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Human Auditory Development pp 223–254Cite as

Development of Pitch and Music Perception

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Part of the book series: Springer Handbook of Auditory Research ((SHAR,volume 42))

Abstract

Music, like language, is found in all known human societies, past and present, and although music has some precursors that can be found in other species, it is a defining characteristic of the human species (Wallin et al. 2000). Although the perception of music has multisensory aspects (Thompson et al. 2005; Phillips-Silver and Trainor 2007), it is based in sound. The vibrations that give rise to music can be created by many different means, including striking percussion instruments, blowing resonating air columns in wind instruments, plucking and bowing strings under tension, and vibrating the vocal chords during singing. The boundary between sounds that are perceived as music and sounds that are not is fuzzy; indeed a definition of music remains elusive. However, the vast majority of music in the world involves spectral and temporal organizations that can readily be processed by the nervous system and for which specialized brain processing develops.

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Acknowledgments

The writing of this chapter was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, and the Grammy Foundation. We thank Kathleen Corrigall for comments on an earlier draft.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Laurel J. Trainor & Andrea Unrau

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  1. Laurel J. Trainor
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  2. Andrea Unrau
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Correspondence to Laurel J. Trainor .

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  1. Dept. Speech & Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, 98105-4875, Washington, USA

    Lynne Werner

  2. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, 02543, Massachusetts, USA

    Richard R. Fay

  3. , Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, 20742-4415, Maryland, USA

    Arthur N. Popper

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Trainor, L.J., Unrau, A. (2012). Development of Pitch and Music Perception. In: Werner, L., Fay, R., Popper, A. (eds) Human Auditory Development. Springer Handbook of Auditory Research, vol 42. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1421-6_8

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