Équipe Analyse/Synthèse

Musical structure and expressive intentions as sources of deviations in violin performance: a sonological analysis, by G. de Poli, A. Rodá and A. Vidolin

Abstract:

The analysis how the performance of a score differs when the musicians are requested to play it with different expressive characters is presented. A professional violinist was asked to play short pieces of music in different versions, so that it sounds light, heavy, sift, hard, bright, and dark. For comparison a normal, standard performance was recorded. Sonological analysis allowed us to identify the variations of the main sonological parameters on varying the expressivity intentions. It was possible to identify two distinct expressive sources. The first refers to the musical structure of the period, its division into phrases and the continuous alternation of tension and relaxation points. The second depends on the expressive intentions that the musician wants to convey to the listeners.

* CSC-DEI, University of Padova, Padova, Italy - e-mail: depoli, vidolin@dei.unipd.it