Variations on a Theme by Chopin: Relations Between Perception and Production of Timing in Music.

Number 1079
Year 1998
Drawer 20
Entry Date 11/22/1999
Authors Repp, B.H.
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Publication Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 24, 3, 791-811.
url http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL1079.pdf
Abstract A note interonset interval (IOI) increment in mechanically timed music is more difficult to detect where expressive lengthening typically occurs in artistic performance. Experiment 1 showed this in an excerpt from a Chopin etude and extended the task to IOI decrement detection. A simple measure of variation in perceptual bias was derived that correlated highly with average timing pattern of pianists’ performances, more so than with acoustic surface properties of the music. Similar results, but decreasing correlations, were obtained in each of four subsequent experiments in which the music was simplified in stages. Although local psychoacoustic effects on time perception cannot be ruled out completely, the results suggest that musical structure (melodic-rhythmic grouping in particular) has temporal implications that are reflected not only in musicians’ motor behavior but also in listeners’ time-keeping abilities.
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