This is an archived course. A more recent version may be available at ocw.mit.edu.

Lecture Notes

Key to Instructors:

PC: Prof. Peter Cariani
AO: Prof. Andrew Oxenham
MT: Prof. Mark Tramo

LEC # TOPICS LECTURERS
1 Course Mechanics

Survey of Topics to be Covered

Overview of the Structure of Music
Horizontal and Vertical Dimensions. Pitch, Tone Quality/Color, Consonance, Melody, Harmony, Tonality, Organization of Voices, Rhythm, Dynamics, Expressive Timing, Tonal and Rhythmic Hierarchies (PDF)
PC
2 Overview of Auditory Perception and the Time Sense: Pitch, Timbre, Consonance/Roughness, Loudness, Rhythm, Auditory Grouping, Event Structure (PDF - 1.6 MB)

Overview of the Auditory System: Representation and Processing of Sounds in the Auditory Pathway (PDF 1 of 3 - 5.1 MB) (PDF 2 of 3 - 2.0 MB) (PDF 3 of 3 - 1.7 MB)
PC
3 Musical Acoustics
Sound and Vibration, Production of Sounds, Representations of Sound, Waveforms and Power Spectra, Characteristics of Musical Instruments and Human Voices, Similarities and Differences between Speech and Musical Sounds

Musical Pitch
Acoustic Correlates - Pure and Complex Tones, Acoustics of Instruments
Psychophysics - Existence Regions, JNDs, Invariances, Dominance Region, Octaves, Resolved Harmonics Harmonicity and Auditory Grouping; Relative and Absolute Pitch, Introduction to Auditory Representations
PC
4 Psychoacoustically-based Theories of Hearing
Theory of Auditory Filters
AO
5 Representation of Pitch in the Auditory System (PDF - 2.3 MB)

Neurocomputational Models for Pitch
Spectral Pattern vs. Temporal Pattern Models
Licklider, Terhardt, Grossberg and Cohen, Bharucha
Equivalence Classes and Octave Relations; Neural Evidence Pros and Cons (PDF - 4.7 MB)
PC
6 Timbre
Acoustic Correlates - Spectrum, Time-Frequency Trajectory, Amplitude Dynamics Dimensional Analysis of Timbre Perceptual Spaces (Multidimensional Scaling) Role of Timbre in Defining and Distinguishing Separate Voices, Musical Coloration Neural Correlates, Coding of Spectrum, Attack, Decay, Modulation (PDF - 1.2 MB)
PC
7 Harmony I: Consonance, Dissonance, and Roughness
Theories: Helmholtz, Stumpf, Plomp, Terhardt
Sensory and Hedonic Aspects
Neural Correlates (Auditory Nerve, Midbrain, Cortex)
PC
8 Scales and Tuning Systems
History, Basic Psychophysics, Scales and Tuning Systems, Role in Music Theory
Relations between Auditory and Cultural Factors (PDF - 2.5 MB)
PC
9 Music and the Cerebral Cortex. Overview of Functional Role of Cortex in Music Perception and Cognition
Results of Imaging and Lesion Studies. Hemispheric Assymmetries
MT
10 Harmony II: Chords and Keys
Perception of Chords, Pitch Multiplicity (Parncutt, Terhardt), Higher Order Structure of Pitch Space (Shepard, Krumhansl), Fundamental Bass, Keys, Major-Minor and Resolved/Unresolved Chords, Tonality Induction, Tonal Schemas/Key Relations, Computational Models (Leman), Neural Correlates of Tonal Relations and Expectations (fMRI, ERP) (PDF)
PC
11 Presentation and Discussion of Term Projects PC
12 Melody
Perception of Note Sequences, Existence Region, Melodic Expectation, Melodic Recognition, Melodic Memory, Melodic Grouping Processes (Phrases), Neural Representation of Melody, Problem of Melodic Invariance under Transposition (PDF)
PC
13 Rhythm I: Rhythm Perception and Production
Basic Psychophysics of Rhythm Perception and Production
Role of Rhythm in Melodic Recognition and Recall

Rhythm II: Computational Models
Oscillator Models, Clock Models, Rhythmic Hierarchies (PDF)
PC
14 Time Perception, Event Structure, and Temporal Expectations
Auditory Spectral and Temporal Integration; Chunking of Segments Time Perception (Fraisse, Jones)

Auditory Scene Analysis and Organization of Voices
Grouping of Sounds – Onset, Harmonicity, Rhythm
Sound Streams (Bregman, Deutsch), Polyphony
Grouping Processes and Musical Structure
PC
15 Music, Speech and Language: Parallels and Contrasts (Bernstein, Jackendoff) PC
16 Emotion and Meaning in Music
Musical Semantics, Music and Pleasure

Music and Long-term Memory
PC
17 Clinical Applications of the Neuropsychology of Music K. Howland, Music Therapist
18 Clinical Issues. Music Exposure and Hearing Loss. Music Perception and Hearing Impairment. Music Perception by Cochlear Implant Users AO
19 Effects of Cortical Lesions on Music Perception and Cognition

Music Therapy: Clinical Problems and Prospects
MT
20 Developmental Psychology of Music

A Question of Origins: Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology of Music
PC
21 Music Performance. Organization and Timing of Movement PC
22 Special Topics: Absolute Pitch, Synesthesia, etc. PC
23 Student Term Project Presentations
24 Student Term Project Presentations (cont.)
25 Overview and Recap of Major Themes; Other Special Topics PC