Tuesday 14 January 2014
at 5.15 pm, SR 15.17 (Resowi F1)
All welcome!
In preparing an interpretation of a piece of music for performance, musicians generally make decisions con-cerning the structure of the piece, the atmosphere and character of each section and how these fit into the overall conception of the work. Through the performance they hope to communicate meaningful information to the audience concerning this musical work. What do the audience actually hear from this performance? Are performers’ expressive intentions communicated accurately? The research studies presented examine the communication between performer and audience both in terms of the sound the performer is producing and also their visual gestures on stage. Live performances recorded specifically for these studies as well as com-mercial recordings of eminent artists are used as stimuli. We see that aspects such as the intended phrasing structure can be represented accurately through a performer’s gestures despite idiosyncrasies present in movement, and that the aural treatment of specific musical features can affect the audience’s experience of the music both in terms of phrasing boundaries and climactic points within the performance.
The author
Dr. Jennifer MacRitchie completed her PhD in Engineering and Music at the Science and Music Research Group, University of Glasgow, UK in 2010 and currently works as a researcher at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, Switzerland. Her work covers research on multi-modal performance recordings of solo pianists, examining both aural and visual streams of information in relation to musical structure and per-formers’ intentions. Jennifer is also an experienced pianist herself, having performed as concerto soloist with several orchestras in Glasgow and more recently with chamber music ensembles both in Glasgow and Lugano.
