Influence of generalized complexity of a musical event on subjective time estimation.

Full Abstract

This study examined the variations in the apparent duration of music events produced by differences in their generalized compositional complexity. Stimuli were the first 90 sec. of Gustav Mahler's 3rd Movement of Symphony No. 2 (low complexity) and the first 90 sec. of Luciano Bério's 3rd Movement of Symphony for Eight Voices and Orchestra (high complexity). Bério's symphony is another "reading" of Mahler's. On the compositional base of Mahler's symphony, Bério explored complexity in several musical elements--temporal (i.e., rhythm), nontemporal (i.e., pitch, orchestral and vocal timbre, texture, density), and verbal (i.e., text, words, phonemes). These two somewhat differently filled durations were reproduced by 10 women and 6 men with a stopwatch under the prospective paradigm. Analysis showed that the more generalized complexity of the musical event was followed by greater subjective estimation of the duration of this 90-sec. symphonic excerpt.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Bueno, José Lino Oliveira (JL); Firmino, Erico Artioli (EA); Engelman, Arno (A);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology and Education, Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences, and Letters, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, Brasil. jldobuen(-atsign-)ffclrp.usp.br

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Perceptual and motor skills (Percept Mot Skills), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Apr; vol 94 (issue 2) : pp 541-7

Dates: Created 2002/05/24; Completed 2002/12/04; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 12027350, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

This article has not been indexed for related articles as yet, however you can still use the live related article search links below.

See 100+ related articles.