Acoustical and cultural explanations for contextual tonal stability.

The article focuses on research investigating tonal stability in Western music, specifically how listeners perceive different musical pitches. Three experiments were conducted where participants rated the 'fit' and 'stability' of probe tones within various musical scales, including both familiar and unfamiliar scales in 12-tone and 22-tone equal temperament. The study found that spectral pitch class similarity is a strong predictor of perceived stability, outperforming a simple binary indicator of pitch context. Additionally, for familiar scales, the prevalence of scale degrees in culturally relevant music contributes independently to stability ratings. The findings suggest that spectral pitch class similarity influences the perception of non-simultaneous pitches similarly to how spectral features affect simultaneous pitches. [Extracted from the article]