E xpressive M usical T erms (EMTs) are commonly used by composers as verbal descriptions of musical expressiveness and characters that performers are requested to convey. We suggest a classification of 55 of these terms, based on the perception of professional music performers who were asked to: 1) organize the considered EMTs in a two-dimensional plane in such a way that proximity reflects similarity; and 2) rate these EMTs according to valence, arousal, extraversion, and neuroticism, using 7-level Likert scales. Using a minimization procedure, we found that a satisfactory partition requires these EMTs to be organized in four clusters (whose centroids are associated with tenderness, happiness, anger, and sadness) located in the four quarters of the valence-arousal plane of the circumplex model of affect developed by Russell (1980) . In terms of the related positive-negative activation parameters, introduced by Watson and Tellegen (1985) , we obtained a significant correlation between positive activation and extraversion and between negative activation and neuroticism. This demonstrates that these relations, previously observed in personality studies by Watson & Clark (1992a) , extend to the musical field.

C lassical musicians in ensembles are accustomed to performing in the same physical space. However, situations such as networked music performance (NMP) require physical separation with audio and sometimes video links. Effects of latency on synchronization have been extensively studied; however, research is limited on the effects of physical separation on the subjective experience of musicians. This separation is likely to have an effect on interaction between musicians as usual channels of communication are interrupted. The impact of this physical separation on the experience of classical musicians in a woodwind soloist and piano accompanist setting was investigated. Three pairs of musicians were recorded in acoustically isolated spaces with audio and video links, and were then interviewed using semi-structured interview techniques. Five themes emerged from the data, namely: adaptability, communication, performance, impact on the musicians, and relationships. Within these themes, musical issues, communication, and social interactions were found to be most challenging for separated musicians, while adaptability helped the musicians in this situation. The video link was used rarely when playing. These issues are important in NMP and are related to the physical separation of the musicians, rather than problems such as latency, which are well documented.

T he present study has investigated the minimal-distance hypothesis in music ( Langlois & Roggman, 1990 ; Repp, 1997 ) by replicating Repp's original study (1997) on the aesthetic quality of an averaged performance—compared to individual interpretations—of Robert Schumann's Träumerei (Op. 15, No. 7). Participants ( N = 205) came from Germany and Taiwan and made up a convenience sample representing different degrees of musical sophistication. We used a 2 × 4 mixed methods design that compared the country of data collection (between factor) and the four selected interpretations (within factor). The dependent variable was a unidimensional construct describing the musical quality, which was developed with an exploratory factor analysis followed by a probabilistic item analysis. It was found that the evaluation of Taiwanese and German participants did not differ, but the ratings for the various interpretations successfully replicated Repp's results: The average performance was rated better than the individual performances, and the lowest rated performance from the original study was rated lowest in this replication as well (large effect size). The confirmation of this central effect in music perception research might be an incentive for further replication studies in music psychology.

T his article examines the effects of composition length, familiarity, and likeability—as well as the location of performance errors—on the process of forming performance quality ratings. Five piano works by Chopin and a twentieth-century composer were chosen to vary by length and familiarity. Three of these pieces were then manipulated to contain performance errors in the opening material, and two of those the same error at the recapitulation. Forty-two musicians provided continuous quality evaluations and final quality ratings of the performances, hearing one version of each piece. The results showed that familiarity had no effect within works of a well-known composer, but times to first and final decision were significantly extended for an unfamiliar work of an unfamiliar composer. A shorter piece led to a shorter time to first decision. An error at the beginning of a performance caused a shorter time to first decision and lower initial and final ratings, where the same error at the recapitulation did not have a significant effect on the final judgment, despite causing a temporary negative drop. These findings demonstrate how evaluators’ knowledge of a work can affect their rating process and the importance of making a strong first impression in performance.

Some movements that musicians make are non-essential to their instrumental playing, yet express their intentions and interpretations of music’s structures. One such potential interpretation is the choice to emphasize short melodic groupings or to integrate these groupings into a phrase. This study aimed to characterize the nature of head motions associated with either interpretation by having cellists play two versions of a musical excerpt: 1) with short groupings specified, and 2) with long groupings specified. Cellists were filmed by two video cameras (front and right-side perspective) and the positions of their forehead and cheek were analyzed in their respective two-dimensional spaces. We hypothesized that the amount and frequency of movements would change according to the intended grouping. The results show that, overall, participants’ heads move more frequently when intending short groupings compared to long groupings. However, the extent of the change in motion varied across different sections of the excerpt. It appears that performers may invest more effort to emphasize the intended interpretation when a given local pitch structure more easily affords alternative interpretations. Our results illustrate that performers can embody melodic groupings based on intended interpretation.

Aural and visual information have been shown to affect audience evaluations of music performance (Griffiths, 2010; Juslin, 2000); however, it is not fully understood which modality has the greatest relative impact upon judgements of performance or if the evaluator’s musical expertise mediates this effect. An opportunity sample of thirty-four musicians (8 male, 26 female M age = 26.4 years) and 26 nonmusicians (6 male, 20 female, M age = 44.0 years) rated four video clips for technical proficiency, musicality, and overall performance quality using 7-point Likert scales. Two video performances of Debussy’s Clare de lune (one professional, one amateur) were used to create the four video clips, comprising two clips with congruent modality information, and two clips with incongruent modality information. The incongruent clips contained the visual modality of one quality condition with the audio modality of the other. It was possible to determine which modality was most important in participants’ evaluative judgements based on the modality of the professional quality condition in the clip that was rated most highly. The current study confirms that both aural and visual information can affect audience members’ experience of musical performance. We provide evidence that visual information has a greater impact than aural information on evaluations of performance quality, as the incongruent clip with amateur audio + professional video was rated significantly higher than that with professional audio + amateur video. Participants’ level of musical expertise was found to have no effect on their judgements of performance quality.

This study focuses on the relationships between music analysis, performance, and tension perception. Part 1 examines harpsichordists’ analyses and performances of an unmeasured prelude—a semi-improvisatory genre open to interpretive freedom. Twelve harpsichordists performed the Prélude non mesuré No. 7 by Louis Couperin on a harpsichord equipped with a MIDI console and submitted a formal analysis. Using a curve-fitting approach, we investigated the correspondence between analyzed segmentations and group-final lengthening. We found that harpsichordists also employed “group-final anticipation,” involving deceleration before, and acceleration through, analyzed boundaries. In Part 2, three listener groups (harpsichordists, musicians, and nonmusicians) continuously rated tension for 12 performances. In contrast to measured music, local tension peaks, rather than troughs, occurred at boundaries featuring group-final lengthening. Associations were found between global tempo and tension ratings, with significant differences among the three listener groups. Performers expressed the large-scale structure through the amount of tempo variability, which was also reflected in tension rating variability.

in developing a visual feedback system for a creative activity such as music performance, the objective is not just to reinforce one particular manner of performing. Instead, a desirable characteristic might be that the visual feedback enhances flexibility and originality, in addition to contributing to performance precision. In an experimental study focused on the timing of a musical ornament, we examined whether the instruction to explore ornament timing in training trials with or without visual feedback leads to improved temporal precision in imitating target performances of the ornament, and whether visual feedback enhances the performance diversity during training. The study uncovered distinct strategies of exploration of the performance of the musical ornament and highlighted the dynamics of exploration behavior during training. Visual feedback enhanced exploration of temporal characteristics and influenced imitation accuracy. This study opens up educational possibilities for the training of performance skills and provides direction for further investigation of creative processes in performance.

songs that are not notated but transmitted through live performance are of particular interest for the psychological study of the stability of tempo across multiple performances. While experimental research points to highly accurate memory for the tempi of well-known recorded music, this study asks whether there is any evidence of absolute tempo in a performance tradition that does not draw on such reference recordings. Fifty-four field recordings of performances of one Aboriginal dance-song, Djanba 14 , were analyzed. Results showed that over a span of 34 years, performance tempi deviated positively or negatively, on average, by 2%. Such small tempo variation is similar to JND thresholds to discriminate the tempi of isochronous sequences. Thirty-five field recordings of another song from the same repertory, Djanba 12 , deviated in tempi by an average of 3%. We discuss the musical, psychological, physical, and cultural factors likely to shape such temporal stability.

notes inégales is a common practice in the performance of French baroque music. It indicates that the first of a pair of equally notated notes is played longer, similar to the use of swing eighths in jazz. The performance of that inequality is an ongoing source of debate, but the actual performance has not been studied yet. In an experiment, eight harpsichordists and eight baroque violinists performed six melodies of French baroque gavottes in three tempo conditions. The mean ratio of inequality was 1.63, with mean ratios of individual performers varying between 1.89 and 1.33. Another significant source of variance was the metric structure, with larger inequality found at metrically important points. Tempo also had an important influence, but individual interpretation varied greatly. For example, while most performers played more evenly while tempo increased, some performers chose the opposite strategy. Pitch interval had only a minor impact on the execution of the notes inégales, but also showed differences between performers. The results show the importance of personal style in music performance: although the music played is highly standardized, we show how the timing of different performers can be influenced by different aspects of the musical structure.

ORNAMENTATION IS ONE ASPECT OF MUSIC ASSOCIATED with emotional affect in Baroque music. In an empirical study, the relationship between ornamentation and emotion was investigated by asking a violinist and flutist to ornament three melodies in different ways to express four emotions: happiness, sadness, love, and anger. The performers adapted the type of ornaments to the instructed emotion as well as the characteristics of the ornaments. The flutist specifically varied the duration, timing, and complexity of the ornamentation, while the violinist varied the complexity, density, and sound level of the performances. The ability of the performers to communicate the emotions was tested in a listening experiment. Communication was found to be generally successful, with the exception of the communication of happiness. This success was not due to general consensus about the expression of emotions through ornamentation. Rather the listeners were sensitive to a performer's specific use of ornamentation.

CONCERTGOERS, CRITICS, TEACHERS, AND PERFORMERS are often called upon to cast judgment on the performances they hear. Research to date has typically focused on the judgments themselves, with very few empirical studies of the processes and decisions that lead to these judgments. This paper details an investigation of time-dependent characteristics of performance evaluation. Thirty-three participants were played five recordings of a Bach Prelude and five of a Chopin Prelude. They rated the quality of each performance continuously, by moving a mouse cursor on a 7-point scale displayed on a computer screen, and using written scales. The results suggest that: the time taken to reach an evaluative decision was typically short (around 15––20 s); there was a significant difference between the initial and final ratings, with a tendency for ratings to improve as the performances progressed; and the largest revisions of opinion took place within the first minute of the performance.

We investigate the effects of different levels of delay (or latency) on the coordination, pace and timing regularity of musicians who are in remote locations—a situation encountered in an interactive network performance. Two pairs of musicians performed two Mozart duets while isolated visually and connected through microphones and headphones. Different levels of latency (0, 20, 40, 50, 80, 100, 120, 150, and 200 ms) were introduced into the performing environment (musicians heard themselves in real time and only the other part delayed); the musicians performed the duets under these conditions and rated their musicality and level of interactivity. Although the musicians chose different strategies to handle the latency, which resulted in different levels of success in maintaining coordination, pacing and regularity, both duets were strongly affected by latency at and above 100 ms. At these levels, the musicians rated the performances as neither musical nor interactive, and they reported that they played as individuals and listened less and less to one another.