Hearing Musical Streams Author(s): Stephen McAdams and Albert Bregman Reviewed work(s): Source: Computer Music Journal, Vol. 3, No. 4 (Dec., 1979), pp. 26-43+60 Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4617866 . Accessed: 26/04/2012 06:00 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. The MIT Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Computer Music Journal. http://www.jstor.org Hearing Musical Streams Stephen McAdams AlbertBregman Hearing and Speech Sciences Departmentof Psychology Stanford University School of Medicine McGillUniversity Stanford, California 94305 Montreal,Quebec, Canada Introduction Theperceptual effects of a soundare dependent upon haveintrigued us withcompositional possibilities. This article the musicalcontext in whichthat sound is imbedded.That is, thuspresents, in a tutorialfashion, a reviewof research(in- a givensound's perceived pitch, timbre, and loudness are in- cludingour own) whichhas directimplications for musi- fluencedby the soundsthat precedeit, coincidewith it, cians,especially for composersworking with computermusic. andeven follow it in time.Thus, this context influences the In all of ourresearch and in most otherresearch cited, com- waya listenerwill associatethe soundwith various melodic, puters(predominantly PDP-11 minicomputers) were used to rhythmic,dynamic, harmonic, and timbralstructures within synthesizethe soundspresented.