Abstract

This study explored the implicit mental representation of rhythms and timbres of percussion instruments in the Korean Traditional Music (KTM) with four groups of participants: KTM orchestra group, KTM students, Western Music (WM) students, and nonmusicians. To explore psychological dimensions of rhythms and percussion timbres, Experiment 1 used 9 royal traditional rhythms ('Jung-Ak' in Korean) and 8 folk rhythms ('Minsok-Ak'), and Experiment 2 used 13 percussion timbres. The stimuli were presented in a pair and the participants were asked to rate their similarity on a 6-point scale. The ratings were analyzed with the multidimensional scaling method. The first dimension of royal traditional rhythm was 'tempo of rhythm', which was meaningful in all 4 groups, and the second was 'complexity of rhythm', which was meaningful only in KTM orchestra group. In the analysis of folk rhythms, the dimensions were differed based on the subjects' musical background. In case of KTM orchestra group, the dimensions were 'uniqueness of rhythm and tempo' and 'meter', whereas in KTM students, those were 'uniqueness' and 'pattern of rhythm'. The dimensions were 'meter' and 'beat' for WM students, and 'uniqueness of rhythm' and 'tempo' for nonmusicians. In Experiment 2 on percussion timbers, the dimensions were 'height of pitch' and 'degree of echo'. The first dimension existed in all of the 4 groups, whereas the second dimension was clearly discovered for only KTM orchestra group. There was a tendency of existence of the second dimension for KTM students and no existence for WM students and nonmusician groups. The results were discussed in the aspects of providing basic data for further study to investigate psychological characteristics of Korean traditional music and of supplying various information about human knowledge representation.