Measurement setup for articulatory transient differences in woodwind performance

Hofmann, Alex; Chatziioannou, Vasileios; Weilguni, Michael; Goebl, Werner; Kausel, Wilfried

doi:10.1121/1.4806224

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Synthetic clarinet reeds (by Légère, Canada) were equipped with strain gauge sensors to measure the bending of the reed during performance (see Figure 1 , left). This enabled us to monitor the articulatory tongue-reed interactions of the performers (Hofmann et al, 2013 ). The sensors and a microphone (by DPA, Denmark) were connected via BNC-cables to a multi-channel recording device (by National Instruments, USA).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Finger Forces in Clarinet Playing

Hofmann

Goebl

2016

Front. Psychol.

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Clarinettists close and open multiple tone holes to alter the pitch of the tones. Their fingering technique must be fast, precise, and coordinated with the tongue articulation. In this empirical study, finger force profiles and tongue techniques of clarinet students (N = 17) and professional clarinettists (N = 6) were investigated under controlled performance conditions. First, in an expressive-performance task, eight selected excerpts from the first Weber Concerto were performed. These excerpts were chosen to fit in a 2 × 2 × 2 design (register: low–high; tempo: slow–fast, dynamics: soft–loud). There was an additional condition controlled by the experimenter, which determined the expression levels (low–high) of the performers. Second, a technical-exercise task, an isochronous 23-tone melody was designed that required different effectors to produce the sequence (finger-only, tongue-only, combined tongue-finger actions). The melody was performed in three tempo conditions (slow, medium, fast) in a synchronization-continuation paradigm. Participants played on a sensor-equipped Viennese clarinet, which tracked finger forces and reed oscillations simultaneously. From the data, average finger force (Fmean) and peak force (Fmax) were calculated. The overall finger forces were low (Fmean = 1.17 N, Fmax = 3.05 N) compared to those on other musical instruments (e.g., guitar). Participants applied the largest finger forces during the high expression level performance conditions (Fmean = 1.21 N). For the technical exercise task, timing and articulation information were extracted from the reed signal. Here, the timing precision of the fingers deteriorated the timing precision of the tongue for combined tongue-finger actions, especially for faster tempi. Although individual finger force profiles were overlapping, the group of professional players applied less finger force overall (Fmean = 0.54 N). Such sensor instruments provide useful insights into player-instrument interactions and can also be used in the future to give feedback to students in various learning and practising situations.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Finger Forces in Clarinet Playing

Hofmann

Goebl

2016

Front. Psychol.

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“…The tongue-reed interaction was quantified by considering the bending at the reed surface. To that end, a strain-gauge sensor (2 mm length) was attached to the surface of the reed (German cut, strength 2 ½, by Légère), according to the design presented by Hofmann et al ( 2013 ). Because of the presence of the strain gauge, the reed might increase in stiffness, therefore a soft reed was used.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Tonguing and Blowing Actions During Clarinet Performance

2018

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Articulation on the clarinet is achieved by a combination of precise actions taking place inside the player's mouth. With the aim to analyse the effects of tonguing and blowing actions during playing, several physical variables are measured and parameters related to articulation are studied. Mouth pressure, mouthpiece pressure and reed displacement are recorded in an experiment with clarinet players to evaluate the influence of the player's actions on the selected parameters and on the sound. The results show that different combinations of tongue and blowing actions are used during performance. Portato and legato playing show constant blowing throughout the musical phrase, which varies according to the dynamic level. In portato, short tongue-reed interaction is used homogeneously among players and playing conditions. In staccato playing, where the tongue-reed contact is longer, the mouth pressure is reduced significantly between notes. Such a mouth-pressure decrease might be used to stop the note in slow staccato playing. It is hereby shown that when the note is stopped by the action of the tongue both the attack and release transients are shorter compared to the case where the vibration of the reed is stopped by a decrease of mouth pressure.

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“…Similar measurements are typically not easily possible for other classes of instruments, such as bowed string instruments, or wind instruments, which have more complex sound production mechanisms. Although with the appropriate sensors, rich descriptions of nonpiano performances may be obtained (for instance to measure the bending of the reed in wind instruments [35] or bow movements in violin playing [36]), the usage of such sensors is often intrusive, and thus limited to experimental setups. Moreover, data recorded in this way is prone to noise, and bulky in case of large ensembles.…”

Section: From Solo Piano To Orchestral Ensemblesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Basis-Function Modeling of Loudness Variations in Ensemble Performance

Gadermaier¹,

Grachten²,

Cancino-Chacón³

2016

Preprint

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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 on 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.

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Measurement setup for articulatory transient differences in woodwind performance

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Finger Forces in Clarinet Playing

Finger Forces in Clarinet Playing

Analysis of Tonguing and Blowing Actions During Clarinet Performance

Basis-Function Modeling of Loudness Variations in Ensemble Performance

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