Melodic expectation; the same . Expectation

In music cognition melodic expectation is the tendency for a person listening to a melody to have a feeling or expectation for what might come next in the melody. For example, if the ascending musical partial octave “do-re-me-fa-sol-la-ti…” is heard, listeners familiar with Western music will have a strong expectation to hear one more note, “do”, to complete the octave.


Implication-Realization Model

Narmour’s Implication-Realization Model is a detailed formalization based on Meyer’s work on expectation. The theory focuses on how implicative intervals set up expectations for certain realizations to follow.


See also

  • Lerdahl, Fred and Jackendoff, Ray (1996). A Generative Theory of Tonal Music. MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-62107-X.

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