The poem (PS45000 )


Subject: The poem
From:    PS45000  <PS45(at)MUSICA.MCGILL.CA>
Date:    Wed, 26 May 1993 13:52:05 EDT

AUDITORY ORGANIZATION (in verse transformed !) Tones, chords, melodies, rhythm Vowels and consonants, - and the messages we transmit with them How do these structures emerge from an entangled acoustic compound ? Some sounds splitting away from each other while others remain inextricably bound Are there identifiable criteria that guide this organization ? What features of sound determine grouping and segregation ? Is it frequency, is it intensity ? Is it a spectro-temporal difference ? Or a combination of factors that enable this inference ? Peripheral channeling followed by integration Noting patterns and correlations that aid "image" formation The input sorted out, individual sources defined Their pitch and timbre and location abstracted and assigned But this complacent scenario is disturbed by what's heard next A sudden change in meaning provided by a new context Dynamic and flexible ongoing comparisons being made Simultaneous and sequential incoming data being weighed How easily we do it an ability innate of a system that copes with changes of state Using changes along multiple dimensions as cues such as the pitch range, the tempo and timbral hues Ascertain what is to break up, and what is to fuse What we focus on then, - our attention may choose It happens so naturally yet how difficult it seems From a motley input a melody it redeems and efficiently sifts and channels into streams the sounds that once composed a composer's dreams The processing operations can be difficult to elucidate To measure and to quantify to model and to validate But as this conference progresses and we consolidate information perhaps we'll have fresh insights about auditory organization with respect to all, Punita G. String May, 1993 A.D.


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Electrical Engineering Dept., Columbia University