[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# Hierarchical perception of melody

## Details

**Authors** Hjortkjær, Jens

**Year** 2009

**Publisher** ESCOM 2009: 7th Triennial Conference of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music

**Kind of work** proceedings

**Discipline** Music Theory

**Secondary disciplines** Cognitive Science

**Applied** false

[Read it](https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/20874)

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To test whether listeners perceive the hierarchical levels of melody proposed by Lerdahl and Jackendoff's Generative Theory of Tonal Music.

### Who or what was studied (sample)

Participants in two experiments. Number not obtained.

### How they did it (methods)

Same-different judgments of melody pairs in which a single tone was altered at one of four time-span reduction levels, including an atonal melody and a poorly composed tonal melody.

### What they found (results)

Detection of altered tones correlated strongly with time-span level. Detection was lower for the atonal melody but not for the ill-formed tonal melody. Responses still varied with the position of the altered tone, and the link to reduction level was much stronger than to other parameters such as metrical position. The author suggests hierarchical levels may be graded rather than fixed.

## Commentary

### In short

Two listening experiments find that people notice changes to a melody more readily when the changed note sits higher in its hierarchical structure, though the effect varies with melody and tone position.

### Response

Listeners' sensitivity tracks levels of nested structure in melody, which supports the systems pattern in an auditory domain. The finding does not bear on the other three patterns, and the author's suggestion that levels are graded qualifies the notion of clean nesting. This record rests on the repository abstract.

**Patterns it shows** S

Shows the structure is there

**Added** 2026-10-14

**How to cite this** Hjortkjær, Jens (2009). Hierarchical perception of melody. ESCOM 2009: 7th Triennial Conference of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music.