The influence of implicit harmony, rhythm and musical training on the abstraction of “tension-relaxation schemas” in tonal musical phrases

Tension-relaxation schemas are an important meaningful structure in music. The two present experiments investigate the main factors involved in their abstraction. The experimental method, similar to the procedure used by Palmer and Krumhansl (1987) consists in segmenting into several fragments 6 melodies varying in their implicit harmony or their rhythmic structure. Asking the subjects to evaluate the degree of completeness of each fragment may be thought of as an indirect way of measuring the degree of musical stability. The collected responses define an average profile which may be considered as an approximation of the musical tension/relation network abstracted by the listener. Results indicate that a level of coding exists where the musical phrase could be represented by its network of musical tensions and relaxations, which is in accordance with the Lerdahl & Jackendoff's prolongational hypothesis. Abstraction of this network is influenced by the implicit harmony, the rhythmic structure, and, for musician-subjects by the interaction of these two factors. Results of the second experiment seem to suggest that the psychological processes involved in such an abstraction are not strongly influenced by the musical training. In conclusion, some suggestions about a systematic formalisation of the rules involved in the determination of tension-relaxation schemas are put forward.