Relational invariance of expressive microstructure across global tempo changes in music performance: An exploratory study

Summary

This study addressed the question of whether the expressive microstructure of a music performance remains relationally invariant across moderate (musically acceptable) changes in tempo. Two pianists played Schumann's “Träumerei” three times at each of three tempi on a digital piano, and the performance data were recorded in MIDI format. In a perceptual test, musically trained listeners attempted to distinguish the original performances from performances that had been artificially speeded up or slowed down to the same overall duration. Accuracy in this task was barely above chance, suggesting that relational invariance was largely preserved. Subsequent analysis of the MIDI data confirmed that each pianist's characteristic timing patterns were highly similar across the three tempi, although there were statistically significant deviations from perfect relational invariance. The timing of (relatively slow) grace notes seemed relationally invariant, but selective examination of other detailed temporal features (chord asynchrony, tone overlap, pedal timing) revealed no systematic scaling with tempo. Finally, although the intensity profile seemed unaffected by tempo, a slight overall increase in intensity with tempo was observed. Effects of musical structure on expressive microstructure were large and pervasive at all levels, as were individual differences between the two pianists. For the specific composition and range of tempi considered here, these results suggest that major (cognitively controlled) temporal and dynamic features of a performance change roughly in proportion with tempo, whereas minor features tend to be governed by tempo-independent motoric constraints.