Musical Consonance and Cochlear Mechanics

Consonance, Hearing Science, Psychoacoustics, Cochlea

This monograph is focussed onto the sensory consonance of two simultaneous complex tones. Part One describes psycho-acoustic consonance experiments undertaken by the author and by several earlier researchers. Some of these experiments were informal one-man studies, while others involved fairly large groups of subjects and subsequent statistical analysis. Part Two contains selected chapters of cochlear mechanics. In Part Three, the consonance theory of Hermann von Helmholtz is briefly discussed, and an addition to that theory, first published by the author in 2001, is described.

The present volume is intended to add weight to the hypothesis that our preference for certain two-tones (e.g., for major or minor thirds at female-singing pitch, or for perfect fifths at bass pitch) is not only due to education, but is based on the physiology of our hearing organs. The readers are expected to know biology, physics, and mathematics at high-school level. Exercises and their solutions are included at the end of most sections.