Pitch-class prevalence in plainchant, scale-degree consonance, and the origin of the rising leading tone. Issue 5 (20th October 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Parncutt, Richard
• Is Part Of: Journal of new music research. Volume 48:Issue 5(2019)
• Page Start: 434
• Page End: 448
• Publication Date: 2019-10-20
• Subjects: Rising leading tone -- plainchant -- harmonic series -- virtual pitch -- diatonic -- prevalence; Music -- Periodicals; Musicology -- Periodicals; 780.72
• DOI: 10.1080/09298215.2019.1642360
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0929-8215

Abstract

Abstract : The most common tones in Medieval plainchant were G and D; the least common, B. I propose that individual scale degrees differed in perceived consonance depending on the number of audible partials (harmonics) corresponding to scale degrees. The first ten harmonics of G correspond to scale degrees (G, D, B, F, A), but not those of B (B, F#, D#, A, C#). More consonant tones were sung more often and became more stable (reference pitches). Tones C and F ( fa ) were sung more often than B and E ( mi ). The melodic semitone became psychologically associated with a difference in stability.