Dyad preferences at different intensities

Abstract

A repetition, under more scientific conditions, of Henry Cowell's work on varying the intensities when playing the various dyads. Blank, perforated rolls were used with a Duo-Art piano. Three intensities—soft, medium, and loud—were regulated by the intensity levers. The stimuli were the 12 chromatic dyads at the 3 intensities. The subjects were asked to indicate whether the dyad heard was pleasing or displeasing. The conclusions, in brief, follow: the dyad preferences are rather constant from octave to octave; retest reliabilities are generally high; the order of presentation of stimuli seems to make little difference in the preference value; the softer a dyad, the higher its preference value; the medium intensities of the study give high correlations with the studies of Valentine and Foster. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)