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Automatic analysis of global music recordings...
Journal article

Automatic analysis of global music recordings suggests scale tuning universals

Abstract

The structure of musical scales has been proposed to reflect universal acoustic principles based on simple integer ratios. However, some studying tuning in small samples of non-Western cultures have argued that such ratios are not universal but specific to Western music. To address this debate, we applied an algorithm that could automatically analyze and cross-culturally compare scale tunings to a global sample of 50 music recordings, including both instrumental and vocal pieces. Although we found great cross-cultural diversity in most scale degrees, these preliminary results also suggest a strong tendency to include the simplest possible integer ratio within the octave (perfect fifth, 3:2 ratio, ~700 cents) in both Western and non-Western cultures. This suggests that cultural diversity in musical scales is not without limit, but is constrained by universal psycho-acoustic principles that may shed light on the evolution of human music.

Authors

Ho M-J; Sato S; Kuroyanagi J; Six J; Brown S; Fujii S; Savage PE

Journal

, , ,

Publisher

Center for Open Science

Publication Date

August 29, 2018

DOI

10.31234/osf.io/zv6pf

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