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DOI: 10.1177/0305735609351917
2010 38: 423 originally published online 24 March 2010 Psychology of Music
Mayumi Hamamoto, Mauro Botelho and Margaret P. Munger
Non-musicians' and musicians' perception of bitonality

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Non-musicians and musicians
perception of bitonality
Mayumi Hamamoto, Mauro Botelho and
Margaret P. Munger
Davidson College, USA
Abstract
Bitonal music is characterized by a certain, dissonant effect that had been believed to be clearly
audible by everyone. However, Wolpert found that non-musicians were unable to identify bitonal
versions of originally monotonal musical passages as such in a free response task. The present study
replicated Wolperts findings, but also had participants rate song clips for likeableness, correctness
and pleasantness. Bitonal music was rated lower on all dimensions independent of the individuals
level of musical training, with no difference in ratings by non-musicians and musicians. In addition,
following a brief training session, non-musicians (less than one year of musical training) identified
whether clips were monotonal or bitonal at equivalently high rates as the intermediate (mean 2.4
years) and expert (mean 9.2 years) musician groups.
keywords
bitonality, musicians, non-musicians, perception, tonality
Introduction
An enormous number of differences have been observed between how expert musicians and
nave listeners respond to music using both behavioural and neurophysiological methods (e.g.,
Koelsch & Mulder, 2002; Peretz & Zatorre, 2005; Regnault, Bigand, & Besson, 2001). A differ-
ence we found particularly intriguing was the apparent inability of non-musicians to hear the
unique effect of bitonal music (Wolpert, 1990, 2000), music that is characterized by harsh and
unexpected dissonances. It had been believed that any person, regardless of previous musical
experience, would find the effect of bitonality to be so unpleasant that bitonality would be
immediately perceptible (e.g., Gosselin et al., 2006). In fact, consonant and dissonant chords
elicit different patterns of neuronal activity in the primary auditory cortex for many animals,
and the magnitude of the oscillatory pattern elicited by dissonant chords correlates with per-
ceived dissonance in humans (Fishman et al., 2001).
Corresponding author:
Margaret P. Munger, Davidson College, Box 7001, Davidson, NC, 280357001, USA.
[email: mamunger@davidson.edu]
Psychology of Music
38(4) 423445
The Author(s) 2010
Reprints and permission: http://www.
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DOI: 10.1177/0305735609351917
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424 Psychology of Music 38(4)
Bitonality can be observed in the works of many composers, most notably in those of
Milhaud, perhaps the most famous polytonalist, but also in the music of Bartk, Britten, Casella,
Honegger, Ives, Koechlin, Prokofiev and Strauss, to mention only the more prominent names
(Morgan, 1991; Symms, 1996; Watkins, 1995; Whittall, 2001b). Bitonality is the simultane-
ous use of two ... keys. This may occur briefly or over an extended span (Randel, 1986; see also
Whittall, 2001a). (Polytonality refers to the use of three or more keys simultaneously.) The
group of composers associated with Milhaud known as Les Six was especially fond of bi- and
polytonality (DeVoto, 1993; Mdicis, 2005; Messing, 1988).
Composers themselves cite bi- and polytonality as integral to their work (Bartk, 1931/1976,
1943/1976; Casella, 1924; Koechlin, 1925; Milhaud, 1923/1982). Compositional treatises
routinely present bi- and polytonality as a viable compositional procedure (Cope, 1977; Dallin,
1974; Smith Brindle, 1986). Bitonality may also be associated with a pieces text or dramatic
structure, as, for example, in Brittens operas Peter Grimes and The Turn of the Screw (Whittall,
2001a). It should be noted that such interpretations often fall under the category of eye music:
the notational peculiarities of bitonality such as differing key signatures that convey symbolic
meaning that is apparent to the eye but not to the ear (Dart, 2001).
Disagreement among musicians and especially music theorists arises not in relation to the
terms definition, but whether or not bitonality can be perceived. In spite of the evidence out-
lined above, many theorists have been less than accepting of the concept of bitonality on the
grounds that it cannot be perceived. Van den Toorn famously declared:
The bitonality or polytonality of certain passages in [Stravinskys music] can no longer be taken
seriously ... Presumably implying the simultaneous (C-scale tonally functional) unfolding of separate
tonalities or keys, these notions real horrors of the musical imagination have widely (and merci-
fully) been dismissed as too fantastic or illogical to be of assistance. (van den Toorn, 1983, pp. 6364)
Two widely-used 20th-century theory and analysis texts reflect this scepticism: one does not
mention the topic at all even though it discusses music that is treated as bitonal in other quar-
ters (Straus, 1990), the other mentions bitonality briefly but questions its perceptibility (Wil-
liams, 1997). Studies sympathetic to bi- and polytonality exist, but are infrequent (e.g.,
Harrison, 1997; Stein, 2005).
The source of music theorys claims that bi- and polytonality are not perceptible is not
entirely clear, but seems to be rooted in semantics, namely, in the logical contradiction inherent
in the term bitonality rather than in any experimental evidence (Boretz, 1973; Forte, 1955;
see also Tymoczko, 2002). Tonal pitch structure is typically conceived to be strictly hierarchical
(e.g., Lerdahl, 2001 or Lerdahl & Jackendoff, 1983). Thus, tonality is understood as the projec-
tion in time of a single [consonant] triad by means of ... linear and harmonic prolongations of
this triad (Babbitt, 1952, p. 261). Note the use of the word single in the definition: in other
words, if music is to be heard in terms of a key or a pitch-class centre, all of its pitches will be
heard in terms of this single governing and superordinating pitch class. Conversely, bitonality,
as mentioned above, is the simultaneous use of two keys. Consequently, because tonality by
definition admits only one pitch centre, many theorists consider bi- or polytonalism a figment
of the imagination, and explain so-called bi- or polytonal passages as a partitioning of the chro-
matic scale, or of certain pitch-class sets such as the octatonic scale or octad (Berger, 1978;
Straus, 1990; van den Toorn, 1983). The octatonic collection is an eight-note scale in which
whole steps and half steps, or half steps and whole steps, alternate. The octad collection is also
an eight-note scale consisting of two whole steps, three half steps, and two whole steps (Figure
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Hamamoto et al. 425
1). An easy way to conceive of the octad is to arrange the pitches of a major scale in fifths rather
than in steps, say, FCGDAEB, and then add one additional fifth to obtain the octad, FC
GDAEBF sharp.
Finally, it should also be noted that antagonism towards bi- and polytonality is as old as the
concept itself. Early criticism of bitonality was often virulent, and frequently mixed in with
nationalistic and anti-Semitic rhetoric (Mdicis, 2005; Messing, 1988). Schoenbergs opposi-
tion to bi- and polytonality, although especially vehement, emphasized musical and structural
reasons (Schoenberg, 1923/1975, 1925/1975, 1926/1975; see especially Schoenbergs sec-
ond untitled essay in Stein, 1975; Messing, 1988 mentions a number of still unpublished
essays by Schoenberg that also describe polytonality negatively). But it is important to remem-
ber that most of Schoenbergs criticism of polytonality dates from the mid-1920s, that is, dur-
ing the peak of bi- and polytonalitys popularity but also precisely the time he was composing
his first 12-tone pieces (and enduring his own share of negative criticism).
Bitonality: perceptual issues
It is puzzling that the logical contradiction (inasmuch as music theorists are concerned)
inherent in the concept of bitonality is capable of quashing discussion. Although we recog-
nize that experimental studies in the perception of bitonality are at a beginning state, it is
surprising that one can dismiss the concept as fantastic or illogical without any experimen-
tal evidence. Bitonality, and the perceptual issues it raises, came to a head in an exchange
between two music theorists and Stravinsky scholars: Dmitri Tymoczko (2002, 2003a,
2003b) and Pieter van den Toorn (2003). Briefly, Tymoczko questions if the octatonic scale
should be considered the source of Stravinskys pitch materials as van den Toorn has fre-
quently claimed (1975, 1983, 1987). Tymoczko shows that many passages in Stravinskys
music can be explained as resulting from the superposition of musical elements. Echoing the
views of many composers, Tymoczko points out that bitonality is a useful explanation for the
construction of a piece (2003b). Side-stepping for a moment the contentious issue of percep-
tion of bitonality, Tymoczko calls such layering of elements polyscalarity: the simultaneous
use of musical objects which clearly suggest different source-collections. Polyscalarity is a kind of
local heterogeneity, a willful combination of disparate and clashing musical elements
(Tymoczko, 2002, p. 84).
(a)
Octatonic collection








(b)
Octad collection

Figure 1. Eight-note scales: (a) the octatonic collection; (b) the octad collection.
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426 Psychology of Music 38(4)
Tymoczko goes on to address the issue of perception. While he admits that a piece of music
cannot, in the fullest and most robust sense of the term, be in two keys at once (2002, p. 84),
bi- or polytonality as a concept is relevant for music in which distinct pitch configurations natu-
rally segregate themselves into independent auditory streams, each of which, if heard in isolation,
would suggest a different tonal region (Tymoczko, 2002, p. 84; our emphasis). Auditory scene
analysis is the ability to identify different sound sources within the auditory stream, and listeners
use a variety of acoustic cues to distinguish auditory objects including frequency, intensity and
spatial location (for review, see Bregman, 1990, 1993). In addition, a complex sound with mul-
tiple harmonics will be identified as two auditory objects when one of the harmonics is mistuned
relative to the others (Alain, Arnott, & Picton, 2001). Using fundamental frequencies of 200
and 400 Hz, participants identified the complex sound as two distinct auditory objects when the
degree of mistuning of a harmonic was 4 percent, which corresponds roughly to a semitone
(Alain et al., 2001). Being able to distinguish multiple acoustic objects is not the same as being
able to distinguish multiple tonalities, but it is clearly an initial requirement.
We suggest that the unique effect created by bitonality results from the combination of two
independent yet interacting factors: first, there is the sensory roughness that results when
tones are too close in pitch, with the most dissonant intervals involving a difference of about 4
percent (a bit less than a semitone, Plomp & Levelt, 1965; Rasch & Plomp, 1999). Second, there
is the abstract and high-level discordance created when distinct pitch configurations that proj-
ect independent auditory streams, each in a different key, point to two different tonics, in viola-
tion of tonalitys basic premise. Note that it is not necessarily the case that all bitonal music will
be dissonant (Dallin, 1974; Smith Brindle, 1986). Conversely, tonal music highly saturated
with chromaticism and, for that matter, atonal music, can be very dissonant without giving the
impression of bitonality. In his description of the perceptual experience of bi- and polytonality,
Tymoczko avails himself of a rather colourful metaphor: polytonal music tends to involve a
very distinctive sort of crunch (Tymoczko, 2003b, p. 2). We understand Tymoczkos crunch
to be synonymous with the more well-defined term sensory roughness. In spite of its collo-
quial ring, we adopted Tymoczkos crunch for its ready comprehensibility by non-musicians,
part of our pool of participants.
While we agree that independent auditory streams are essential for the perception of bitonal-
ity, one needs to take into account the varying degrees of independence between the musical
structures that project the independent auditory streams. At one end of the spectrum lies Tymoc-
zkos extreme example of an oboist playing My Country Tis of Thee in F major in one corner of
a room, while in another corner a pianist plays The Star-Spangled Banner in D-flat major
(Tymoczko, 2003b). Two auditory streams thus project two different keys, but they are so inde-
pendent, unrelated and uncoordinated that they would not be perceived as a bitonal piece, or, for
that matter, any sort of piece, but rather as two pieces, each in one key, played simultaneously.
At the other end of the spectrum lies the locus classicus of bitonality, the so-called Petroushka
chord (Figure 2; the clarinets are notated in C). Traditionally, this passage has been explained
as the bitonal superposition of the keys of C and F sharp major, even by the composer himself
(Stravinsky & Craft, 1962). The passage is quite dissonant, even by early 20th-century stan-
dards: all but one simultaneity, the C sharpE in bar 9, are non-triadic. The sustained dimin-
ished third A sharpC, alternating with the minor second GF sharp, is especially biting. As is
readily apparent, this passage consists of two highly coordinated parts, played by clarinets 1
and 2: they are timbrally homogenous, and exhibit identical rhythm and contour. In fact, the
two clarinet parts are so well coordinated that they cannot be considered as independent
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Hamamoto et al. 427
auditory streams. In fact, this coordination helps to smooth out the otherwise dissonant effect
of this passage. It should come as no surprise, then, that experimentation has corroborated van
den Toorns hypothesis that this passage is heard in terms of the octatonic collection (Krum-
hansl, 1990; Krumhansl & Schumckler, 1986). Figure 3 illustrates how the octatonic scale is
partitioned between the two clarinets and bassoon: C, E and G, suggesting C major, are given to
clarinet 1, and C sharp, F sharp and A sharp, suggesting F sharp major, are assigned to clarinet
2 and bassoon. Two pitch-classes of the octatonic collection, D sharp and A, are not used, and
the bassoons G sharp (circled in Figure 2) is a rogue element, that is, it does not belong to the
octatonic scale (but fits in comfortably in F sharp major).
Somewhere in between the two examples above lie the two types of stimuli used in this study:
the contrived bitonal examples created by Wolpert (1990, 2000) and also used in blocks 1 and
2 of this study, and the originally composed bitonal phrases taken from Milhauds piano suite
Saudades do Brasil. Wolpert took a pre-existing piece, often well known and familiar to partici-
pants, and transposed the melody up a perfect fifth (1990), or up or down a whole step (2000).
Like Wolpert (2000), we also took well-known pieces and transposed the melody up and down
by a whole step. These contrived examples create a bitonal crunch that is less jarring than the
thought experiment of playing two different pieces in two distinct keys in opposite corners of a
room, but a bit more pronounced than in the Petroushka passage. The passages taken from Sau-
dades were composed intentionally as bitonal, and present a bitonal effect that is more subtle
and nuanced than the contrived examples. Not only does Milhaud vary the interval separating
the two keys, dissonances are better controlled, avoiding the arbitrary dissonances of the con-
trived examples. Moreover, a phrase often becomes monotonal at its conclusion.

Cl. 1 in Bb
Cl. 2 in A
Bsn. 1, 2
p
Molto meno. q = 50
49
mf lamentoso

3
3

3
3
_
- -
1.
, ,
,
,
,
, ,
,
,
,
, , , ,
,
, , , ,
,
,
, ,
,
,
,
, ,
,
,
,
, , , ,
,
, , , ,

,
,
,
, ,

,
,
, ,
,
, ,

,
Figure 2. Stravinsky, Petroushka, Second Tableau, bars 915: score (the clarinets are notated in C).

Clarinet 1
Clarinet 2, Bassoon 1

Figure 3. Stravinsky, Petroushka, Second Tableau, bars 915: partitioning of the octatonic collection by
instruments.
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428 Psychology of Music 38(4)
Musicians vs. non-musicians
Remarkably, bitonal sensory roughness or crunch is perceived easily and immediately by
musicians but often goes by unnoticed by non-musicians (Wolpert, 1990, 2000). In her study
on melody recognition with different instrumental and harmonic accompaniments, Wolpert
(1990) made an unexpected observation about non-musicians. Participants were presented
with three versions of the same tune: the model (melody with accompaniment in same key),
the same tune played by a different instrument (melody and accompaniment in same key), and
the tune played by the same instrument as the model, but with the accompaniment in a differ-
ent key from the melody. In choosing the melody that is more similar to the model, musicians
always selected the choice based on key equivalency, whereas 95 percent of non-musicians
chose in terms of instrumentation, and so claimed the bitonal version was the most similar to
the model. To non-musicians, timbre was more important than harmony, even harmony that
made the musicians cringe. But even more intriguingly, while all of the musicians noticed the
dissonant effect of a melody accompanied in a different key, over half of the non-musicians
detected nothing. All musicians, within seconds of hearing the effect of bitonality, smiled or
grimaced, but none of the non-musicians did so. This result was true for both familiar tunes,
such as the nursery rhymes Mary Had a Little Lamb and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and
original melodies composed for the study.
Wolpert (2000) focused more directly on the perception of bitonality: Myrow and Gordons
You Make Me Feel So Young was sung by a professional singer with an orchestral accompani-
ment, and then manipulated so that the accompaniment was transposed either up or down two
semitones. Participants listened to the three versions of the song (original, accompaniment
transposed up, and accompaniment transposed down), and answered one open question:
What differences, if any, do you hear among the excerpts? Again, Wolpert found considerable
differences in perception between musicians and non-musicians. Musicians unanimously iden-
tified the melody and accompaniments keys as the primary difference. In fact, musicians often
did not hide the unpleasantness of their experience with bitonality; several asked to be excused
from listening to the bitonal pieces in their entirety. On the other hand, only 40 percent of the
non-musicians mentioned the difference in key.
Wolperts (1990, 2000) results contradict not only common assumptions regarding listen-
ers familiar with western tonal music, but also behavioural and psychophysiological work on
the perception of other aspects of pitch structure, namely harmony and mode (e.g., Costa, Fine,
& Ricci Bitti, 2004; Gagnon & Peretz, 2003; see Peretz & Zatorre, 2005 for a review of psycho-
physiological work). For example, when non-musicians rate the happiness and sadness of a
melody, they are influenced by mode (major or minor), either with relatively simple experi-
menter-created melodies (Gagnon & Peretz, 2003; Halpern, Martin, & Reed, 2008) or art music
excerpts (Costa et al., 2004). While mode is certainly musically distinct from bitonality, it is
surprising that mode would matter when bitonal crunch (dissonance and/ or incompatible
independent auditory streams) does not. Significantly, these listeners were not asked to articu-
late what was different between the clips, as Wolpert (1990, 2000) asked, but simply to assign a
rating. We speculate that perhaps non-musicians do not have the vocabulary to describe the
bitonal effects perceived when hearing Wolperts stimuli, and a rating task would reveal more
clearly the musical sensitivity of non-musicians.
For example, Regnault et al. (2001) presented sequences of chords to musicians and non-
musicians with instructions to rate the final chord for consonance/dissonance, defining conso-
nance as pleasant, everything seems OK and dissonance as unpleasant, something seems
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Hamamoto et al. 429
wrong for the non-musicians. Musicians were 97 percent accurate overall, and with these
instructions non-musicians had 81 percent accuracy overall, with 84 percent accuracy for dis-
sonant chords. In addition, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded and revealed
that musicians and non-musicians both show a larger late positive component for dissonant
over consonant chords (late epoch: 300800 ms following the chord). Musical expertise does
interact with ERPs in an earlier epoch (100200 ms), with musicians having larger positive
peaks to dissonant chords while non-musicians have larger positive peaks to consonant chords.
The non-musicians are processing consonant and dissonant chords differently, as revealed by
the ERPs, and can identify the chords fairly accurately (Regnault et al., 2001). However, differ-
ent ERP patterns for stimuli do not always correspond with listeners being able to explicitly
identify the stimulus differences (Koelsch & Mulder, 2002).
While Regnault et al. (2001) found that non-musicians can identify dissonant chords through
pleasantness ratings, non-musicians struggle when asked to explicitly identify the mode of an
excerpt (Halpern et al., 2008; Leaver & Halpern, 2004). Halpern and her colleagues found that
non-musicians can label major and minor songs as happy and sad respectively, but asking them
to label the same songs using major and minor results in chance performance. Even musicians
have some difficulty with the major/minor labels, though performance is above chance (Halpern
et al., 2008; Leaver & Halpern, 2004). Leaver and Halpern (2004) explored different types of
training for non-musicians, finding that a short lesson that included music theory and explicit
links to the affective labels improved non-musicians performance, but not to the same levels as
musicians. In addition, an ERP study revealed that musicians have a large late positive compo-
nent when processing the note critical for mode classification that is missing in non-musicians
(Halpern et al., 2008), highlighting the fact that non-musicians are processing music differently.
Wolpert (1990, 2000) was interested in what non-musicians would spontaneously identify
regarding music, emphasizing that her question was what do people hear rather than what
can people hear. Given the influence of other musical characteristics on ratings on emotion
(e.g., Costa et al., 2004; Gagnon & Peretz, 2003) and the evidence that non-musicians are at
least implicitly aware of harmony, as revealed by ERPs (e.g., Koelsch & Mulder, 2002; Regnault
et al., 2001), we wondered how non-musicians would spontaneously use scales of likeableness,
pleasantness and correctness to rate monotonal and bitonal music. As mentioned above, it is
possible that non-musicians do hear bitonality as readily as musicians, but simply lack the
vocabulary to describe it. In addition, we examined whether participants, especially non-musi-
cians, could be taught to identify bitonality in concert-hall music where the composer had cho-
sen to write in bitonality. As will be discussed more fully below, the selections from Milhauds
Saudades offer a subtle bitonal crunch, and, in our estimation, present a more robust test than
the one offered by contrived musical examples.
For the purposes of this study, we assume that accompaniment and melody project inde-
pendent auditory streams. This assumption makes common sense; it also seems implicit in
Wolperts studies (1990, 2000). Importantly, it is also how the composer Milhaud chooses to
separate the keys in Saudades. Melody and accompaniment are differentiated by register,
rhythm and pacing, timbre and dynamic level, yet are sufficiently coordinated in terms of
meter and especially pitch structure to be perceived as integral parts of an organic whole. All
the bitonal excerpts used in this study, whether contrived from a pre-existing piece or origi-
nally composed by Milhaud, present the accompaniment in one key and the melody in another.
Finally, we wish to draw a distinction between the terms tonality and key as used in this
study. We understand tonality to be a musical system where any and all pitch configurations
are perceived as being organized in terms of one and only one referential pitch class: the tonic.
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430 Psychology of Music 38(4)
Key identifies the one major or minor triad that is projected by linear and harmonic prolonga-
tions. This being said, we also recognize that the term tonality has a wide and often contradic-
tory range of meanings, and is often used synonymously or interchangeably with key (see
Hyer, 2001). This is why bitonality, in spite of its name, means the simultaneous presence of
two distinct keys or scales, not musical systems. At times, we will use the invented and tautologi-
cal term monotonal rather than tonal solely to distinguish clearly from bitonal or polytonal.
Thus, when participants are asked to identify the tonality of an excerpt, they are in fact asked
to determine whether the passage is (mono)tonal or bitonal.
The current experiment has three components. First, we would like to replicate Wolperts
(2000) finding that non-musicians do not spontaneously identify change in tonality within a
free response task. We will use musical excerpts from both the classical and mid- to late-20th-
century popular songbook, and create manipulated (bitonal) versions of each clip by shifting
the melody two semitones. Koelsch, Fritz, Cramon, Mller, & Friederici (2006) labeled a similar
manipulation as (permanently) dissonant. Second, we would like to see how non-musicians,
along with musicians, use rating scales for likeability, correctness and pleasantness for a similar
set of original and manipulated (bitonal) clips. We are not going to instruct them on how to
map these adjective scales onto the tonality of the clip, though previous work suggests that the
(permanently) dissonant clips will be mapped onto the more negative ends of these scales (e.g.,
Gosselin et al., 2006; Koelsch et al., 2006). Finally, we would like to explore how readily non-
musicians can learn to label bitonality. When asked to identify when the pianist gets lost dis-
sonance was correctly identified (Gosselin et al., 2006), suggesting non-musicians are sensitive
to dissonance. However, when explicitly asking non-musicians to identify major and minor
mode, Halpern et al. (2008) found that non-musicians struggled, even though they were able
to accurately label major as happy and minor as sad. Ours is perhaps an even more challenging
task because we are using Milhauds Saudades, which were originally bitonal compositions and
are subtler than the (permanently) dissonant clips used in previous literature (Koelsch et al.,
2006; Wolpert, 2000; our blocks 1 and 2).
Method
Participants
Forty-two participants (aged 1822 years, gender was not recorded) were recruited from intro-
ductory psychology classes and student music ensembles. Musical experience was assessed by
a brief survey at the end of the experiment, and revealed three distinct groups. Training in
music theory was not considered, adopting Krumhansls (1983) idea of focusing on partici-
pants musical experience. If the participants only musical experience came from ensemble
participation, such as school band or chorus, we divided the number of years by two for the
purposes of assigning groups, because they had not received the attention of private instruc-
tion. Musicians (n = 14) had at least five years of private music lessons on an instrument (mean
years of training = 9.2 years). Intermediate musicians (n = 14) had between one and five years of
private lessons (mean years of training = 2.4 years), and non-musicians (n = 14) were those
with less than one year of private lessons.
Stimuli
Music clips were created in MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) files using Steinbergs
sequencer program Cubase SX (version 3.0). Sample sounds of orchestral instruments were
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Hamamoto et al. 431
taken from Symphonic Orchestra Silver Edition (Eastwest), drum sounds from BFD (fxpansion),
and guitar sounds from Virtual Guitarist (Steinberg).
Blocks 1 and 2 presented two versions of classical and popular music excerpts: the original
tonal version, and an altered bitonal version where the accompaniment was moved up or
down two semitones, matching the manipulation used by Wolpert (2000). Classical excerpts
included the beginning phrases of Schuberts Ave Maria (Ellens Gesang III, Op. 52, No. 6, D.
839), the first movement of Mozarts Bassoon Concerto in B flat Major, K. 186e, and the arias
Evry Valley and Rejoice, Rejoice from Handels Messiah. Popular music excerpts were taken
from jazz and pop songs from the mid to late 20th century: Gordons Unforgettable, Lennon
and McCartneys A Day in the Life, McCartneys Yesterday, and Menken and Ashmans
Beauty and the Beast.
For block 3, we constructed stimuli in a manner completely opposite to those in Wolperts
study (1990, 2000). Rather than start with a monotonal piece and then distort it to render it
bitonal, we took pieces that had been written bitonally by a renowned composer, and then
made small adjustments to make them monotonal. Thus, for block 3 we selected five phrases
from Milhauds Saudades: Corcovado, Copacabana, Ipanema, Paineras and Botafogo. All
selections were taken from the initial phrase of the piece with the exception of Ipanema, which
was taken from an internal phrase. Again, save for Ipanema, the stimuli are similar in their
construction. Botafogo is typical and will serve to illustrate the stimuli in block 3 (Figure 4).
1

The phrases consist of an accompaniment built on a characteristic Brazilian syncopated
rhythm that oscillates between tonic and dominant at the rate of one chord per measure. The
left-hand accompaniment does not use a complete scale; rather, it projects its key using a pen-
tachord formed from the first five pitches of the scale. The right-hand melody is built on a differ-
ent scale; unlike the accompaniment, it utilizes all the pitches of the scale. Figure 5 shows how
the pitches of each key are distributed among melody and accompaniment. Tonal versions of
each excerpt were created by slightly altering the right-hand melody to match the key of the
left-hand accompaniment, thus eliminating some of the bitonal crunch (Figure 6). While the
rewriting eliminated the bitonality, some dissonances remained. The alterations were minute in
order to preserve the composers style. In fact, changes were so minimal that listeners would
not perceive an alteration unless they were intimately acquainted with Saudades. (The accom-
paniment was not changed.) Finally, we note that Milhaud also uses a variety of intervals to
separate the key of the melody from that of the accompaniment. Table 1 illustrates the key dif-
ferences in the pieces chosen for this study. (Ipanema is missing in Table 1; as will be discussed
below, it is not entirely bitonal.)
There are significant differences between Wolperts and our contrived examples and Mil-
hauds pieces. When a monotonal piece is altered by transposing the melody only to another
key, dissonances are created at salient moments where consonances typically existed, such as at
phrase beginnings, downbeats and strong beats, and especially at the cadence that closes the
phrase. Milhaud also uses bitonality to create dissonances, but exercises greater control in their
deployment, as illustrated in Botafogo (Figure 4). The accompaniment is in F minor. After a
two-bar vamp, the melody enters in F sharp minor. Striking dissonances are heard at salient
moments: an augmented fifth on the downbeat of bar 3, a major seventh on the downbeat of
bar 4 and the clashes created by the right-hand chords in bars 711. Dissonances ease toward
the end of the phrase (this is mirrored by the diminuendo to mp), and with the C natural in bars
1314 the melody slips out of F sharp minor into F minor, the key of the accompaniment. Even
when a phrase does not begin with a dissonance, as is the case in Copacabana, striking disso-
nances are placed on most beats throughout the phrase (Figure 7). This particular
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432 Psychology of Music 38(4)
Table 1. Bitonal organization of select passages from Milhaud, Saudades do Brasil, Op. 67
Movement Melody Interval Accompaniment
Botafogo F sharp natural minor Minor second F-minor pentachord
Copacabana B major Major third G-major pentachord
Corcovado D major Perfect fifth G-major pentachord
Paineras C major Major third A-flat major pentachord
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Figure 4. Milhaud, Saudades do Brasil, Op. 67, No. 2, Botafogo, original bitonal version.

Left-hand accompaniment
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Right-hand melody
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Figure 5. Milhaud, Saudades do Brasil, Op. 67, No. 2, Botafogo, partitioning of pitch collection by melody
and accompaniment.
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Hamamoto et al. 433
compositional strategy, to begin a phrase with a clear bitonal effect and strong dissonance, and
gradually taper to a consonant, monotonal state, is also heard in Paineras.
Procedure
Participants were individually tested in a quiet, well-lit room, using a Macintosh G4-based iMac
computer with Bose TriPort headphones set to a standardized, comfortable volume level deter-
mined by the experimenter. Instructions were presented on-screen, and the participants
responded using the computer keyboard and mouse.
Block 1 asked participants to listen to two versions of a musical excerpt (the original tonal
and an altered bitonal) and type into the computer any differences they heard, similar to the
free-response task from Wolpert (2000). Figure 8 shows the experimental procedure. The sec-
ond version started playing immediately after the first, and a prompt appeared on screen asking
participants to indicate any differences they heard. The four different pairs of excerpts were
presented in a unique random order for each participant, and the tonalbitonal sequence was
counterbalanced between pairs. Song set 1 included original and manipulated (bitonal) ver-
sions of classical excerpts Rejoice, Rejoice and the first movement of Mozarts Bassoon Con-
certo, along with popular excerpts A Day in the Life and Unforgettable. Song set 2 included
original and manipulated (bitonal) versions of classical excerpts Ave Maria and Evry Valley
along with popular excerpts Yesterday and Beauty and the Beast. Half the participants heard
song set 1 in block 1, and the other half heard song set 2.
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Figure 6. Milhaud, Saudades do Brasil, Op. 67, No. 2, Botafogo, recomposed monotonal version.
by guest on January 21, 2013 pom.sagepub.com Downloaded from
434 Psychology of Music 38(4)
Block 2 asked participants to listen to single versions of a musical clip and use a computer
mouse to answer three questions using Likert-scales: How much do you like this song? (1, not at
all likeable, to 5, like a lot.) How correct does this song sound? (1, wrong, to 5, correct.) How pleas-
ant does this song feel? (1, unpleasant, to 5, pleasant.) All three scales appeared on-screen simul-
taneously, and participants could answer in any order. Over the course of block 2, participants
heard two new classical and two new popular excerpts, in both original tonal and altered
bitonal versions, for a total of eight clips to rate. The musical clips were presented in a unique
random order for each participant. The musical excerpts used in blocks 1 and 2 were counter-
balanced between participants, so that excerpts that appeared in block 1 for half the partici-
pants appeared in block 2 for the other half.
Block 3 comprised three phases (see Figure 8): defining monotonality and bitonality, train-
ing participants with feedback to identify the tonality of a musical clip, and then testing partici-
pants ability to identify the tonality with new musical clips. Copacabana was always used in
the training phase (Figure 7), and Saudades set 1 included original and manipulated (mono-
tonal) versions of Ipanema and Paineras, while Saudades set 2 included original and manipu-
lated (monotonal) versions of Botafogo and Corcovado. While the original, bitonal version of
Copacabana was presented, the following definition appeared on screen: BITONAL: Notice
sometimes there is a crunch in the sound. This should sound somewhat unpleasant and feel
like it shouldnt be that way. Afterwards, the altered monotonal version was presented, with
the following definition on screen: MONOTONAL: Now the song sounds smooth and more
pleasant.
Following these definitions and examples, two additional excerpts, (either Saudades set 1 or
Saudades set 2) were used for training. Both bitonal and monotonal versions of each were pre-
sented in random order for each participant (four total trials). Participants were asked to iden-
tify whether the passage was monotonal or bitonal, and then were given feedback regarding the
accuracy of their response and the actual tonality of the clip. These training clips were repeated
until participants correctly identified the tonality of four excerpts in a row. At this point, partici-
pants were asked to identify the tonality of two new excerpts from Saudades, (Saudades sets were
counterbalanced between participants). Both tonal and bitonal versions of each excerpt were
presented in random order for each participant, for a total of four trials.
p
Calme (88 = q)
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Figure 7. Milhaud, Saudades do Brasil, Op. 67, No. 4, Copacabana.
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Hamamoto et al. 435
After completing all three blocks, participants were briefly interviewed about their musical
experience, answering questions about private music lessons, musical genres performed and
listened to, and how many hours a day they listened to music.
Results
Free response
Block 1 presented monotonal and bitonal versions of the same musical excerpt, and asked par-
ticipants to list any differences they heard. Mention of dissonance, differences in key between
Block 1
Listen to song set A (original and bitonal versions)
Task: Comment on any differences
Block 2
Listen to song set B (original and bitonal versions)
Task: Rate likeability, correctness & pleasantness
1 = not at all likeable/wrong/unpleasant
5 = likeable/correct/pleasant
Phase 1: Denitions
Listen to original Copacabana (bitonal version)
View denition (on screen)
Bitonal: Notice sometimes there is a crunch in the sound. This
should sound somewhat unpleasant and feel like it shouldnt be
that way.
Listen to manipulated Copacabana (monotonal version)
View denition (on screen)
Monotonal: Now the song sounds smooth and more pleasant.
Phase 2: Training
Listen to Saudades set 1 (original and monotonal versions)
Task: Identify tonality, with feedback
Repeated until 4 correct in a row
Phase 3: Testing
Listen to Saudades set 2 (original and monotonal versions)
Task: Identify tonality, no feedback
Block 3
Figure 8. Experimental procedure. Song sets included two classical and two popular excerpts (original
and manipulated bitonal versions) and were counterbalanced between participants. Saudades sets included
two excerpts (original and manipulated monotonal versions) and were also counterbalanced between
participants.
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436 Psychology of Music 38(4)
melody and accompaniment, or something being out of tune earned 2 points. Discussion of a
preference, correctness, pleasantness or overall key or pitch change earned 1 point. Two raters
scored each of the free responses (interrater reliability = 0.91). The 15 differences between the
raters (out of 168 responses) were resolved through discussion, and subsequent interrater reli-
ability was 1.0. The points were totalled for the entire block so that the highest possible score was
8 (2 points maximum per clip for four clips). A one-way ANOVA between the three groups
found a significant effect of group (F(2, 39) = 12.73, p < .01), with Scheff post hoc compari-
sons revealing that musicians scored higher (M = 74%, SD = 27) than both intermediate musi-
cians (M = 37%, SD = 35, p <.01), and non-musicians (M = 20%, SD = 25, p < .01), but no
difference was observed between intermediate and non-musicians (p > .30). Free response
scores and years of music lessons were significantly correlated (r = .64, p < .01).
Musicians superior performance on the free response task replicates Wolpert (2000), and
highlights that musicians certainly have a different vocabulary for describing pitch structure.
Of particular interest, 11 participants (four musicians, three intermediate musicians and one
non-musician) used the phrase out of tune to describe the bitonal stimuli, which, in our esti-
mation, is a close approximation to a correct evaluation of the aural effect of the stimuli. Non-
musicians were more likely to offer nonexistent differences, such as tempo change or added
instruments, and to use vague descriptions such as the sound was brighter or more intense.
In fact, six of the non-musicians actually scored 0 points, mentioning no differences between
the musical excerpts that could possibly be interpreted as relating to key, or even
pleasantness.
Rating data
For the participant ratings in block 2 (see Table 2), we computed repeated-measures MANOVAs
with musical experience as a between-participant factor, and a 3-adjective scale (likeability/
correctness/pleasantness) by 2 tonality (monotonal/bitonal) by 2 genre (classical/popular)
within design. All reported effects and interactions have p < .05. No main effect was found for
musical experience (F < 1.0). Main effects were found for tonality, F(3, 37) = 42.75, and genre,
F(3, 37) = 3.01, with monotonal excerpts rated higher than bitonal excerpts on all scales, and
pop excerpts rated higher than classical excerpts on all scales. Significant interactions occurred
between musical experience, tonality and two of the adjective scales: correctness, F(2, 39) =
5.54, and pleasantness, F(2,39) = 3.27. Tukeys HSD analysis revealed that musicians had a
larger drop in correctness and pleasantness ratings when responding to bitonal clips compared
to monotonal clips (see Figure 9).
One of the popular excerpts was accidentally repeated in blocks 1 and 2 for half the partici-
pants, and consequently separate ANOVAs for each adjective scale with song set as a between-
participant factor along with 2 tonality by 2 genre within design were computed. A main effect
of song set was observed only for correctness ratings, F(1,36) = 7.41, and a t-test revealed that
the participants who heard the bitonal popular clip twice (in blocks 1 and 2), rated it as more
correct than those who heard it only once (t(40) = 2.31). As expected from the MANOVA
reported above, tonality and genre were also main effects.
The interactions between tonality and musical experience reveal that musicians were more
sensitive to tonality than the intermediate and non-musician groups when rating correctness
and pleasantness (see Figure 9), but there was not the main effect of musical experience we
expected based on the results of block 1 and Wolperts earlier work (1990, 2000). The results
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Hamamoto et al. 437
of block 2 make it clear that non-musicians do respond spontaneously to tonality, generally
rating bitonal clips as unlikeable, incorrect and unpleasant as musicians do.
Identifying bitonality
Percentages correct for identifying the bitonality of the original Milhaud excerpts (and
its absence in the adjusted excerpts) were calculated for each group: musicians (M = 86%,
Table 2. Mean ratings for non-musicians, intermediate musicians and musicians on the scales in
block 2 (1 = not at all likeable/ wrong/ unpleasant to 5 = like a lot/ correct/ pleasant)
Group Task Monotonal (original) Bitonal (manipulated)
Classical Popular Classical Popular
Non-musicians Likeability 3.71 (0.58) 3.96 (0.75) 2.43 (0.65) 2.93 (0.70)
Correctness 4.39 (0.71) 4.07 (0.90) 2.79 (0.91) 2.89 (0.98)
Pleasantness 4.25 (0.73) 4.21 (0.78) 2.82 (1.10) 3.11 (0.88)
Intermediate musicians Likeability 3.61 (0.81) 3.54 (0.75) 2.21 (0.89) 2.57 (1.14)
Correctness 3.96 (0.89) 3.86 (0.93) 2.46 (1.08) 2.57 (1.21)
Pleasantness 4.00 (0.88) 4.07 (0.70) 2.54 (1.05) 2.93 (1.25)
Musicians Likeability 4.00 (0.65) 4.18 (0.58) 2.04 (0.93) 2.64 (1.20)
Correctness 4.50 (0.68) 4.68 (0.37) 1.86 (1.03) 2.36 (0.99)
Pleasantness 4.50 (0.55) 4.64 (0.50) 2.25 (1.09) 2.71 (0.97)
Note: Standard deviations are shown in parenthesis.
Monotonal Bitonal
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Figure 9. For each level of musical experience: non-musicians (less than one year of private music
lessons, open square), intermediate musicians (between one and five years of lessons, open circle) and
musicians (more than five years of lessons, closed triangle): (a) mean rating for correctness (1 = wrong,
5 = correct); (b) mean rating for pleasantness (1 = unpleasant, 5 = pleasant).
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438 Psychology of Music 38(4)
SD = 16), intermediate musicians (M = 73%, SD = 18), and non-musicians (M = 80%, SD =
24). A one-way ANOVA found no main effect of group (F(2, 39) = 1.4, p > .26), with Scheff
post hoc comparisons revealing no differences between the groups (ps > .2). All groups were
equally accurate at distinguishing bitonal excerpts from monotonal excerpts. In fact, after
training, there is no effect of musical experience, with non-musicians showing equivalent
accuracy to musicians and intermediate musicians. There was also no correlation between
accuracy for tonality and years of music lessons (r = .14, p = .37). Within the training session,
each group made the same number of errors (musicians, 2.0 errors; intermediate musicians,
1.9 errors; non-musicians, 1.9 errors), with no correlation between number of errors and
years of music lessons (r = .06, p = .69). It is particularly noteworthy that the non-musicians,
who were unable to identify the tonality differences in the free response task of block 1, per-
formed equivalently to the most advanced musicians with only a small amount of training.
Accuracy for identifying the tonality of each Milhaud excerpt is presented in Figure 10, with
95 percent confidence intervals. All the participants correctly identified the tonality of Pain-
eras, as revealed by the perfect score (and no confidence intervals), but performance was at
chance for Ipanema and the monotonal version of Botafogo.
Musical preferences
All participants, regardless of level of musical training, reported their listening preferences to
be popular, rock or some variation (e.g., classic rock, oldies), with no more specifics. Both inter-
mediate musicians and musicians reported performing almost exclusively classical music (nine
of 14 intermediate musicians, 11 of 14 musicians), with only one musician indicating jazz and
two others indicating anything as the genre they regularly performed.
Figure 10. Ratings for tonality identification of Milhaud, Saudades do Brasil, Op. 67.
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Hamamoto et al. 439
Discussion
Non-musicians in our study are sensitive to tonality, and will spontaneously rate bitonal music
as unlikeable, incorrect or unpleasant at rates equivalent to experienced musicians replicat-
ing Koelsch et al. (2006) and Gosselin et al. (2006). Non-musicians did not spontaneously
include appropriate descriptions of bitonal music such as bitonal, crunchy, dissonant or
even out of tune in a free response task, replicating Wolpert (2000). However, once their
attention was directed to those characteristics, non-musicians were able to identify bitonality
as well as musicians (block 3). These results complement research showing non-musicians
sensitivity to other aspects of pitch structure, such as mode (Costa et al., 2004; Gagnon & Per-
etz, 2003) or how well a chord fits within its harmonic context (Regnault et al., 2001). Our
data suggest that bitonality may be even more readily apparent than mode, given that non-
musicians performed equivalently to musicians, in contrast with non-musicians difficulty in
identifying mode (Halpern et al., 2008). Since bitonality is such an unusual compositional
style, restricted to a very narrow time period, used by a relatively small number of composers
and associated with short-lived aesthetic movements, it is not surprising that its characteristic
sound (its crunch) is so unfamiliar to most non-musician and intermediate musician partici-
pants. Conversely, mode and its association with certain emotional states is well-known, ubiq-
uitous, and used in all sorts of musical styles and over a long period indeed, it is still used today
(for a survey of the literature on mode change see Gabrielsson & Lindstrm, 2001).
Block 1 (free response) successfully replicated Wolperts (2000) finding that non-musicians
do not spontaneously mention bitonality. There was a significant difference in the way musi-
cians and non-musicians/ intermediate musicians responded to bitonal and monotonal ver-
sions of the same music. While the musicians did not score perfectly in the free response task,
they did identify the bitonality of the clips. Whereas Wolpert (2000) used professional musi-
cians, we used musically involved undergraduate students, which probably accounts for the
lower accuracy in our musician group. Non-musicians were more likely to offer non-existent
differences, such as changes in tempo, instrumentation, or timbre. The scoring criteria were
designed to be relatively generous, ignoring the made-up changes and giving full credit if more
ambiguous terms than bitonality, such as out of tune, were mentioned. Nonetheless, the per-
formance of musicians and non-musicians is clearly dissimilar.
Intermediate musicians (one to five years of private music lessons) did not perform statisti-
cally better than non-musicians in the free response task, which suggests that something may
happen after the fifth year of lessons which contributes to ones ability to recognize and cor-
rectly identify bitonality. We realize that the students in our study were not part of a single,
organized music programme but came from widely diverse musical backgrounds, and included
singers and instrumentalists, so we can only speculate on the source of the difference. It seems
likely that intermediate musicians who received structured and traditional music instruction
through individual lessons, playing from notated music rather than by ear, and emphasizing
classical art music, would possess a greater sensitivity towards tonality.
As noted above, a few musicians and intermediate musicians used the phrase out of tune
to describe the bitonal stimuli. Although technically incorrect, other than bitonal, out of
tune is the most appropriate answer that a participant could possibly offer for a bitonal pas-
sage. Again, if participants have had music lessons coupled with extensive ensemble experi-
ence, such as orchestra and choir, they might be conscious of intonation and thus more
sensitive to bitonal clashes.
The rating task (block 2) revealed that non-musicians and intermediate musicians sponta-
neously rate bitonal music as unlikeable, incorrect or unpleasant to the same degree as
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440 Psychology of Music 38(4)
musicians (Figure 9). It seems likely that the lack of comment from non-musicians and inter-
mediate musicians on the bitonal crunch effect during the free response trials has more to do
with a lack of vocabulary than a lack of perception. In addition, all groups rated the pop
excerpts as more likeable and pleasant compared to the classical excerpts, which fits with the
listening habits of our participants, as revealed in the music experience survey.
In regard to blocks 1 and 2, we should note that monotonal music that is altered or distorted
to become bitonal by transposing the melody only up or down one or two semitones creates a
strong and unique sort of crunch. (This particular experimental strategy was also integral to
Wolpert, 2000.) As mentioned above, bitonal crunch results from two different types of clash.
First, there is the tonal incompatibility between two distinct pitch configurations that create
independent auditory streams. In the case of this study, these are melody and accompaniment.
Second, there are the dissonant intervals that may be created between such distinct configura-
tions. While transposing the melody of a monotonal piece may, in and of itself, not create any
more dissonances than a piece that is conceived bitonally by the composer, it will, invariably,
create its strongest dissonances at moments that, according to tonal syntax, are, or ought to be,
stable. These moments typically include phrase beginnings and endings, where the accompani-
ment would typically play the tonic chord and the melody would begin on a note of the tonic
chord, and also downbeats of measures, and even strong beats.
Block 3 investigated how well listeners could identify bitonality when a piece was conceived
by the composer as bitonal. The contrast between an original bitonal piece and a pre-existing
monotonal piece that is altered by transposing only the melody may be small but is critical. For
instance, each original bitonal piece will present a unique dissonance profile. Consider, for
example, the opening phrase of Copacabana (Figure 7). Although it is as bitonal as the
excerpts used in this study, it differs from the other phrases in that dissonances are not heard on
downbeats and most strong beats. Also, Milhaud favours a strategy of bringing bitonal phrases
to a monotonal and consonant close, again apparent in Copacabana. This particular charac-
teristic is entirely absent in a monotonal piece that is modified to bitonal by transposing its
melody. Incidentally, Morgan (1991) rejects the notion that the bitonalism in Saudades can
actually be heard because of Milhauds particular compositional strategy. Morgan goes on to
claim that the left-hand accompaniment controls the harmony of the passage, and the right-
hand melody provides merely a dissonant coloring (1991, p. 165). For these reasons, we
assume that the Milhaud passages would be more difficult to perceive, especially by participants
with no or only intermediate musical experience. Their success at identifying the tonality of the
Milhaud passages is thus particularly compelling, and points to a more sophisticated ear than
previously supported.
Our within-participant design allows for a relatively direct comparison between the free
responses of block 1 and successful identification of tonality in block 3. Specifically, the same
non-musicians who were at such a loss for words to identify what was different between the
original and manipulated (bitonal) clips were able to identify the tonality of a clearly more
sophisticated manipulation of tonality by block 3. That the clips involved more subtle manipu-
lations of tonality is apparent from the difficulty all groups had with Ipanema. The most obvi-
ous pieces of the experimental design to facilitate this are the definition and training phases of
block 3, which defined bitonality and monotonality with one excerpt (original and manipu-
lated monotonal), then provided feedback regarding actual tonality for two additional excerpts
(again, original and manipulated monotonal). Participants were then tested on two completely
new excerpts and level of musical experience no longer separated participants ability to iden-
tify tonality. Of course, because this is a within-participant design, it is also possible that mere
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Hamamoto et al. 441
exposure to bitonal versions of the classical and popular clips from blocks 1 and 2 also contrib-
uted to this improved identification. The current study cannot distinguish between an exposure
effect and the training of block 3, but given that non-musicians improved only with training
when asked to identify major and minor modes (Halpern et al., 2008; Leaver & Halpern, 2004),
training seems likely to be a necessary component for identifying tonality in the current experi-
ment. There are two aspects of the training that might be interesting to explore in future
research: the effect of explicitly defining monotonality and bitonality using examples, and the
practice with feedback. It is possible that the non-musicians improved identification of bitonal-
ity in block 3 was supported mainly by the explicit definition, and that the subsequent practice
with feedback was unnecessary. The practice clips repeated until participants had successfully
identified the tonality of four clips in a row, and there was no difference in the number of errors
for any group. In other words, our non-musicians and musicians did not require different
amounts of training on the tonality identification, suggesting that the definition itself was
more important than the practice.
From original bitonal excerpts from Saudades we created monotonal versions by changing
certain notes of the melody to conform to the harmony of the accompaniment (Figure 6). In all
cases, the changes were slight: shifting a few melody notes one or two semitones up or down
sufficed to make it conform to the key of the accompaniment while preserving the melodys
original melodic contour. Consequently, our recomposed passages sounded very much like the
originals but lacked only the bitonal crunch, characteristic of this and many other pieces by
Milhaud. It is important to note that not every dissonance was eliminated in this way, but only
those dissonances that resulted directly from the bitonal clash. So in the monotonal version of
Botafogo, for example, a minor seventh between accompaniment and melody is still heard on
the downbeat of bar 4 (Figure 6), but it has a milder effect than the harsher major seventh cre-
ated by the bitonal superposition in the original (Figure 4). Because the bitonal stimuli in block
3 were composed originally as such, and because the monotonal stimuli in block 3 differ from
their bitonal source in only minimal ways (dissonances preserved), we judge our block 3 to be a
more robust test than blocks 1 or 2.
As mentioned above, Ipanema is a bit different from all the other Milhaud passages (Figure
11). Results showed that participants detected bitonality at a rate no better than chance (see
Figure 10). A few factors may have contributed to this divergent result. Although it is the begin-
ning of a major section, the Ipanema excerpt is an internal phrase. It lacks the brief vamp that
introduces many of the opening phrases in Saudades. One role the vamp plays is to establish
clearly the key of the accompaniment. Such clarity contributes to a strong opposition with a
melody when it enters in a different key. But even setting aside the issue of the introductory
vamp, the bitonalism of Ipanema is less clear than all other stimuli (Figure 11). The right-
hand melody suggests strongly F major, with the B natural (bar 54) and D sharp (bar 56) func-
tioning as chromatic passing tones. But the key of the left-hand accompaniment is less clear:
although suggestive of C major if considered in isolation, it conforms quickly and perfectly to
the key of the melody by incorporating the initial B flat to form a dominant seventh in the key
of F major.
Although the move to the G flat major chord in bar 57 may seem unexpected and abrupt,
and perhaps could even be interpreted as resulting from the bitonal ambiance of the piece,
it is, in fact, a somewhat common monotonal progression. Although the E natural of the
right-hand melody suggests a G flatF bitonal superposition, a listener is more likely to hear
a G flat major-minor seventh chord, for the E natural is enharmonically equivalent to F flat.
The C
7
G flat
7
chord succession can be heard monotonally; jazz musicians would recognize
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442 Psychology of Music 38(4)
it as a move from the regular dominant seventh to the tritone-substitute dominant seventh
in F major (for a brief overview of jazz harmony see Strunk, 2002; jazz chord symbols and a
traditional roman-numeral analysis are provided in Figure 11). Although a tonic resolu-
tion, albeit altered to a secondary dominant, is suggested in bar 62, the key of F major never
comes to fruition.
Our recomposition of Botafogo also yielded curious results (Figure 10). While participants
had no trouble identifying the original version as bitonal, they were unable to identify the
recomposed version as monotonal. We are at a loss to explain why this particular recomposi-
tion was not as successful as the others (see Figure 6 for a score of the recomposed version of
Botafogo). Perhaps the dissonances that remained in the recomposition, in particular the sev-
enth on the downbeat of bar 4, may have confused some participants.
Conclusion
With very little training, all our listeners were quite successful at differentiating between bitonal
and monotonal excerpts, with the non-musicians performing at a rate equivalent to the musi-
cians. The ease with which our less experienced groups learned to identify the unique sensory
roughness of bitonality suggests that this is something that they quite readily perceive and are
able to articulate, once they have acquired the appropriate vocabulary. Moreover, the results of
the one tonally ambiguous passage, Ipanema (Figures 10 and 11), indicate that listeners are
able to distinguish between different kinds of dissonant passages: those that result from bitonal-
ity, and those that do not. Our study also suggests that the dismissive attitude some music theo-
rists have taken toward bitonality may be misguided. Musical analyses considering bitonality
should be encouraged (perhaps along the lines of Harrison, 1997 or Stein, 2005), as well as
further exploration of auditory streaming in musical works. Finally, music analysis textbooks
_
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57
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pp
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, ,
,
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F: V7
C7
,

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II7
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Figure 11. Milhaud, Saudades do Brasil, Op. 67, No. 5, Ipanema; chord symbols and roman numeral analysis
provided.
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Hamamoto et al. 443
should perhaps be less timid in their presentation of bitonality. Another interesting question for
future research would be to examine the aesthetics of bitonality, and how musical experience
impacts preference ratings for bitonal versus monotonal music.
Note
1. Scores for all Milhaud original and recomposed excerpts can be accessed at http://www.davidson.edu/
academic/psychology/Munger/additional/examples.htm.
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Biographies
Mauro Botelho is an Associate Professor of Music at Davidson College, USA, where he teaches
music theory, analysis, music of Brazil and music of Latin America. He has an interest in the
rhythm and form of tonal music, and has presented his research in the USA, Europe and Brazil.
Address: Davidson College, Box 7131, Davidson, NC, 280357131, USA.
[email: mabotelho@davidson.edu]
Mayumi Hamamoto is a graduate of psychology from Davidson College, USA. She can be
contacted c/o Dr Margaret Munger.
Margaret P. Munger is a Professor of Psychology at Davidson College, USA, where she teaches
cognitive psychology and research methods in attention and perception. She also co-authors
a blog on research psychology, Cognitive Daily (http://www.scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily).
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