How does duration affect the way a musical tone is heard?

In the context of musical sound, duration is defined as the length of time that a tone persists. It serves as one of the four fundamental attributes—alongside pitch, loudness, and timbre—that allow tones to be organized into music.12

The way a musical tone is heard in relation to its duration is influenced by several factors:

• Perceptual Unity: For music to be recognized as a coherent structure (such as a melody or rhythmic pattern), its elements must be presented within a "psychological present"—a brief temporal window that allows the brain to apprehend successive sounds as a unified experience without relying on memory. If the duration between sounds is too long, the tones are perceived as isolated events rather than a connected sequence.3
• Relative Perception: Humans perceive duration both absolutely and relatively. We can distinguish between different lengths of time, and our perception of a "filled" duration (a continuous sound) can be influenced by its intensity and pitch; for instance, higher-pitched auditory stimuli are often perceived as lasting longer than lower-pitched ones.4
• Notation: In Western music, duration is explicitly indicated by the shape of a note, which dictates its rhythmic value relative to other notes in a composition.5