What is Melody? Is Our Perception of Melody Affected by Environmental or Genetic Factors?
Melody can be defined as a concept in which certain pitches and rhythmic elements take place together and which contains many cultural and universal features. For example, the musical notes “do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si”, which most of us learn in the early years of our education, are pitches. The combination of these notes with a certain rhythm pattern and tempo forms the melody.
When we think of notes, perhaps the note “do” or the note “la” does not mean anything on its own, but the whole formed by the notes, the melody, becomes meaningful within a particular culture or universally. National anthems are a clear example of this. Anthems, like other music, consist of a combination of individual pitches and an accompanying rhythmic structure. However, these musical structures come together to construct not only the melody but also the meaning we attribute to the melody. While the note “C” by itself does not mean anything or cause an emotional reaction in us, the many C notes and other notes in the national anthem come together to form the building blocks of our world of meaning and emotion towards music.
For this very reason, it would be appropriate to refer to Gestalt theory to understand how we perceive melody. Gestalt theory was started to be developed by Max Wertheimer before World War I and was expanded by Kurt Koffka and Wolgang Köhler in the following years. In general terms, Gestalt theory examines the relationship between the part and the whole. The basic argument of Gestalt theory is that the sum of the parts presents a whole that goes beyond the sum of the parts. This process is realized through pattern organization.
Gestalt theorists, who mainly work on the pattern organization of visual stimuli, state that visual perception depends on a principle called Pragnanz. The Pragnanz principle basically states that our perceptual organization obeys a simple and symmetrical form and divides this principle into sub-principles such as proximity, similarity, completion and continuity. These sub-principles can be adapted not only to visual perception but also to auditory perception, and hence can be used for melody perception.
The proximity principle states that parts that are close to each other tend to be perceived as a group.[3] In almost all non-experimental music genres, the pitches are close to each other. In the melodies we usually listen to, we do not hear thick and thin sounds going up and down for very short periods of time. Instead of the sounds moving from thin to thick, they move in a close range. Our mind perceives these sounds, which are close to each other in terms of thinness-thickness, as a whole instead of hearing individual sounds as if they were one after the other.
One of the most well-known examples where we can observe the principle of proximity is Beethoven's 9th Symphony. In the Ode to Joy in the 4th movement of the symphony, the notes progress as follows: “Do-do-re-mi-mi-re-do-si-la-la-si-do-do-si-si”.
As can be seen in this note sequence, the notes are always positioned one step next to the next note without skipping a single note. To explain in more detail, after the note do comes re, after the note si comes la, and we do not observe a jump from the note do to the note fa, which has four sounds between it, or to the note sol, which has five sounds between it. The fact that the notes are so close together allows us to perceive the individual notes as a whole, as a melody. Thus, instead of hearing individual notes, we hear the melody itself.
In addition to the principle of proximity, the principle of similarity states that when many different elements are found together, our minds are more prone to group similar parts of these different elements together. In fact, it is possible to observe the principle of similarity not only in the perception of melody, but even when grouping instruments.
We divide instruments into strings, percussion and winds. We put instruments that are similar in terms of the way they make sound in the same category. The same is true when we analyze melodies. We are more likely to use and perceive similar sounds or instruments in a melody.
On the other hand, the use of repetitive motifs within a piece is an example of the principle of similarity. The repetition of similar sounds or the same sounds can help us perceive the parts of the melody (e.g. notes, rhythmic elements) as a whole. However, the use of dissimilar sounds can also violate the principle of similarity. For example, when a soft, low-tempo violin solo is accompanied by the notes of a trumpet played very strongly, our perception of unity may be distorted.
One of the most prominent musical examples of the principle of similarity is Mozart's “Ah vous-je Maman”, also known in Turkey as “Our Mother Yesterday”. In this piece, the notes progress as follows: “do-do-sol-sol-la-la-sol-fa-fa-mi-mi-re-re-do”. As can be seen, the notes are almost always repeated in pairs throughout this movement. The arrangement of these pairs, i.e. elements with similar characteristics, enabled us to perceive these notes as a whole instead of perceiving them as independent elements. In this way, the perception of a melody was formed instead of the perception of individual sounds.
An important point should be made about the examples given in the article. These musical examples can also be written in other tones. More precisely, these pieces can start with different notes and can also be written with different notes. However, in this case, there is theoretically no problem, since the relationship of proximity and similarity between the notes will not change. Therefore, we can observe the Gestalt principles in the same way in versions of these musical examples written in different notes.
Finally, the principle of completion states that if there is a missing part in a pattern that our mind encounters, our mind tends to complete the gap created by that part. For example, when we listen to a melody we know, even if a few notes are deleted from that melody and we do not hear those notes, our mind has no difficulty in recognizing that melody. Since we already have knowledge of the parts that make up this melody (the whole), we have no difficulty in completing the melody in our minds and therefore perceiving it, even if a few parts are missing.
Although Gestalt theory provides a good theoretical framework for explaining melody perception, which is one of the important sub-fields of music perception, it should be noted that there are some missing points in this theory. For example, Gestalt theory ignores the cultural and environmental dimensions of perception. Is the principle of similarity or proximity experienced in exactly the same way in every culture? Or do individuals living in the same culture perceive melody in exactly the same way?
At this point, a study measuring the melody and rhythm perception of 384 young adult twin siblings can be given as an example. The reason for choosing twin siblings in the study is to answer the question of whether environmental factors have an effect when genetic factors are the same. As a result of the study, musical tone and musical time perceptions were found to be affected by environmental factors. In other words, it was concluded that environmental factors have an effect on perception when perceiving pitches, notes, rhythm and tempo.
However, the ability to discriminate pitch was also found to be dependent on genetic factors. In conclusion, the perception of melody or music in general depends on genetic factors as well as cultural and environmental factors. Gestalt theory explains an important part of melody perception. However, in order to examine melody perception from a broader perspective, it is important to consider the effects of cultural and environmental factors on melody perception.
