Abstract
Tipping points are an observable and experienced natural phenomenon that has been invoked metaphorically across various domains external to physics. This article introduces the tipping point analogy for musical timing, and presents three case studies illustrating the concept. Quantitative data from recorded performances presented in score-time graphs support the illustrations. The examples show how musicians employ tipping points in performance, and demonstrate how tipping points play on the listener’s expectations to elicit emotion. Tipping points form principal tools for the performer’s choreography of expectation; the pervasiveness of tipping points in human experience make them an important strategy also for ensemble coordination.
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Notes
- 1.
The ICMM lecture can be viewed online at https://vimeo.com/112980119.
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Chew, E. (2017). The Mechanics of Tipping Points: A Case of Extreme Elasticity in Expressive Timing. In: Pareyon, G., Pina-Romero, S., AgustÃn-Aquino, O., Lluis-Puebla, E. (eds) The Musical-Mathematical Mind. Computational Music Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47337-6_9
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