Setting words to music: Effects of phoneme on the experience of interval size

The experience of pitch relations is known to be in fluenced by timbral brightness, Because phonemes naturally v ary in their extent of brightness, we wondered whether the experi- ence of pitch relations in vocal music was influenc ed by phoneme content. Three-tone sequences were synthesi zed so as to vary with regard to both pitch and phoneme con- tent. Perceived interval size was found to vary as a function of the interaction between normalized spectral cent roid and pitch contour, with larger pitch distances asso ciated with sequences possessing congruent contours. Propo sals concerning the underlying mechanism and various imp lica- tions of the findings are discussed.