Consonance judgments rest on psychoacoustic critical bandwidth

Evidence

Listeners with no musical training were asked to indicate the consonance, or pleasantness, of two sine waves played together. (Musicians were not used in the experiment since they would have preconceived ideas about musical intervals which are con­ sonant.) The result is the continuous pattern of response shown in the fig­ ure, with no particular musical interval being prominent in its degree of perceived consonance. Intervals greater than a minor third were judged to be consonant for all frequency ratios. — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 951 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The critical-band-rate scale mirrors hearing better than raw frequency; Sensory consonance depends on roughness, sharpness, and tonalness — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 2040; Dissonance depends on proportional separation falling inside the critical bandwidth, not absolute frequency difference (+6 more)

Related

• Consonance perception is continuous and not tied to musical intervals (similarity 0.90)
• Critical bandwidth is the psychoacoustic basis of consonance and dissonance. (similarity 0.90)
• Consonance perception depends on harmonics up to about the seventh (similarity 0.89)
• Untrained listeners judge sine-wave consonance continuously, with no special role for conventional intervals. (similarity 0.89)
• Sensory consonance depends on roughness, sharpness, and tonalness (similarity 0.88)
• Dissonance depends on musical interval, not a fixed beat rate across frequencies (similarity 0.88)
• Consonance is a continuous sensation while dissonance is an intermittent one (similarity 0.88)
• Interval consonance ranking derives from critical-bandwidth proximity between harmonics (similarity 0.88)
• Untrained listeners judge two-tone consonance continuously without musical interval prominence (similarity 0.87)
• Peak dissonance between two tones occurs at a quarter critical band separation (similarity 0.85)
• Perceived dissonance arises when nearby harmonics fall within critical bandwidth (similarity 0.85)
• Chord consonance is computed from individual harmonic proximity across the notes (similarity 0.85)
• Clashing tones within one critical band produce roughness that underlies dissonance (similarity 0.85)
• The rate of beating between close partials determines whether they sound consonant or rough (similarity 0.84)
• Consonance and dissonance judgments stem from critical bandwidth mechanics (similarity 0.84)

Broader Connections

• Critical bandwidth marks the perceptual shift from rough to smooth tone resolution #expands (0.95)
• Perceived dissonance arises when nearby harmonics fall within critical bandwidth #expands (0.95)
• Consonance perception is continuous and not tied to musical intervals #expands (0.80) — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 951
• Consonance perception depends on harmonics up to about the seventh #complicates (0.75)