The Communication of Musical Expression

Abstract

This study focuses on the performer-listener link of the chain of musical communication. Using different perceptual methods (categorization, matching, and rating), as well as acoustical analyses of timing and amplitude, we found that both musicians and nonmusicians could discern among the levels of expressive intent of violin, trumpet, clarinet, oboe, and piano performers. Time-contour profiles showed distinct signatures between instruments and across expressive levels, which affords a basis for perceptual discrimination. For example, for "appropriate" expressive performances, a gradual lengthening of successive durations leads to the cadence. Although synthesized versions based on performance timings led to less response accuracy than did the complete natural performance, evidence suggests that timing may be more salient as a perceptual cue than amplitude. We outline a metabolic communication theory of musical expression that is based on a system of sequences of states, and changes of state, which fill gaps of inexorable time. We assume that musical states have a flexible, topologically deformable nature. Our conception allows for hierarchies and structure in active music processing that static generative grammars do not. This theory is supported by the data, in which patterns of timings and amplitudes differed among and between instruments and levels of expression.