Inter-onset Intervals Research Articles

Expressiveness in metronomic rolls for player piano: A new field of research?

Between the last years of the nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth century, the production and use of rolls for player piano became widespread. These were strips of perforated paper wrapped around a cylinder, capable of activating in the instrument a pneumatic mechanism for the automatic operation of the piano keys. The metronomic-type rolls were produced manually, by transposing the piece's score into the paper's perforation. In this contribution, we propose a solution based on the automatic identification of peaks in the distribution of the Inter-Onset-Intervals (IOIs) of the notes for the detection, within metronomic rolls, of timing-related expressive areas, i.e. of musical passages in which deviations in the length of the holes with respect to what is prescribed in the score are operated intentionally to add expressiveness. The identified algorithm, applied to a dataset of approximately 700 rolls converted into MIDI format, showed good sensitivity, and made it possible to identify in a relatively short time numerous examples of intentional expressiveness in the analyzed repertoire, commonly and erroneously considered a mere mechanical transposition of the score. In the conclusions, some reflections on the relevance of this research in the musicological field are proposed.

Spontaneous Production Rates in Song and Speech

Many everyday tasks appear to be performed at an optimal rate that differs between individuals but is consistent within individuals. These optimal rates are estimated using a participant's Spontaneous Production Rate (SPR), the rate at which an individual produces sequences of sounds in the absence of external tempo cues. A previous study that measured SPRs in speech and piano production found no association between SPRs across tasks, a result suggesting that domain-specific constraints determine optimal rates. The present study addressed whether this dissociation would remain when music and speech are produced with the same effector system: vocal production. Participants spoke short, well-known phrases and sang familiar children's songs on “da” to avoid memorization of words. SPRs were measured by the mean inter-onset interval (IOI) between successively produced syllables or tones and showed large individual differences. Results showed consistent SPRs within individuals within each domain (speaking or singing) as well as consistent SPRs across the speaking and singing conditions. These results align with theories of optimal rates based on energy efficiency arising from biomechanical constraints rather than domain-specific communication goals.

Individual differences of limitation to extract beat from Kuramoto coupled oscillators: Transition from beat-based tapping to frequent tapping with weaker coupling.

Musical performers synchronize to each other despite differences in sound-onset timings which reflect each musician's sense of the beat. A dynamical system of Kuramoto oscillators can simulate this spread of onsets at varying levels of temporal alignment with a variety of tempo and sound densities which also influence individual abilities for beat extraction. Here, we examined how people's sense of beat emerges when tapping with Kuramoto oscillators of varying coupling strengths which distribute onsets around periodic moments in time. We hypothesized that people tap regularly close to the sound onset density peaks when coupling is strong. When weaker coupling produces multiple inter-onset intervals that are more widely spread, people may interpret their variety and distributions differently in order to form a sense of beat. Experiment 1 with a small in-person cohort indeed showed a few individuals who responded with high frequency tapping to slightly weak coupled stimuli although the rest found regular beats. Experiment 2 with a larger on-line cohort revealed three groups based on characteristics of inter-tap-intervals analyzed by k-means clustering, namely a Regular group (about 1/3 of the final sample) with the most robust beat extraction, Fast group (1/6) who maintained frequent tapping except for the strongest coupling, and Hybrid group (1/2) who maintained beats except for the weakest coupling. Furthermore, the adaptation time course of tap interval variability was slowest in Regular group. We suggest that people's internal criterion for forming beats may involve different perceptual timescales where multiple stimulus intervals could be integrated or processed sequentially as is, and that the highly frequent tapping may reflect their approach in actively seeking synchronization. Our study provides the first documentation of the novel limits of sensorimotor synchronization and individual differences using coupled oscillator dynamics as a generative model of collective behavior.

Emergence of metrically structured rhythms and inter-partner coordination in joint drum improvization

Improvization is a common aspect of music across cultures and eras. Due to its spontaneous nature, it often proves difficult to examine empirically how collective improvization evolves, unless genre-specific constraints are available and followed by experts (e.g., jazz). Here, we investigate the rhythmic dimension of free improvization by non-experts. We focus on two widely used approaches in joint musical improvization: call-and-response (trading) and simultaneous playing (tandem). We hypothesized that non-experts could engage in meaningful joint music-making with a model partner, and that they produce rhythmic patterns with different emergent structures depending on the task. The first author served as a confederate playing with each participant for five blocks each of trading and tandem tasks. To preserve the open-ended nature of improvization, neither metronome nor background music were provided. Preliminary analysis of the rhythmic content indicates that within-player inter-onset-intervals (IOI) reflected a clear hierarchical metrical structure. Additional analysis suggests bi-directional influence between partners in terms of IOI distribution, note density, and timbre choice. During tandem improvization, each partner favored timbres the other did not, showing a complementary pattern. During trading, timbre choice appears more imitative. Subjects also reported an increase in their self-assessed competence and enjoyment of the task over successive blocks.

PQG-A2SA: Performance Quantification Guided Audio-to-Score Alignment for Orchestral Music

Audio-to-score alignment is a multi-modal task that aims at generating an accurate mapping between symbolic and signal-level representations of musical signals, which is important for music performance analysis and retrieval. Among numerous music genres, orchestral music is a category of music with complex performance characteristics such as multi-instrument, non-percussive instrument and music expressiveness. However, previous methods do not take sufficient account of the performance characteristics of orchestral music, leading to limitations in alignment accuracy on orchestral music of these methods. To solve this problem, we present a performance quantification guided audio-to-score alignment (PQG-A2SA) method with high alignment accuracy for orchestral music at note-level. Specially, the PQG-A2SA contains two parts, namely an Inter Onset Interval (IOI) guided conditionally-constrained Dynamic Time Wrapping (DTW) and an articulation guided onset and offset detection. Different from the previous work, the IOI-guided conditionally-constrained DTW is designed to achieve a preliminary mapping between symbolic and chord-level representations of musical signals. In the second module, the onset and offset detection model under different musical articulations are established, thus refining the alignment results. We provide extensive experimental validation and analysis of our method. Our PQG-A2SA method can improve 9.0% in onset align rate and 17.5% in offset align rate at most compared with the state-of-the-art methods.

Metrical strength in Persian poetic metres

In determining the metrical structure of quantitative poetic metres, heavy (i.e. long) syllables are usually associated with metrically strong positions. In this study, examining the case of Persian metres, I argue that the metres must be treated as temporal patterns in music, where research on rhythm perception has shown that the metrical strength of an event is not directly determined by the inter-onset interval following it but sensitive to the overall arrangement of the attack points. To identify metrically strong positions, I introduce a different method based on the performance practices of participants in the poetic tradition. The strength hierarchy is then used to offer constituency trees for the metrical forms and classify them. The structures identified for metrical forms are different from those suggested in previous accounts of Persian metres, in that they allow incomplete constituents at the left edges of metres. Building upon this general framework, a set of constraints chiefly based on well-known universal rhythmic tendencies is introduced and the Persian metre inventory is accounted for as emerging from the interaction of these constraints.

Patterns of eye blinks are modulated by auditory input in humans

Previous studies could elaborate a link between attentional processes and eye blinking in both visual and auditory attention tasks. Here we show that this link is active at a fundamental level of perception: presentation of a series of bare sine tones is sufficient to induce a modulation of temporal blink patterns, allowing to determine which series was presented to participants even when they are not required to interactively engage in processing the auditory input. In particular, we monitored eye blinking during an auditory attention task using two series of sine tones, differing in the predictability of the timing of tone onsets. Whereas inter-onset intervals in one tone series corresponded to uncorrelated samples from a normal distribution, they were distributed according to a Gaussian random walk in the other tone series. We find that blink patterns are dynamically modulated by both purely auditory inputs. The magnitude, form, and coherence of the temporal associations between tone onsets and blink events depend strongly on the requirement to respond to the presented stimuli. The predictability of the tone series appears to modulate pre-stimulus blink inhibition given that a response is required. Altogether, these findings suggest eye blink as a readily available, non-invasive behavioral marker for context-sensitive, moment-to-moment allocation of attention.

On the Roles of Complexity and Symmetry in Cued Tapping of Well-formed Complex Rhythms

Production of relatively few rhythms with non-isochronous beats has been studied. So we assess reproduction of most well-formed looped rhythms comprising K=2-11 cues (a uniform piano tone, indicating where participants should tap) and N=3-13 isochronous pulses (a uniform cymbal). Each rhythm had two different cue interonset intervals. We expected that many of the rhythms would be difficult to tap, because of ambiguous non-isochronous beats and syncopations, and that complexity and asymmetry would predict performance. 111 participants tapped 91 rhythms each heard over 129 pulses, starting as soon as they could. Whereas tap-cue concordance in prior studies was generally >> 90%, here only 52.2% of cues received a temporally congruent tap, and only 63% of taps coincided with a cue. Only −2 ms mean tap asynchrony was observed (whereas for non-musicians this value is usually c. −50 ms). Performances improved as rhythms progressed and were repeated, but precision varied substantially between participants and rhythms. Performances were autoregressive and mixed effects cross-sectional time series analyses retaining the integrity of all the individual time series revealed that performance worsened as complexity features K, N, and cue inter-onset interval entropy increased. Performance worsened with increasing R, the Long: short (L: s) cue interval ratio of each rhythm (indexing both complexity and asymmetry). Rhythm evenness and balance, and whether N was divisible by 2 or 3, were not useful predictors. Tap velocities positively predicted cue fulfilment. Our data indicate that study of a greater diversity of rhythms can broaden our impression of rhythm cognition.

Stimulus modality affects the accuracy of rhythm production in rats

Vocal learning species such as humans and parrots show auditory dominance when they synchronize their actions to an external rhythm. However, whether non-vocal-learners show a specific modality dominance in a rhythmic task has scarcely been examined. We predicted that rats, who are nocturnal and known to rely on acoustic communication, would exhibit higher sensitivity to auditory rhythm compared to visual rhythm. We investigated whether performance of a synchronization task by rats differs based on stimulus modality. We trained five rats to press a lever in time to auditory-visual, isochronous stimuli presented at three different tempos. Rats showed a lower correct response rate when auditory stimuli were presented than when visual or auditory-visual stimuli were presented in the 0.5-s inter-onset interval condition. Neither the asynchrony with the stimulus onset, nor the variability of interval production differed significantly based on the stimulus modality. Therefore, contrary to the prediction, they did not show auditory dominance; rather, rats showed poor performance on the task when a visual stimulus was not present. These results are consistent with the gradual audio-motor evolution hypothesis, and suggest that rats share ability for rhythm production, but this might not necessarily depend on auditory modality.

A primer on rhythm quantification for fish sounds: aMediterranean case study.

We have used a lately established workflow to quantify rhythms of three fish sound types recorded in different areas of the Mediterranean Sea. So far, the temporal structure of fish sound sequences has only been described qualitatively. Here, we propose a standardized approach to quantify them, opening the path for assessment and comparison of an often underestimated but potentially critical aspect of fish sounds. Our approach is based on the analysis of inter-onset-intervals (IOIs), the intervals between the start of one sound element and the next. We calculate exact beats of a sequence using Fourier analysis and IOI analysis. Furthermore, we report on important parameters describing the variability in timing within a given sound sequence. Datasets were chosen to depict different possible rhythmic properties: Sciaena umbra sounds have a simple isochronous—metronome-like—rhythm. The /Kwa/ sound type emitted by Scorpaena spp. has a more complex rhythm, still presenting an underlying isochronous pattern. Calls of Ophidion rochei males present no rhythm, but a random temporal succession of sounds. This approach holds great potential for shedding light on important aspects of fish bioacoustics. Applications span from the characterization of specific behaviours to the potential discrimination of yet not distinguishable species.

Markov-switching state space models for uncovering musical interpretation

For concertgoers, musical interpretation is the most important factor in determining whether or not we enjoy a classical performance. Every performance includes mistakes—intonation issues, a lost note, an unpleasant sound—but these are all easily forgotten (or unnoticed) when a performer engages her audience, imbuing a piece with novel emotional content beyond the vague instructions inscribed on the printed page. In this research we use data from the CHARM Mazurka Project—46 professional recordings of Chopin’s Mazurka Op. 68 No. 3 by consummate artists—with the goal of elucidating musically interpretable performance decisions. We focus specifically on each performer’s use of tempo by examining the interonset intervals of the note attacks in the recording. To explain these tempo decisions, we develop a switching state space model and estimate it by maximum likelihood, combined with prior information gained from music theory and performance practice. We use the estimated parameters to quantitatively describe individual performance decisions and compare recordings. These comparisons suggest methods for informing music instruction, discovering listening preferences and analyzing performances.

Historical Trends in Expressive Timing Strategies: Chopin's Etude, Op. 25 no. 1

Studies of early 20th-century performance practice tend to focus on features that are alien to late 20th- and early 21st-century ears. Empirical analysis of timing in recordings of Chopin's Etude, Op. 25 no. 1—a piece for which performance style has remained relatively static—suggests how some foundational rules of phrasing and expressive nuance have changed over the history of recorded music. Melody note onsets were marked manually in 127 commercial recordings dating from 1909 to 2016. Overall, the data do not show an increase or decrease over time in the amount of tempo fluctuation. Independently of a tendency to use slower tempi, pianists changed the way they employ rubato. Several factors contribute to a trend whereby the fourth beat is lengthened at the expense of the second and third beats: an increase in phrase-final lengthening, an increase in the use of tempo arching for shorter groups of measures, and a tendency to delay the arrival of an accented dissonance or change of harmony instead of lengthening the melody inter-onset interval that contains it. The data illustrate nearly imperceptible shifts in interpretation and suggest that some practices thought to be the bedrock of expressive performance may be historically conditioned.

Boat noise interferes with Lusitanian toadfish acoustic communication.

Anthropogenic noise is considered a major underwater pollutant as increasing ocean background noise due to human activities is impacting aquatic organisms. One of the most prevalent anthropogenic sounds is boat noise. Although motorboat traffic has increased in the past few decades, its impact on the communication of fish is still poorly known. The highly vocal Lusitanian toadfish (Halobatrachus didactylus) is an excellent model to test the impact of this anthropogenic stressor as it relies on acoustic communication to attract mates. Here, we performed two experiments to test the impact of boat noise on the acoustic communication of the Lusitanian toadfish. Using the auditory evoked potential (AEP) technique, we first compared the maximum distance a fish can perceive a boatwhistle (BW), the mate attraction acoustic signal, before and after embedding it in boat noise. Noises from a small motorboat and from a ferryboat reduced the active space from a control value of 6.4-10.4 m to 2.0-2.5 m and 6.3-6.7 m, respectively. In the second experiment we monitored the acoustic behaviour of breeding males exposed to boat noise playbacks and we observed an increase in the inter-onset interval of BWs and a disruption of the usual vocal interactions between singing males. These results demonstrate that boat noise can severely reduce the acoustic active space and affect the chorusing behaviour in this species, which may have consequences in breeding success for individuals and could thus affect fitness.

Quantitative analysis of piano performance proficiency focusing on difference between hands

Quantitative evaluation of piano performance is of interests in many fields, including music education and computational performance rendering. Previous studies utilized features extracted from audio or musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) files but did not address the difference between hands (DBH), which might be an important aspect of high-quality performance. Therefore, we investigated DBH as an important factor determining performance proficiency. To this end, 34 experts and 34 amateurs were recruited to play two excerpts on a Yamaha Disklavier. Each performance was recorded in MIDI, and handcrafted features were extracted separately for the right hand (RH) and left hand (LH). These were conventional MIDI features representing temporal and dynamic attributes of each note and computed as absolute values (e. g., MIDI velocity) or ratios between performance and corresponding scores (e. g., ratio of duration or inter-onset interval (IOI)). These note-based features were rearranged into additional features representing DBH by simple subtraction between features of both hands. Statistical analyses showed that DBH was more significant in experts than in amateurs across features. Regarding temporal features, experts pressed keys longer and faster with the RH than did amateurs. Regarding dynamic features, RH exhibited both greater values and a smoother change along melodic intonations in experts that in amateurs. Further experiments using principal component analysis (PCA) and support vector machine (SVM) verified that hand-difference features can successfully differentiate experts from amateurs according to performance proficiency. Moreover, existing note-based raw feature values (Basic features) and DBH features were tested repeatedly via 10-fold cross-validation, suggesting that adding DBH features to Basic features improved F1 scores to 93.6% (by 3.5%) over Basic features. Our results suggest that differently controlling both hands simultaneously is an important skill for pianists; therefore, DBH features should be considered in the quantitative evaluation of piano performance.

Audiomotor Temporal Recalibration Modulates Decision Criterion of Self-Agency but Not Perceptual Sensitivity.

Exposure to delayed sensory feedback changes perceived simultaneity between action and feedback [temporal recalibration (TR)] and even modulates the sense of agency (SoA) over the feedback. To date, however, it is not clear whether the modulation of SoA by TR is caused by a change in perceptual sensitivity or decision criterion of self-agency. This experimental research aimed to tease apart these two by applying the signal detection theory (SDT) to the agency judgment over auditory feedback after voluntary action. Participants heard a short sequence of tone pips with equal inter-onset intervals, and they reproduced it by pressing a computer mouse. The delay of each tone pip after the mouse press was manipulated as 80 (baseline) or 180 ms (delayed). Subsequently, the participants reproduced it, in which the delay was fixed at 80 ms and there was a 50% chance that the computer took over the control of the tone pips from the participants. The participants’ task was to discriminate who controlled the tone pips and to judge synchrony between tone pips and mouse presses. Results showed that the modulation of the SoA by the TR is caused by a shift in the decision criterion but not in the perceptual sensitivity of agency.

Sensorimotor synchronisation and non-verbal behaviours in Alzheimer's disease: the influence of social and musical contexts.

Given the limited efficacy of pharmacological treatments, the use of musical intervention as a non-drug treatment for patients with Alzheimer's disease is strongly recommended. Musical interventions appear to improve the socio-emotional and cognitive functioning of these patients, and benefits increase when patients' motor skills are engaged. Our study evaluates the factors that may influence patients' socio-emotional and motor engagement during musical activities and measures their sensorimotor synchronisation (SMS) abilities. Participants were asked to tap in time to a metronomic or musical rhythm, in the presence of a musician who performed the task with them. The musician's presence was either physical (live condition) or virtual (video condition). Two tempos were tested: a slow tempo (inter-onset interval of 800 ms) and a fast tempo (inter-onset interval of 667 ms). The results showed that patients spontaneously produced more rhythmic movements in response to the music than to the metronome. However, the consistency and accuracy of sensorimotor synchronisation was better with the metronome than with the music and was also better when the musician was present through the video rather than in person. These effects were modulated by the tempo of the auditory sequences. These results confirm the importance of the musical context and social interactions on these different performances. By simultaneously evaluating the sensorimotor synchronisation of the hands, spontaneous motor behaviours, and socio-emotional behaviours using quantitative and controlled measurements, this study validates a multimodal approach to evaluating patients' engagement in a musical task. These initial results provide promising prospects in terms of application while providing clinicians and researchers with a rigorous methodology for understanding the factors that are at the origin of the therapeutic benefits of musical activities on the behaviour and well-being of patients and their caregivers.

How vocal temporal parameters develop: a comparative study between humans and songbirds, two distantly related vocal learners

Abstract Human infants acquire motor patterns for speech during the first several years of their lives. Sequential vocalizations such as human speech are complex behaviors, and the ability to learn new vocalizations is limited to only a few animal species. Vocalizations are generated through the coordination of three types of organs: namely, vocal, respiratory, and articulatory organs. Moreover, sophisticated temporal respiratory control might be necessary for sequential vocalization involving human speech. However, it remains unknown how coordination develops in human infants and if this developmental process is shared with other vocal learners. To answer these questions, we analyzed temporal parameters of sequential vocalizations during the first year in human infants and compared these developmental changes to song development in the Bengalese finch, another vocal learner. In human infants, early cry was also analyzed as an innate sequential vocalization. The following three temporal parameters of sequential vocalizations were measured: note duration (ND), inter-onset interval, and inter-note interval (INI). The results showed that both human infants and Bengalese finches had longer INIs than ND in the early phase. Gradually, the INI and ND converged to a similar range throughout development. While ND increased until 6 months of age in infants, the INI decreased up to 60 days posthatching in finches. Regarding infant cry, ND and INI were within similar ranges, but the INI was more stable in length than ND. In sequential vocalizations, temporal parameters developed early with subsequent articulatory stabilization in both vocal learners. However, this developmental change was accomplished in a species-specific manner. These findings could provide important insights into our understanding of the evolution of vocal learning.

Some Time Violations Go Less Noticed: Gestalt Grouping? A Brief Report

This brief report is inspired by Bolton’s (1894, Am. J. Psychol., 6, 145–238) tick-tock phenomenon, which describes an illusionary accented grouping of isochronous, non-accented click sequences. It has repeatedly been shown that in stimulus-wise grouped sequences of an XXXOOO character (where X differs from O in terms of intensity, pitch level, or filled or unfilled duration), gap deviations between groups are more prone to go unnoticed compared to deviations within a group (e.g., Fitzgibbons et al., 1974, Percept. Psychophys., 16, 522–528.). Yet, not much is known about whether comparable anisochrony insensitivities might also occur in equal-accented sequences (XXXXX). In a same/different task setting, listeners had to detect isochrony deviations that appeared in different empty-interval locations across 800 trials within a five-pulse sequence of 250 ms interonset intervals. Findings revealed a major location dependency, with least detection accuracy for gap deviations occurring in the last interval, particularly if the 250 ms gap was lengthened rather than shortened. Results are discussed in relation to potential Gestalt grouping and Nakajima et al.’s (2014, Perception, 33, 1061–1079) perceptual assimilation and contrast observations in three-tone sequences.

The Influence of Rate and Accentuation on Subjective Rhythmization

The parsing of undifferentiated tone sequences into groups of qualitatively distinct elements is one of the earliest rhythmic phenomena to have been investigated experimentally (Bolton, 1894). The present study aimed to replicate and extend these findings through online experimentation using a spontaneous grouping paradigm with forced-choice response (from 1 to 12 tones per group). Two types of isochronous sequences were used: equitone sequences, which varied only with respect to signal rate (200, 550, or 950 ms interonset intervals), and accented sequences, in which accents were added every two or three tones to test the effect of induced grouping (duple vs. triple) and accent type (intensity, duration, or pitch). In equitone sequences, participants’ grouping percepts (N = 4,194) were asymmetrical and tempo-dependent, with “no grouping” and groups of four being most frequently reported. In accented sequences, slower rate, induced triple grouping, and intensity accents correlated with increases in group length. Furthermore, the probability of observing a mixed metric type—that is, grouping percepts divisible by both two and three (6 and 12)—was found to be highest in faster sequences with induced triple grouping. These findings suggest that lower-level triple grouping gives rise to binary grouping percepts at higher metrical levels.

The influence of performing gesture type on interpersonal musical timing, and the role of visual contact and tempo

Bodily gestures play an important role in the communication of expressive intentions between humans. Music ensemble performance, as an outstanding example of nonverbal human communication, offers an exemplary context to study and understand the gestural control and communication of these expressive intentions. An important mechanism in music ensemble performance is the anticipation and control of interpersonal timing. When performing, musicians are involved in a complex system of mutual adaptation which is not completely understood so far. In this study, we investigated the role of performers' gestures in the mediation process of interpersonal timing in a dyad performance. Therefore, we designed an experiment in which we controlled for the use of hand and arm movements in a musical task, in which dyads were asked to synchronously tap out a melody. Next to their comfortable/natural way of tapping, we instructed participants to either perform pronounced expressive hand and arm gestures in between successive taps, or to restrict from any overt body movement. In addition, we looked at effects of visual contact (yes/no) and tempo (slow: 50 beats per minute; fast: 100 beats per minute). The results show that performers' gestures improve interpersonal musical timing, in terms of the consistency and accuracy of onset asynchronies, and of the variability of produced inter-onset intervals. Interestingly, we found that the use of expressive gestures, in regard to comfortable/natural movements, add to these positive timing effects, but only when there is visual contact and at the slow tempo. In addition, we found that the type of gestures employed by musicians may modulate leader-follower dynamics. Together, these findings are explained by human anticipation mechanisms facilitated by gesturing, shedding new light on the principles underlying human communication of expressive intentions, through music.