Piano performance evaluation dataset with multilevel perceptual features

Abstract

This study aims to build a comprehensive dataset that enables the automatic evaluation of piano performances. In real-world piano performance, especially within the realm of classical piano music, we encounter a vast spectrum of performance variations. The challenge lies in how to effectively evaluate these performances. We must consider three critical aspects: (1) It is essential to gauge how performers express the music and how listeners perceive the performance, rather than focusing on the compositional characteristics of the musical piece. (2) Beyond fundamental elements like pitch and duration, we must also embrace higher-level features such as interpretation. (3) Such evaluation should be done by experts to discern the nuanced performances. Regrettably, there exists no dataset that addresses these challenging evaluation tasks. Therefore, we introduce a pioneering dataset PercePiano, annotated by music experts, with more extensive features capable of representing these nuanced aspects effectively. It encapsulates piano performance with a wide range of perceptual features that are recognized by musicians. Our evaluation benchmark includes a novel metric designed to accommodate the inherent subjectivity of perception. Furthermore, we propose an enhanced baseline framework that grounds performance on score data, aligning model predictions with human perception. Harnessing the aligned features enhances the baseline performance and proves to be adaptable to various model structures. In conclusion, our research opens new possibilities for comprehensive piano performance evaluation.