This paper describes a computational model of loudness variations in expressive ensemble performance. The model predicts and explains the continuous variation of loudness as a function of information extracted automatically from the written score. Although such models have been proposed for expressive performance in solo instruments, this is (to the best of our knowledge) the first attempt to define a model for expressive performance in ensembles. To that end, we extend an existing model that was designed to model expressive piano performances, and describe the additional steps necessary for the model to deal with scores of arbitrary instrumentation, including orchestral scores. We test both linear and non-linear variants of the extended model n a data set of audio recordings of symphonic music, in a leave-one-out setting. The experiments reveal that the most successful model variant is a recurrent, non-linear model. Even if the accuracy of the predicted loudness varies from one recording to another, in several cases the model explains well over 50 of the variance in loudness.
@cite_35: Six pianists of varying levels of experience were required to give repeated performances of a note sequence presented for sight-performance under two conditions. The two conditions differed only in the location of metrical stresses signified by the notation. In condition (b) the bar-lines and beams were shifted one note to the right in comparison to condition (a). Details of note duration and intensity were recorded by computer. This allowed the discovery of significant differences in expressive treatment between the two conditions. There were significant agreements between subjects concerning the position, nature and direction of expressive variation. The more experienced players, however, made greater use of expressive variation than did the less experienced players. In a second experiment listeners were asked to identify the metre of each performance from the first experiment. They achieved greatest success at this with the most experienced player, least success with the least experienced player. A det...
@cite_22: Presented is a model of rubato, implemented in Lisp, in which expression is viewed as the mapping of musical structure into the variables of expression. The basic idea is that the performer uses “phrase final lengthening” as a device to reflect some internal representation of the phrase structure. The representation is based on Lardahl and Jackendoff's time-span reduction. The basic heuristic in the model is recursive involving look-ahead and planning at a number of levels. The planned phrasings are superposed beat by beat and the output from the program is a list of durations which could easily be adapted to be sent to a synthesiser given a suitable system.
@cite_0: The issue of communication in music is regarded with some suspicion by music analysts and music theorists for at least two reasons. One is the desire to avoid the pitfalls of a naive and dogmatically intentionalist approach to musical communication in which the composer is the ‘sender’, the listeners are the ‘receivers’, and the work itself is the ‘channel’. The drawbacks of this perspective, exemplified by Cooke (1959), are its rigidly prescriptive tendencies, and its dependence either on loose and unreliable biographical information to establish what the composer ‘really meant’ in a work, or on apparently arbitrary or flimsily supported pronouncements by different commentators as to the intended meaning of a work, all of which tend to deflect attention away from the music itself. A second reason has been the influence of a brand of structuralism which has regarded the work as an object, whose author or composer is irrelevant — a position adopted by Roland Barthes, among others, and encapsulated in the title of his essay “The death of the author” (1977). Because this perspective encourages analysts to explore whatever meanings may be found in a work, without regard for their possible origins in the author’s own mind, it precludes the possibility of regarding a work as a vehicle which conveys meaning from one human ‘sender’ to other human ‘receivers’: the absence of a source removes one of the necessary terms in the communicative chain. The attraction of this approach is that analysts can concentrate on the music itself without having to consider its origins. The approach also highlights the distinction between communication and meaning: the meaning of an object, event or relation is a property that any observer is entitled to pick up or construct for him or herself, without implying any reciprocity between the creator and the receiver of meaning.
@cite_10: The first part of this paper presents a systematic application of a functionalist perspective to the study of emotional communication in music performance. This involves the integration of ideas and concepts from psychological research on emotion and nonverbal communication with Brunswik's (1956) probabilistic functionalism and a modified version of his lens model. It is argued that this approach may provide the necessary theoretical foundation by generating useful questions, hypotheses, and ways of evaluating data from performance analyses and listening experiments. The second part reports an experimental study in which professional guitar players were instructed to play a short piece of music so as to communicate four basic emotions to listeners. The resulting performances were analyzed regarding various cues, such as tempo, sound level, and articulation. It was found that (a) the expressive intentions of the performers affected all of the measured cues in the performances, (b) the cues had merely a probabilistic relation to the performers' intentions, and (c) the cues were intercorrelated. The performances were also validated in a listening experiment which showed that listeners were successful in decoding the intended expression, and that there were no differences in decoding accuracy between musically trained and untrained listeners.
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@cite_11: That music has an incredible power to move us emotionally is without question. Whether performing music, listening to music, or creating music, this bond with our emotions is always there. The natu ...
A significant number of empirical studies have sought to establish relationships between some aspects of expression and particular explanatory factors. These factors can be roughly divided into those that relate to the performer's intention of expressing particular emotions, and those that relate to the musical structure, in the broadest sense of the word. For example, a widely confirmed mapping between emotion and expression is that slow tempo, legato articulation, and softer timbres contribute to the perception of the music as sad or solemn, whereas a faster tempo, staccato articulation and brighter timbres tend to induce a perception of happiness @cite_10 , @cite_11 , @cite_12 . Similarly, various structural aspects of the musical score have been found to influence musical expression @cite_0 . Most notably, musical grouping structure (the division of the music into , and ) is often expressed in arc like shapes in tempo and dynamics @cite_22 . Another type of musical structure that musicians express through expressive variations is the metrical structure @cite_35 .