Influence of melodic emphasis, texture, salience, and performer individuality on performance errors

Abstract

We investigated the influence of melodic emphasis, musical texture, musical salience, and performer individuality on the distribution and frequency of errors in keyboard performance. Eight performers recorded different interpretations of two short Baroque organ pieces of contrasting texture (homophonic versus polyphonic style). Melodic emphasis affected the distribution of performance errors according to the location of the part intended as melody, whereas musical texture influenced the type of errors. The effect of musical salience was examined by inviting 16 performers to record a Bach organ fugue. Error rates were lower for notes belonging to recurring musical motives than for non-motivic passages, and for outer voices compared to inner voices. These results are consistent with error detection studies showing that errors in inner voices or unfamiliar melodies are less perceptually salient, suggesting that the error likelihood is inversely related to a note’s degree of perceptual and musical salience. Across all three pieces, error patterns were more consistent in within-performer comparisons than between-performer comparisons of recordings of the same piece, implying that error patterns are indicative of individual differences in the interpretation of musical structures.