A structurally guided method for the decomposition of expression in music performance

Abstract

A method for separating, profiling, and quantifying the contributions of different structural components to expressive musical performance is described. The method is demonstrated through its application to a set of expert piano performances of a short piece from the classical period. The results show that the output of the method aids in the understanding of how the different structural components in a piece of music combine in the generation of an expressive performance. A second demonstration applies the method to performances at different tempi to illustrate its effectiveness in pinpointing the structural features responsible for small but statistically significant differences between performances. The method is compared with other approaches to the analysis and modeling of musical performance, and a number of potential applications are identified.