Interpreting expressive performance through listener judgments of musical tension

Morwaread M Farbood,Finn Upham

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00998

Abstract

This study examines listener judgments of musical tension for a recording of a Schubert song and its harmonic reduction. Continuous tension ratings collected in an experiment and quantitative descriptions of the piece's musical features, include dynamics, pitch height, harmony, onset frequency, and tempo, were analyzed from two different angles. In the first part of the analysis, the different processing timescales for disparate features contributing to tension were explored through the optimization of a predictive tension model. The results revealed the optimal time windows for harmony were considerably longer (~22 s) than for any other feature (~1–4 s). In the second part of the analysis, tension ratings for the individual verses of the song and its harmonic reduction were examined and compared. The results showed that although the average tension ratings between verses were very similar, differences in how and when participants reported tension changes highlighted performance decisions made in the interpretation of the score, ambiguity in tension implications of the music, and the potential importance of contrast between verses and phrases. Analysis of the tension ratings for the harmonic reduction also provided a new perspective for better understanding how complex musical features inform listener tension judgments.

Highlights

The percept of musical tension provides a window into the disparate components that comprise an expressive performance
With the density of information in the performed stimulus, we should expect that some disagreement in tension ratings will remain despite repetition of the task
These collections of continuous ratings of tension are strongly coordinated in their rating changes, and we can assume their shared temporal variation to be driven by the common temporal experience of the stimuli, justifying the use of average tension ratings in the modeling analysis described in section Model Optimization and Feature Timescales

Summary

Introduction

The percept of musical tension provides a window into the disparate components that comprise an expressive performance. Performers’ interpretations of a composed piece highlight structural features of the music, shaping the listener’s perception of both apparent and unusual aspects of the score (Palmer, 1996). Musical tension is a function of both the structural features inherent in the score and the expressive components contributed by the performer. Tension has long been central topic of interest in music theory (Lerdahl and Krumhansl, 2007), and since the 1980s, it has been the focus of numerous empirical studies. These studies have examined various aspects of musical tension. The musical and auditory features that are incorporated into this model include loudness (dynamics), tempo, onset frequency of note events, harmonic tension, and melodic pitch height

Methods

Results

Conclusion