INVESTIGATION OF WESTERN MODES: THE EFFECT OF A SCALE’S STARTING PITCH ON TONAL PERCEPTION

The purpose of this experiment was to determine if the starting pitch of a scale has an effect on a listener’s tonal perception, and therefore his/her emotion. Thirty-six high school students (18 males and 18 females) with varying musical backgrounds participated in a listening session in which 5 Western Church Modes (sets of musical scales) were played, and he/she had to match each one with a certain emotion. These Church Modes all consisted of the same notes, but in a different order. Guido of Arezzo, a prominent Italian music theorist, paired each scale to a certain emotion, so this experiment will also be testing the accuracy of his well-known theory. After hypothesis testing, it was concluded that the starting pitch of a scale is not independent of a subject’s tonal perception. However, the results ended up differing from those presented in the theory of Guido of Arezzo. Through this, it can be learned that the context of the pitches can greatly affect the quality of sound they emit.