LOCAL VERSUS GLOBAL PROCESSING OF HARMONIC CADENCES IN THE SOLUTION OF MUSICAL PUZZLES

The structure of Western musical pieces is delineated by several kinds of cadence. Half cadences in the main key indicate temporary endings; authentic cadences in the main key indicate definitive endings. Authe ntic cadences in the dominant key are of cognitive interest, since the y mark a definitive ending at a local level but a temporary ending at a global level. This study investigated the local versus global proces sing of these cadences. Participants were presented with sections of 1 6-bar minuets displayed on a computer screen in the form of a musical jigsaw puzzle. The sections consisted of either the first or the secon d half of the minuet (8 bars each). The first section ended with eithe r a half cadence in the main key (all experiments), an authentic caden ce in the dominant key (all experiments), or an authentic cadence in t he main key (Exp. 4). The second section always ended in an authentic cadence in the main key. Participants were asked either to join the tw o sections of each minuet in the most coherent order (Exps. 1, 2, 4) o r to rate the perceived completion of each section (Exps. 3, 4). Numer ous inversion errors were observed when the first section of the minue ts ended with an authentic cadence in the dominant key. Completion jud gments indicated that these cadences were perceived as marking a defin itive ending. Both facts suggest that local processing of harmonic cad ences prevails over global processing. This finding concurs with recen t studies showing that listeners had great difficulties in perceiving the higher-order organization of musical form.