The Influence of Musical Context on Tempo Rubato Timmers, Ashley, Desain, Heijink
What is Tempo Rubato? Performance = Composition + Expression + Instrument Tempo Rubato : “Stolen time” is the variations in the timing of onsets of notes. Tempo changes occur in relation to phrase structure. “ notes inegales”
Tempo Rubato Relation between musical structure and tempo changes :- Modulations clarifying metrical structure, harmonic structure and phrase final lengthening. Tempo Rubato reflects hierarchic depth of a syntactic unit by the amount of slowing at the boundary. Sundberg’s model of harmonic distance to the tonic.
Melody : Variations on an original Theme (Op 21, No 1) – Brahms. Melody performed by 3 pianists in different settings: 1. Melody without bar-lines. 2. Melody with bar-lines. 3. Counter-melody. 4. Melody with the Counter-melody. 5. Melody with block chords. 6. Theme.
Melody : Variations on an original Theme (Op 21, No 1) – Brahms
Mean tempo(BPM) per performer per condition Condition 1 Condition 2 Condition 4 Condition 5 Condition 6 Subject Subject Subject
Analysis & Observations Performance-Score matching. Measure variations in IOI as an indication of Tempo Rubato. Correlation between IOI s of repeated performance > correlation between IOI s of melody in the 6 conditions. Change in timing distribution in the melody with change in context.
Grand Average Timing Profile
PerformerCondition Avg Correlation between repetitions S11mel.864 2mel.756 4mel.834 5mel.859 6mel.788 S21mel.890 2mel.793 4mel.888 5mel.850 6mel.882 S31mel.546 2mel.750 4mel.741 5mel.713 6mel.836
Similarity between Performers
Timing profiles of Conditions 2 and 6 performed by Subjects 2&3
Diversity of Musical Structure
Other Factors Affecting tempo Rubato Level of difficulty of performing the musical piece. ( theme vs melody alone) Area of difficult chords. Tempo selected by performer. Complexity of musical composition.
Shortcomings &Future Work Influence of each performer is large; affects correlation. Analysis of musical factors influencing diversity and extent of tempo rubato need to be tested. Study the constraints on expressive performance.