The Cognitive Neuroscience of Music

asserts that ‘sensory consonance...dominates the evaluation of single isolated
chords...whereas harmony does not enter into the subject’s response’ (p. 282).^13
With respect to terminology, we adhere in this discussion to the simple distinction
between the vertical and horizontal dimensions of harmony. We restrict use of the terms

    129

Musical

(harmonic)

intervals

Acoustic waveform Autocorrelation

I

J

A E

B F

C G K

D H L

0

Perfect 5th

3/2

Tritone

45/32

Perfect 4th

4/3

Minor 2nd

16/15

10 20 30 40 50 010 20304050

Amplitude

(Arbitrary units)

(Amplitude)

2

Time (ms) Time delay (ms)

Figure 9.1Acoustic representations of musical (harmonic) intervals in the time domain.Left column(A–D):
Musical interval stimuli depicted in standard notation (G clef ) below the name of each interval (e.g. minor
second) and the F 0 ratio of its notes (16/15).Middle column(E–H): Acoustic waveforms of each interval.Right
column(I–L): Autocorrelations of the acoustic waveforms.Arrowsindicate the peaks corresponding to the period
of each interval’s ‘missing’F 0.