Gestalt phenomena in musical texture

We attempt to examine textural phenomena and their significance in music, by comparing and contrasting texture with timbre and learned schemes. The latter are the main subject of musical theories and relate to organizations of parameters (particularly intervals) in a quantitative, measurable form not suitable for describing texture. We extend the definition of texture to cover principles of organization that need qualitative or statistical tools in order to be described. The following points will be addressed in this study: (i) Principles for classification of texture. We suggest textural schemes pertaining to registers of all the parameters, to contours, and to operations. (ii) Combinations of textural schemes with learned schemes. (iii) The relationship to the stylistic ideal. Our assumption is that all of the schemes are selected so as to fit the stylistic ideal, and most of them (even the learned ones) are not arbitrary and are subject to psychoacoustic and cognitive constraints.