The communication of dynamics between musicians and listeners through musical performance

Nakamura, Toshie

doi:10.3758/bf03210487

Cited by 82 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Thus, the correct metrical interpretation may be found by weighting each event in a sequence according to perceived cues of accenting. However, duration and intensity cues in both music composition and performance are influenced by many factors in addition to meter, including phrase structure, melodic importance, and articulation (Nakamura, 1987;Palmer, 1988;Sloboda, 1983). Often the acoustic cues to meter are ambiguous, interactive, or simply absent; yet listeners can still determine the meter.…”

Section: Perceptual Cues To Musical Metermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Performers highlight interpretations of musical structure through the use of expressive variations in frequency, timing, intensity, and timbre (cf. Clarke, 1988;Nakamura, 1987;Palmer, 1997;Repp, 1992;Sloboda, 1983). For example, different performers can interpret the same musical piece with different phrase structures (Palmer, 1989(Palmer, , 1992; each performance reflects slowing down or pausing at events that are intended as phrase endings, similar to phrase-final lengthening in speech.…”

Section: Temporal Fluctuations In Music Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

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Perceiving temporal regularity in music

2002

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We address how listeners perceive temporal regularity in music performances, which are rich in temporal irregularities. A computational model is described in which a small system of internal self-sustained oscillations, operating at different periods with specific phase and period relations, entrains to the rhythms of music performances. Based on temporal expectancies embodied by the oscillations, the model predicts the categorization of temporally changing event intervals into discrete metrical categories, as well as the perceptual salience of deviations from these categories. The model's predictions are tested in two experiments using piano performances of the same music with different phrase structure interpretations (Experiment 1) or different melodic interpretations (Experiment 2). The model successfully tracked temporal regularity amidst the temporal fluctuations found in the performances. The model's sensitivity to performed deviations from its temporal expectations compared favorably with the performers' structural (phrasal and melodic) intentions. Furthermore, the model tracked normal performances (with increased temporal variability) better than performances in which temporal fluctuations associated with individual voices were removed (with decreased variability). The small, systematic temporal irregularities characteristic of human performances (chord asynchronies) improved tracking, but randomly generated temporal irregularities did not. These findings suggest that perception of temporal regularity in complex musical sequences is based on temporal expectancies that adapt in response to temporally fluctuating input.

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Section: Perceptual Cues To Musical Metermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Temporal Fluctuations In Music Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Perceiving temporal regularity in music

2002

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“…In performance, an intended metrical inter-pretation may be communicated by marking the primary accents, most often through variations in intensity or duration (Palmer, 1989;Shaffer, Clarke, &Todd, 1985;S}oboda, 1983). However, duration and intensity cues are influenced in both composition and performance by many factors in addition to meter (Nakamura, 1987;Palmer, 1988;Shaffer & Todd, 1987). Often these cues are ambiguous, interactive, or simply absent; yet the listener still determines the meter correctly.…”

Section: Perceptual Cues For Metermentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental representations for musical meter.

Palmer¹,

Krumhansl²

1990

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

291

353

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Investigations of the psychological representation for musical meter provided evidence for an internalized hierarchy from 3 sources: frequency distributions in musical compositions, goodnessof-fit judgments of temporal patterns in metrical contexts, and memory confusions in discrimination judgments. The frequency with which musical events occurred in different temporal locations differentiates one meter from another and coincides with music-theoretic predictions of accent placement. Goodness-of-fit judgments for events presented in metrical contexts indicated a multileveled hierarchy of relative accent strength, with finer differentiation among hierarchical levels by musically experienced than inexperienced listeners. Memory confusions of temporal patterns in a discrimination task were characterized by the same hierarchy of inferred accent strength. These findings suggest mental representations for structural regularities underlying musical meter that influence perceiving, remembering, and composing music.Perception of music, speech, and other complex human behaviors requires the processing of structured information over time. Psychological theories of serially ordered behaviors often reveal hierarchical principles of mental processing and organization that express relations among nonadjacent as well as adjacent events. Mental representations for these behaviors suggest that the complex information is recoded or organized in a form more efficient for abstract operations. A primary assumption is that the observed behavior involves complex mental processes that transform early sensory information, compare it to detailed memories, and apply decision rules to the transformed internal codes.This theoretical framework suggests that music perception involves the recoding and organizing of musical material through reference to a more abstract system of knowledge about musical structure. This abstract knowledge often represents the underlying regularities found in one's own musical culture, such as a particular tonal system or common metrical properties. These mental structures may facilitate comprehension of global aspects of musical structure and lead to expectations about future events. Thus, tonality can provide a (pitch-based) framework for melodic expectations, and meter may provide a (time-based) framework from which temporal expectations are formed. The research described later focuses on the nature of mental representation of one important aspect of musical structure: meter. We present evidence indicating that abstract knowledge of meter affects comprehension, memory, and composition of Western tonal music.

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“…Schmidt (cited in Fraisse, 1956), who asked subjects to tap a regular beat, observed spontaneous grouping with a regular cyclic variation in intensity. The pertinence of dynamics in the perception of music has been demonstrated by Nakamura (1987), who asked musicians to play a piece of music with a crescendo, which was later correctly interpreted by nonmusicians.…”

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confidence: 99%

The inability of young children to reproduce intensity differences in musical rhythms

Gérard

Drake

1990

Perception & Psychophysics

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A musical rhythm can be described in terms of both its temporal and its dynamic structure. However, although 6-year-old children are able to perceive and reproduce simple temporalstructures, even 8-year-olds rarely reproduce intensity differences. Four experiments on the perception and reproduction of musical rhythms by 5-to Syear-old children demonstrate that even though dynamic structure is clearly dominated by its temporal support, intensity differences playa role in reinforcing the temporal structure. The inability of children to reproduce intensity differences appears to be due neither to an inability to control the intensity of their tap responses nor to the fact that they cannot perceive such changes in intensity. Rather, the results seem best interpreted in terms of the allocation of attentional resources. With simple stimulus material (Experiments 1-3), the children focused on temporal information, and only when the processing of temporal information was mastered did they have "enough attention left" to direct it to intensity differences (Experiment 2). With more complex orchestral music (Experiment 4), attention was primarily allocated to the dynamic structure.Psychologists concerned with the perception of music have tended to concentrate on either melodic or temporal aspects of the auditory sequence. The last few years, however, have seen the appearance of studies of the relation between the two, with two main explanations emerging. As for the first, Jones (1976, 1987) has proposed a model of perceptual interaction, in which perceived temporal structure affects pitch structure by guiding attention to the pitch events that coincide with stressed temporal events. Some empirical support for this model has been provided by Deutsch (1982) and Jones, Boltz, and Kidd (1982). The second explanation suggests, on the contrary, that temporal and pitch information could be perceived independently. Krurnhansl (1987a, 1987b) have presented some empirical evidence which indicates that the perceived dimensions are processed separately, with the listeners attending to one stimulus dimension at the expense of the other. Studies involving factorial analysis of discrimination tasks (Gabriels son, 1973;Monahan & Carterette, 1985) also describe two orthogonal factors (rhythm and pitch), with the former being more fundamental. The idea of independent processing has also been developed by Thomas and Weaver (1975), who proposed two information processing systems, one responsible for analyzing temporal information and anThe authors are grateful to G. Vallee, F. Leprince, and C. Basso for collecting part of the data. They wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful criticisms, M. C. Bolte for her help in controlling the stimuli and her comments on the paper, and W. Jay Dowling, L. 91other responsible for analyzing the characteristics of the sound, such as intensity or pitch.In this paper, we examine a similar question concerning the perception of musical rhythm. In the same way as the dependence or independence o...

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The communication of dynamics between musicians and listeners through musical performance

Cited by 82 publications

References 12 publications

Perceiving temporal regularity in music

Perceiving temporal regularity in music

Mental representations for musical meter.

The inability of young children to reproduce intensity differences in musical rhythms

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