow for predictions. Furthermore the fields in which a musician can

practice his profession differ greatly. He ma.y be a composer, find an

nt as a soloist, a player Of e conductor or in an orchestra. fessional activity bring

in as many professional situations, which~ ve hitherto never been subject of a scientific investi

group and1 would be an extem investigations. The adjus any member of an o psychological findings.

One very important test-item has hitherto en omitted in these tests, namely the investigation of motoricaI capacities involved in playing the various musical instruments. aving estabkished any musical ability in a

on, it does not follow that he can learn to play a musical instrument. tests do not distinguish bet receptive, reprr&ctive and productive

capacity. Wing tb%ought it i to test the latter at an early age. We would like to state h*;weve musical capacities investigated in the tests now ;at our disposal, cannot teli us anything about future instrumental

rforming capacities’. In spite of all the criticism that one can level against ing’s test, the fact

remains that it is well founded and without doubt of great diagnostic value. One should not underestimate the fact that it is one of the few psychological tests in this field, which have been carefully standardized.

PERCEPTION 0~ TONES

otroduction to the Psychology of usic” (19) k one of the the psytzhology of music, which gi s an outline of the whole

field. Rt%sz states that this branch of psychology deCes its data from the practice of music, from general psychology, physiology an4 physics. He gives a clear description of the psychical and physiological foundation of the perception of tones, because they are the necessary “tone-psychelogy”. The limitk between tone-psychology a music are not clearly distinguished however. Of three characteristics of musical sounds, pitch, timbre and intensity, BvCsz calls the first the most typical of musical sounds. Iglensity is not a specific characteristic of musical sounds alone; it can also be applied to other sensory perceptions. The timbre only occurs with tone-perceptions, but this does not give any indications as to the reciprocal relations of tones. As far as melodical and harmonica1

ions are concerned we agree with this statement. ut in orchestration -the composer takes into account the differences between the timbres of the !severaI instruments. Added to tb.is is the fact that on one instrument different timbres are also possible. These timbre differences, e.g. those

be seen as creating obtain relations between cans of musical expression are of great

ing on frequency, that CvCsz sees one of the tone~hara~teristi~s. art from it he assumes a second one :

lify retur~~g in every octave. sequence contains all tone-qualities, whi when the

sequence is continue up and down in other octaves. hese are the funda- ments of the so-calle “two-comaonenlP-lheory” where both pitch and tone-quality are seen as properties of of musical tones (19). This theory has consequences for the ehological interval-theory. IIn this way the intervd

from interval qualities. The latter are complete within. one octave; t turn when the interval is more spre ninth and the tent ng to quality, equal to the second a

to the distance they are different. its representative within one octave, which RMsz calls “tlze

priory interval-type”. E.g. C-S is the primary interval-type; c-e’, c-e”, C-e”, etc. are intervals of the same qualities with c-e, but with. different distances. Interval-quality and tone-qua&y are qualities which result from psychological analysis. They do not occur in isolated positions, because of their being joined to musical tone-sequences. hether e.g. c-e and c-e” are also melodicuI!y equivalent, Msz states, must in our opinion be decided by further investigation. or we do not. as yet have at our disposal ‘“psychological melody- and harmony theories”. oreover, it is not at all clear yet “how much psychology” is already i icite in the theories of melody and harmony.

The consonance problem (19)

RCvesz shows convincingly that mathematical and physica explanations of the consonance-problem are not yet adaequate. It stands to reason that a

sychological ex lanation was sought. A first attempt in this question was undertaken by Stump& who invented the “fusion-theory” (Verschmelzungs- theorie), Stumpf speaks of “fusion” when two tones, sounding simuI- taneously, make the impression of being one sound; the more consonant these two tones are, the more the separate tones will fuse.

R6vbz objections to this theory are quite justified. For the fusion is shown to be deperrdent on the tone-area in which both the tones OCGU~ and

at best holds good for the middle and discant areas. In the second instance,

292 CAMILLE JACOBS

it is dependent on the distance between the two tones. A fifth fuses more intensely than a twelfth, while Stumpf wrongly states that the grade of fusion remains constant. RCv&z continues his argumentation against this theory as follows.

n judging two simultaneously given tones, two ways of adjustment are possible which sometimes lead to different results. If the sensory phenomenon is focussed the fusion dominates. On the other hand if we focus the harmonic- al character of the two sounds the phenomenon of consonance prevails, If the two tones lie within the extent of one octave, the two phenomena almost coincide. If the extent of one octave is exceeded, it becomes clear that two separate phenomena are involved. R&I&Z rightly sees consonance or dissonance as objects of aesthetic appreciation. “Consonance” is defined by him as the unification of two tones which preserve their individuality, In the octave, consonance and fusion are identified. Therefore it is considered the most perfect consonant. With triads one does not speak of consonance and dissonance, but of concordance and discordance. “Dissonance and consonance apply to two tones sounding simultaneously and as a conse- quence they are not as such applicable to chords of three or more tones. The manner of applying the fundamental phenomenon of consonance to our harmonica1 system, leads to another pair of notions, namely that of concordana: and its opposit discordance,” R&&z argues.---But here we may ask “*Aat is that particular manner of applying the fundamental phenomenon of consonance to our harmonica1 system?” R6v&z maintains that the di&rence between consonance and dissonance is gradual and between conc:ordance and discordance it shoultd be specific. Buu why? This problem has as yet not been solved, but did not the problem arise when these divergent terminologies were introduced?

SOME REMAXXS CONCERNING THE GESTALTPSYCHOLOGY AND THE PSYCHOLOGY

OF MUSIC

R&&z maintains that in the perception of musical Gestalts “‘the primate of the phenomenal totality” prevails, provided we are concerned with music in our tone-system. ‘This seems debatable to us. Even though a musical Gestalt in cur tone-system is presented, it Kequenily 02 MS, that a melody W: hear for the first time does not at once present itselt ret us in its totality.

this i.; true of a melody it is even more so in the case of the extensive mug;ical whf3les, such as the form of an entire composition. These wholes a~ too ext:nsive to be remembered at once and before: we can perceive th2.m as sucli, frequently hearing and a study of the musical score is often

~SYC~QLQ~Y OF ?JSlC: SOME EURQPEA~I STUnlEs 293

necessary. This means that at first a learning process must develop before the composition ca as a whole. Ow do Such learning processes develop? melody are retained first and why? DO melodical and harmonica1 relations perhaps play a gart here and influence the speed of learning? The investigations of Frances were limited to melodies of an extremely simple structure, which is quite justifiable for

roaches to the problem. ut what about the extensive melodies music furnishes with? It should not be for-

gotten, that music “develops in time”‘, and consequently a new melody cannot possibly present itself “at once” as a Gestalt. hat happens when a well-known melody is heard? Even then it cannot be given “at once”. It needs its own time to manifest itself to us, even though, while listening to it we know how it will develop. How much of a melody must be heard before we recognL_., it as that particular melody? How do VJI: listen to that well-known melody? w is this “immediately being given” of the Gestalt- psychologists to be rstood? For in music it is a question of Gestalts, whose “structurally-being-given-in-time” is one-if not the- ontological determining factors and its perception cannot simply be equalled with the perception of Gestalts in which time does not play a part or only an inferior one. The psychical processes demonstratiag themselves in listening to music have not yet been sufficiently explored. Consequently the investiga- tions of expression values in music (2, 10) also lack the necessary preliminary inquiries. In composing as well as in performing and listening to music, Ge- stalts come into existence and it seems necessary therefore to differentiate them as regards their nature as well as to their manner of coming-into-being (20). This coming-into-being of certain Gestalts is s dependant on Gestalts which must have developped previously. A ing the problem from the performer’s point of view, we may attempt ate this coming- into-being as follows. We may presume that he has to play a certain broken chorcl in a composition. If he wants to apply it in this composition he shou1.d be able to play the chord in advance. In applying the chord in the composition a new learning proces,s is involved, namely the integration into a larger whole. The question is: which learning-processes manifest themselves in such an integration-process? Playing a melody on a musical instrument requires the control of a complex of movements correlated with that melody on that instrument. This complex of movements is certainly not at once given as a Gestalt. If the melody must be integrated into a larger whole, the integration of the complex of movements correlated with the melody must also be integrated into the larger whole of movement-ComPlexeS.

This involves learningprocesses of an unusually complex nature. A start

29 CAMILLE JACOBS

has yet to be made on the psychological research of these processes. The genesis of the movemtent-gestalts has hitherto been. overlooked.

h.JSICAL HEARING

This is defined by R&&z (19) as the ability of distinguishing acoustical- musical relations and of understanding and recognizing them. to distinguish tones from each other is a condition of musical hearing, but there are individual differences in it. The different investigators of musical hearing do not classify these differences in the same manner. In A. profound as well as blaborate investigation (23) we find the sense of absolute pitch defined as follows: in the chromatical sequence there are 12 tones; if the chance of hitting the rightSone is greater then l/12, there must be some form of absolute pitch, which may however be divided into different types.

R&k.sz gives another definition : “the sense of absolute pitch is the ability to recognize e.g. an f, sounded on a musical instrument, as an f, without looking at the instrument, or without having heard another familiar tone sktly before. ‘Likewise he that can sing a certain tone from memory has the sense of absolute pitch. Some have the former ability and some the latter ability. In both cases the sense of absolute pitch is seen as a form of memory for the separate tones. This memory maintains itself over a long period because subjects must be able to reproduce the tone, without having heard another one “shortly before”. R&Csz does not indicate exactly how much time is needed to demonstrate this ability.

The two investigators give different classifications of the types of the sense of absolute pitch, as we shall indicate. RCvtsz classifies the types of musical hearing according to the extent of the tone-area over which the recognizing and remembering of tones is stretched. He distingukes four types of absolute pitch related to these tone-areas. Firstly the sense, of total absolute pitch which includes nearly the whole of the tone-area; :;econdly the sense of partial absolute pitch which functions onrly within certain limits; thirdly the sense of special Fbsolute pitch which functions only for one, or for a limited number of musical instruments and consequently depends on the timbre of the tones; fourthly the so-called regional pitch-sense, in which the judgement of tones depends on a more or less restricted tone-area. In this ease the tone is heard as a member of a restricted tone-area, i.e. as ai? element of the group in the tone-area to which it belongs.

To clarify Wellek’s classification, we first note the following: the chromat- ical tone-sequence is regarded by him as “a linearly arranged progression of tones”. The fifth-sequence, that is a sequence of tones in which every following tone is a fifth highr:r than the one preceding, is arranged in a

295

circle ; the circle of ellek now classifies the ty t?SofhearingaecorQing to the nature of the mistakes made. f mistakes of a half-tone arc nlost frequent, he speaks of the linear type f hearing. If mistakes of a a fourth dominate he speaks of the cyc!ic- w polar type of hearing. when one starts from a certain tone and goes up a fifth or down a fourth one arrives at a tone of the same name. This would mean, according to

, that one arrives at the same tone-quality. polar types lies the “whole-tone-type of

hearing (Ganztontype) in which a mistake of a great second predominates. Wellek calls this “‘a neutral type of hearing”, because of the possibility of explaining it from botil the linear and the cyclic sequences. This can be demonstrated thucj: if we take five successive tones out of the fifths-sequence, e.g. c-g-d-a-e zih five tones out of the chromatic-sequence, e.g. c-c sharp-d-d sharp-e, we have to skip only one tone in either sequence to get a quality-di hole tone: c--d or d-e. A separate type of hearing is also ellek, namely the synoptic-type, in which a constant association of tones with colors is demonstrated. Without having the sense of absolute pitch persons possessing this sense, arc able to give the absolute names of the tones by means of this association. (R.CvQz, however, is of the opinion, that the investigations of the “audition coloree” have not always been executed with the exactness required.) Finally Wellek distinguishes the fragmentary sense of absohtte pitch (stiickhaftes Cehijr), which he calls a t,orderline-case of absolute hearing. In this type of hearing only single tones of the tone-area are heard with more or less certainty. This type resembles RCv&z’ memory for the standard-tone. This standard- tone is in the case of players of string-instruments frequently the a or a’ and in the case of pianists frequently the c. Acccrd FO Wellek all types of absolute pitch gradually merge into each other an re not sharply distin- guishable. RMsz sees Wellek’s linear-type agreeing with his regicnal-type and the cyclic type as agreeing with his qualitative type of hearing. For according to R&v&: the sense of absolute pitch is the ability to distinguish tone-qualities, In Wellek no counterparts of R&&2 special and partial types of hearing are found.

It is obvious that the sense of absolute pitch may be of great importance to professional musicians. It would have its optimal benefits, if in all musical centres the same standard-tone is ucjed. Since few musicians have the sense of absolute pitch, a well-trained sense of relative pitch proves to bc as good as the sense of absolute pitch in the practice of music. R&&z distinguishes sharply between the refative and the absolute pitch senses. Under t;lc relative pitch, sense he understands the sense of intervals. The relative Pitch

296

sense is said to allow of development by training. n general this is not osed to be possible with the absolute pitch. Usually the sense of

absolute pitch is not considered as a characteristic of musicality, whereas the sense of relative pitch is considered to be such a characteristic, this is closely connected with the con tion of musicality itself, the of which gives rise= to great difficulties. &v&z says that a number of powers and characteristic.s may be considered sym#oms of musicality.

In certain res,xcts musicality seems to be ““connected” with “time and space.” For it often happens that the works of one or of a group of composers are appreciated in one musical centre, whereas they are not in another. The performances too, differ considerably, when we compare gramophone records of to-day with those of som? decades ago. usicality is certainly not a stationary conception. If it is not stationary, how must it then be defined? R&&z rightly states that “the time for a final definition has not yet come; a far z.ore exact psychological investigation of musically talented

ople and the establi&.ment of various types of musical talent are required.”

eturning o;lce more to our scheme:

the following observations may be made. th respect to Bahle’s investiga- tions, the relation A c----,Ac’ has recei some prominence. The other investigations in Europe and elsewhere have mainly been concerned with the various facets of the relations of BP’----Al, for we can consider the investigations of musical hearing (1 l-12-13-18-22) as specimen of them.

The phases A,‘----Ap ----AD’ which imply the musical performance roczsses, have not been :investigated. Wow does a musical performance

come about? ich psychological processes are at work in it? Surely learning processes are involved, but what about other processes, e.g. the motorical processes? The knowledge of the learning processes involved in the composing, the performitlg and the listening to music is still in a pre- scient& stage.

e psycholk?gy of music is in urgent need of coordination of its in- vestrgations and of a general survey of the experimental results it has

therto achieved. For musical education it is a pressing need that the problems connected with the learning of music are tackled on a large

ry much remaias to be done in this field, especially with regard to ncy of the musical learning processes.

PSUC USIC: StXvjiE

1. Bad&% Tonaliteit. Winkler Prim Encyclopaedia; AnMerdam 8957, 6th Ed.

2. Bahle, J., Zur Psychologie des musikalischen Gestaltens. Arch f.d. Ges. psychol. Leipzig 1930, Bnd 74.

3. , Die Gestaltiihertragung im vokalen Schaffen zeitgenassischer Kompo-

nisten. Arch. f.d. ges. Psych, Leipzig 1934, nd 91, Heft I & 2. 4. , Zur Psychologie des Einfalls und der I iration im musikalischen

Schaffen. Acra Psychhologica, den Haag 1935, Vol. I. 5. , Fersiinlichkeit und Kunstwerk irn zeitgeniissischen Musikschaffen.

Zeitschr.f. Ps.wh, 1935, Vol. 135. Heft 1 & 2.

6. _-=...-A -, Gefiihl und Wille im musikalischen Schaffen. Zeitschr. f. isdustr. Psycho- technik, 1936, Vol. Z3.

7. , Der musikalischen Schaffensprozess. Leipzig 1936. . , Das Teil-Ganzen-Problem im kiinstlerische Schaffenspro:!ess. Arch. jId.

ges. Psych. 1937, Vol. 99; Heft 1 Rc 2. 9. , Arbeitstypus und lnspirationstypus im Schaffen der Komponisten.

Zeitschr. _fI Psych., Leipzig. 1938, Voi. 442. 10. Eingebung und Tat im musikalischen Schaffen. Leipzig ‘1939. Il. Fran&s, k. et Moles, A., Recherches experimentales sur la perception des structures

musicales. Journal de Psych., 1952, no. 1. 12. , Recherches exp&imentales sur la perception de la M&o&e. Journal de

Psych., 1954, no. 4. 13. Franklin, E., Tonality as a basis for the study of musical talent. Gothenburg, 1956. 34. Frijda, N., De betekenis van de gelaatsexpressie. Amsterdam, 1956. 15. De Groat, A. D., Het “Icken-weet-niet-wat” in de kunst. Nea! Tgdschr. v. Psyc.h.,

1954, Vol. VI, 4. 16. Jacobs, Camille, Muziekpaedagogiek, Encyclopaedia of Music, Winkler Brim,

Amstsrdam 1957, Vol. 2. 17. Vioolpaedagogiek. Idern. 18. Lowery, b., Cadence and Phrase-Tests in Music, Br. J. of Tch., Cambridge 1927,

Vol. XVU. 19. RBv&sz, G., Einfiihrung in die Musikpsychologie. Bern, 20. , Zur Revision der Gee talttheorie, Schweiz. Z. f. Psych., Bern 1953, Vol. XII. 21. Smits van Waesberghe, J., Textbook of Melody, Am. Inst. of Musicolw, 1955.

22. Wellek, A., Das absolute Gehiir und seine Typen, Zeitschr.f. langewr. Psych., LeiPzif.5,

1938, Beiheft 83. 23. Wing, H., Tests :F musical ability and appreciation, Br. J. of Pswh., 1948, Mon.

Suypl. XA Vii. 24. , SOme applications of test-results to Education in M!usic., Br. . . OfPsych.,

1954, Vol. XXIV-1 ll-Nov.