Grouping Hierarchy and Trajectories of Pacing in Performances of Chopin’s Mazurkas

Abstract

[1] The last three decades have seen a growing interest in the slight beat-to-beat changes in duration that pervade performances of tonal music. Many current approaches originating in the work of music psychologists interpret durational variability as the means by which performers convey both segment boundaries and hierarchical relationships between segments. But these approaches depend on a one-way mapping from a single grouping-structural analysis onto performed ABSTRACT: Theories of expressive timing in the performance of tonal music emphasize the role of grouping structure, whereby performers are understood to communicate the ends of groups through group-final lengthening (GFL). But this approach depends on a one-way mapping from a single grouping-structural analysis onto performed durations, denying a role for interpretive difference on the part of performers and analysts. Drawing on contour theory, this article reverses this mapping by presenting a method for recovering the hierarchical grouping structure of a performed phrase that is sensitive to the constraints of temporal perception. Groups whose durational contour segments reduce to a contour adjacency series of <+> or <-,+> are understood to be GFL-reflective. By observing which levels of time-span organization are GFL-reflective among different performances of the same phrase, unique construals of grouping structure can be attributed to different renditions.The article employs this method in order to examine different approaches to pacing in performances of two of Chopin's mazurkas. The pieces in question present eight-measure themes in which the salience of different levels of grouping structure contrast. Through duration decisions, performers can accentuate, amend, or bypass these suggestions of contrast in pacing. By presenting an analytical method that recognizes the creative power of performance to interact with a grouping structure implied by a score, I hope to reshape the relationship between performers and analysts as a dialog about the possible structural descriptions a piece can support. Received October 20111 of 16 durations, a mapping at odds with the possibilities for interpretive difference that are increasingly acknowledged in music analysis (Cook 1999).[2] In this article, after expositing how performers can suggest novel descriptions of grouping structure by lengthening group-final events (Sections I and II), I will introduce a method grounded in contour theory for determining the relative salience of hierarchically nested groups in a particular recorded performance (Section III). I will then argue that shifts in the level of grouping structure presented as most salient affect the perceived pacing of a piece (Section IV). In later analyses, I will show how performers can address contrasts in pacing, or trajectories in pacing, latent in two of Chopin's mazurkas (Section V). By introducing an analytical method that begins with the particularities of a phrase as it is performed, I hope to demonstrate one way in which performance can aff...

Pattern and Variation in the Timing of Aksak Meter: Commentary on Goldberg

“…Recently, however, musicologists, music theorists, and ethnomusicologists have begun to empirically examine also the constitution (not only expression) of musical style and meaning (Leech-Wilkinson, 2009;, metric structure (Polak, 2010), and grouping structure (Ohriner, 2012) in and through musical performance, including performance timings. Such views gain relevance and support as music psychology no longer conceives of expressivity (e.g., expressive timing) as a deviation from scores or allegedly universal cognitive principles (e.g., isochrony and simple integer ratios as the basis for rhythmic categories), but from local or stylistically conventional norms of performance timings (Honing, 2013;Fabian et al, 2014).…”

“…Goldberg finds the stroke on Beat 3 (the last of the three beats in the bar) to be lengthened at each segmentation of (sub-)phrases and suggests that this might be expressive of the segmentation. This may appear somewhat foreign to listeners and readers of the literature on phrase-final or group-final lengthening [2] in European art music performance and in Romantic piano music in particular (see, for instance, Todd, 1985;Repp, 1997;Ohriner, 2012), where the rubato occurs in the form of wave-like, phrase-arching contours of local tempo change. In the Macedonian folk song under study, only one beat in a specific metric position is lengthened, while the surrounding beats remain stable or even are slightly shortened.…”

The Interpretive Shaping of Music Performance Research

“…[2] I had chosen this Prelude partly because of its prevalence in recent research, e.g., Dodson (2011aDodson ( , 2011b, Ohriner (2012) and Küssner (2013).…”

Elicited Asynchronies in Recorded Performances of Chopin’s Mazurkas

“…[3] More recently, music theorists have drawn on the expressive timing literature to document the practices of idiosyncratic performers rather than features of "works themselves" (e.g., Clarke, 1998;Dodson, 2008Dodson, & 2009Benadon, 2009;Ohriner, 2011Ohriner, & 2012Gingras, Asselin & McAdams, 2013). Another function of durational variability in performance-one more commonly encountered in current music psychology-relates to the role of timing variation in the maintenance of synchronicity between a performer and an attending listener.…”