Real-Time Modulation Perception in Western Classical Music

The task of music listening involves an auditory scene analysis in which the listener makes judgments related to melody, harmony, and consonance or dissonance, all of which are made within the context of key or tonic region. Here we examine whether the process of tracking key region is independent of the process of tracking surface cues, and what surface cues may influence that process. To this end, highly trained, moderately trained, and untrained listeners listened to excerpts from string quartets, quintets, and sextets from the classical and romantic eras and responded when they heard a modulation. Each excerpt featured either a pivot chord modulation, a direct modulation, a common tone modulation, or no modulation. Listeners performed above chance across modulation conditions, and an interaction effect was observed for modulation type and participant training level. We also present an exploratory PCA that suggests that harmonic language and phrasing are both significant factors in guiding modulation perception, both of which merit further investigation.