From: malcolm@interval.com (Malcolm Slaney)
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 1994 21:03:57 +0000
Subject: Abstract
Message-Id: <aacc242103021004dcda@[192.203.7.217]>

More music at the CCRMA Hearing Seminar!

David Huron has been attending the Hearing Seminar this quarter and has had
many interesting things to say.  Now's our chance to find out where he is
coming from.

David works on music perception.  How does our perceptual system affect
music?  Does the way that we hear affect the way that music is written?
David's talk at the CCRMA Hearing Seminar next Thursday will address this
issue.

        Who:    David Huron (U. of Waterloo)
        When:   11AM Thursday, October 27th
        What:   Perceptual Foundations of Western Part-Writing
        Where:  CCRMA Library, Top Floor of the Knoll at Stanford

See you at CCRMA.

-- Malcolm

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Who: David Huron (U. of Waterloo) also currently on loan to the
     Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities

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       The Perceptual Foundations of Western Part-writing

     For more than three centuries, the so-called "rules of voice-
leading" have formed a major part of the core curriculum in the
training of Western musicians.  The voice-leading canon consists of
about a dozen-odd "rules" -- from the simple to the arcane.  For
example, freshman music students still learn that when approaching
an octave by similar pitch motion, at least one of the parts should
move by diatonic step.  Why?

     This presentation endeavors to explain voice-leading practice
using perceptual principles -- predominantly principles associated
with auditory stream segregation (Bozzi & Vicario, 1960; Dowling 1967;
van Noorden, 1975; Bregman, 1990; etc.).  More specifically, this
paper will derive the rules of voice-leading based on classic
psychoacoustic research.

     In the course of the derivation, new "rules" of voice-leading
arise that are not part of the traditional voice-leading canon.
However, correlational studies of large samples of computer-based
musical scores show that these non-traditional rules are also obeyed
in conventional voice-leading practice.

     By adding certain auxiliary principles, it is also possible to
show how different types of part-writing can be distinguished -- such
as polyphony, homophony, and close-harmony (e.g. barbershop quartets).

     For hearing scientists, this presentation will illustrate how
phenomena such as critical bands can be observed in scores by
J.S. Bach and Charles Ives.

     For musicians, this presentation will clarify some of the
origins of conventional voice-leading practices -- as well as
identifying some of the perceptual circumstances under which one
need not follow the rules.  Expect heated discussions about "nature"
versus "nurture".