Pitch Height, Aggressivity & Politeness

Schubert Lieder, Gregorian Chant, Swiss, Czech,
Danish, Dutch, Hungarian, Romanian folksongs,
African songs (Pondo, Xhosa, Zulu),
Ojibway and Hassidic songs
random 12-tone row

• listeners judged "aggressiveness" or "politeness"
  
  
• Each passage was heard in three different transpositions, low, medium, and high.
  
  
• Results replicated Ohala for musical passages
  
  
• Innumerable examples in the music literature where the choice of instrument/tessitura appears to echo the pitch-aggression association.
  
  
• In short, aggressivity/submissiveness appears to be another basic dimensions of timbre. The auditory system appears to readily classify sounds according to their aggressive or passive connotation, and pitch height represents the most salient cue for such perceptions.