Pitch salience and generative harmonic resolution of major triad inversions

Subjects from a broad range of musical experience were presented with inversions of the major triad, and asked to sing the most salient pitch, and the pitch that would best follow the chord. Responses were recorded by computer via voltage-to-music instrument digital interface conversion. Responses for salience did not differ significantly with musical experience, and correspond with predictions based on subharmonic matching [Tehrhardt, Tiefenstrukt ur der Musik (1982); Parncutt, Music Percept. 6, 65–94 (1988)], and with the results of other empirical measurements. Results for choice of resolution do not confirm the specific predictions of music theory, specifically the cadential resolution of the second inversion, except for musicians with highly developed skills in formal musical analysis. Responses do however show a significant increase in resolution to the tonic, to the dominant, and to the diatonic set, with experience. These results demonstrate the difference between psychoacoustic and cognitive levels of music perception, with the former less influenced by experiential variables, and the latter indicating a continual strengthening of the basic internalized schemata that underlie culturally based tonal systems throughout musical development.