Individuality in harpsichord performance: disentangling performer- and piece-specific influences on interpretive choices

Bruno Gingras,Stephen Mcadams,Pierre-Yves Asselin

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00895

Abstract

Although a growing body of research has examined issues related to individuality in music performance, few studies have attempted to quantify markers of individuality that transcend pieces and musical styles. This study aims to identify such meta-markers by discriminating between influences linked to specific pieces or interpretive goals and performer-specific playing styles, using two complementary statistical approaches: linear mixed models (LMMs) to estimate fixed (piece and interpretation) and random (performer) effects, and similarity analyses to compare expressive profiles on a note-by-note basis across pieces and expressive parameters. Twelve professional harpsichordists recorded three pieces representative of the Baroque harpsichord repertoire, including three interpretations of one of these pieces, each emphasizing a different melodic line, on an instrument equipped with a MIDI console. Four expressive parameters were analyzed: articulation, note onset asynchrony, timing, and velocity. LMMs showed that piece-specific influences were much larger for articulation than for other parameters, for which performer-specific effects were predominant, and that piece-specific influences were generally larger than effects associated with interpretive goals. Some performers consistently deviated from the mean values for articulation and velocity across pieces and interpretations, suggesting that global measures of expressivity may in some cases constitute valid markers of artistic individuality. Similarity analyses detected significant associations among the magnitudes of the correlations between the expressive profiles of different performers. These associations were found both when comparing across parameters and within the same piece or interpretation, or on the same parameter and across pieces or interpretations. These findings suggest the existence of expressive meta-strategies that can manifest themselves across pieces, interpretive goals, or expressive devices.

Highlights

Over the last few decades, a growing body of research has examined issues related to individuality in musical performance (e.g., Repp, 1992; see Sloboda, 2000 for a review)
In contrast with the linear mixed models (LMMs) comparing expressive parameters across pieces, for which important fixed effects were found for articulation and velocity, the proportion of the variance explained by fixed effects was very low for the LMMs comparing interpretations of the Partita
For the CADM tests that reached significance, post-hoc tests showed that, in all cases, the timing similarity matrix was shown to be significantly congruent with at least one other matrix. This indicates that the magnitude of the correlations between the timing profiles of different performers tended to be positively associated with the magnitude of the correlations between the expressive profiles computed on at least one other expressive parameter, suggesting that timing profiles seem to play a central role in the within-piece or within-interpretation congruences observed here

Summary

Introduction

Over the last few decades, a growing body of research has examined issues related to individuality in musical performance (e.g., Repp, 1992; see Sloboda, 2000 for a review). In order to identify which performance characteristics are reliable markers of a performer’s artistic individuality across genres and styles, it is necessary, as a first step, to disentangle these two contributions It has proven difficult, for several reasons, to untangle these factors. One obvious issue is that pieces vary in length, texture, and meter Another issue is that these markers of artistic individuality may plausibly encompass several expressive parameters, such as articulation, velocity, or timing, instead of being restricted to a single expressive device. To identify such expressive “meta-strategies,” it is necessary to adopt a statistical approach suitable for analyzing parameters that are measured in different units. There is a need for a robust methodological approach that allows us to obtain valid statistical inferences even when comparing individual performance profiles across pieces and expressive parameters

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion