In the early stages of his work on the Cantometrics coding system, Lomax wrote of the relationship of musical style to culture:"Its fundamental diagnostic traits appear to be vocal quality (color, timbre, normal pitch, attack, type of melodic ornamentation, etc.) and the degree in which song is normally monodic or polyphonic. The determinative socio-psychological factors seem to be . . . the type of social organization, the pattern of erotic life, and the treatment of children... I myself believe that the voice quality is the root element. From this socio-psychological complex there seem to arise a complex of habitual musical practices which we call musical style"