麻豆淫院

While it is known that auditory characteristics like loudness and tempo are associated with the physical movements of musicians, more subtle features, like timbre (also known as the "tone color" or tonal quality), are not as well understood.

has shown that listeners can distinguish timbres between different instruments, but it has not been shown that subtle differences from the same instrument are perceivable. Despite a lack of empirical evidence, many pianists believe that timbre can be altered through motor movements in piano playing.

Now, a new study, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, indicates that pianists might be right. The study details the results of two experiments designed to analyze the subtle movements of expert pianists and how these movements relate to the perceived changes in timbre.

Researchers involved in the study used a high-resolution, noncontact sensor system, called the "Hackkey," to capture piano key movements. The Hackkey was capable of assessing the vertical position of all 88 piano keys with a temporal resolution of 1 ms and a spatial resolution of 0.01 mm.

The first experiment involved 18 expert pianists, who were asked to play a short excerpt from No. 1 of "Hanon the Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises." The team then had the pianists play the piece using different timbral intentions, namely weight (light鈥揾eavy), clarity (clear鈥揵lurred), and brightness (bright鈥揹ark). Then, 20 additional pianists and 20 non-musicians listened to the results to determine if they were able to distinguish differences.

Both expert pianists and non-musicians could reliably perceive the differences in weight, clarity, and brightness intended by performers. Unsurprisingly, pianists showed a greater sensitivity to these differences.

Analysis was then performed to determine which features of the key movements were associated with the subjective rating score by the listeners. The researchers found a handful of specific features of piano key movement which were linked to perceived timbre.

"The observed timbral variations were associated with only a subset of key movements, including the key descending velocity and acceleration at escapement, the temporal relationships between the keypresses, and the intermanual synchronicity of movements. This demonstrates that dexterous movement control in pianists underlies the production of perceptual qualities of weight, clarity, and brightness in tones," the study authors explain.

For the second experiment, one pianist produced single notes with controlled differences in key acceleration and 16 pianists judged the resulting timbre. They specifically identify the acceleration at escapement鈥攖he moment just before the hammer hits the string when detaching from the key mechanism鈥攁s a determining factor in the timbre.

"The validation study further demonstrated that when two tones differed selectively in a specific key movement feature, namely the acceleration at escapement, considered to be related to specific timbral qualities, listeners reliably perceived corresponding differences in timbre."

This work highlights the connection between physical skill and artistic expression and may help music instructors describe the more nuanced characteristics of musical production.

The authors say, "Our findings underscore the pivotal roles of subtle physical gestures in creating the rich timbral palette of piano tones, advancing our understanding of the intersection between motor control and artistic expression."

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