Perceptual and performed accents in musical sequences.

Abstract

Some events in musical sequences are perceived as accented due to changes in physical characteristics of events. These perceptual accents are also often performed with additional emphasis (played louder and/or longer). These performance variations could result from a musician’s desire to add musical expression to important events (accents are played louder and/or longer because it sounds more musical), or they may result from psychophysical constraints of the human auditory system (accents are played louder and/or longer because they are heard softer and/or shorter). Two psychophysical experiments are presented that distinguish between these two explanations. Subjects heard short musical sequences containing rhythmic grouping and melodic accents. Their task was to detect and identify the position of one event, which was either slightly longer (or shorter) or louder (or softer) than other events in the sequence. The detection of intensity variations was unaffected by the presence of accents in the sequences, but the detection of timing variations varied in relation to both rhythmic grouping and melodic accents. These results provide support for the independent processing of timing and other physical characteristics of acoustic events, and they suggest that not all systematic variations observed in music performance are perceived by performer and listener even though they may be above threshold levels described for single auditory events.