Psychological and physiological influences in chord progression including the prohibitions

Abstract

Harmony is one of three major elements in the music. Harmonics are the basic theory of composition. There are several kinds of prohibitions in relation to the chord progression in the rules of Harmonics. When composers compose music pieces, they pay attention not to contain these prohibitions. The prohibitions are empirically- defined with giving the musical expressions to melody processes by try and error. Even so, there are few studies that are quantitatively examined the perceptual effect of the prohibitions. Therefore, the authors have investigated the perceptual effects of the prohibition quantitatively. The present study deals with the psychological tests and the physiological measurements using electro-encephalograph (EEG) in listening of the chord progressions. When subjects listened to the chord progression including the consecutive chord with one of the prohibitions, how subjects perceive to the consecutive chord by the method of paired comparisons test and how the chord progression induces “P300” by EEG in physiological experiment. Psychological results suggest that subjects can distinguish the consecutive chord with one of the prohibitions. P300 was elicited by the prohibition in the physiological experiment. These results suggest that there is a different response of listening to the consecutive chord with the prohibition.