The origin of tonality and a possible explanation of the octave enlargement phenomenon.

It is known that the subjective octave is slightly larger than the physical octave (=2) for a variety of tones. This paper presents a new idea about the physiological origin of tonality, and a new theory founded on recent knowledge of the auditory physiology, to explain the octave enlargement phenomenon for pure tones. The theory’s predictions of the subjective octave agree well with psychophysical data.