Musicians’ Preferences for Tempo and Pitch Levels in Recorded Orchestral Music

Abstract

This study was designed to ascertain musicians’ tempo and pitch level preferences when listening to orchestral music. Ninety graduate and undergraduate music major students were assigned randomly to one of three groups. Participants listened individually to recorded symphonic excerpts, 5 with relatively fast and 5 with relatively slow tempos. Listeners in the tempo group modulated a dial to adjust tempos to their preferred levels for each of the 10 excerpts (pitch was unchanged). Similarly, pitch group participants turned the dial to modify pitch to preferred levels (tempo was unchanged). For the combination tempo/pitch group, turning the dial produced changes in both pitch and tempo concomitantly.The range of modulation for all groups encompassed ±18% relative to the original recording. Listeners preferred increased levels of tempo, pitch, and tempo/pitch combined for the relatively slow excerpts. For fast tempo examples, however, listeners preferred decreased tempos, little change in pitch, and slightly decreased tempo/pitch combined relative to original levels. Deviations from original recordings were greater for the tempo change group compared to pitch and tempo/pitch groups.