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- Jullander, Sverker, 1951-, et al.
(författare)
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Room for Interpretation : Musical Tempo in Variable Acoustics
- 2016
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The acoustical properties of a concert room tend to affect performers’ decisions, especially regarding tempo and agogics. Consequently, the study of the relationship between concert hall acoustics and the musical performance is of great interest to musical performers, and potentially to architects and acousticians as well. A pilot study was devised, enabled by a unique concert hall with mechanically variable acoustics. A concert pianist performed an identical program of two pieces at four trials throughout the same day in the presence of an audience of experienced musicians-researchers, each trial conducted under a distinctive acoustic condition. The trials were recorded for later analysis. The live performances as well as the recordings were assessed individually by the pianist himself and the members of the expert audience. The results showed clear as well as subtle differences between the different performances. The pilot study was followed by a two-year, still ongoing, research project, in which further experimental series of performances have taken place or are underway, using various chamber music constellations, as well as solo flute, organ and choir. In this project, the music performed has included 3–4 pieces from different periods and in different styles. The impression of the live performances from the performer’s own perspective, and also the professional listeners’, has often differed from the experience in listening to the recordings: what was felt during the performance as an ideal live acoustic was often not judged as optimal in the later analysis, especially in terms of agogics and tempo. The preliminary results raise fundamental questions about tempo treatment and artistic/interpretive decisions and promise to give new insights concerning what actually constitutes ‘good’ acoustics and optimal recording conditions from a musician’s professional perspective.
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| 2. |
- Jullander, Sverker, 1951-, et al.
(författare)
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Room for interpretation : methodological aspects of a music research project
- 2018
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Ingår i: Svensk tidskrift för musikforskning. - Uppsala : Svenska samfundet för musikforskning. - 0081-9816 .- 2002-021X. ; 100, s. 89-115
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The artistic research project ‘Room for interpretation’ addresses questions concerning the influence of room acoustics on the performance of Western art music from the performers’ perspective. The empirical core of the project is a number of experimental performance sessions carried out in Studio Acusticum, Piteå, a concert hall with mechanically variable acoustics. The authors discuss issues relating to the project’s design and methodology; the focus of the article is thus the research process rather than the results. A presentation of the project, its preconditions, goals, design and methodology is followed by an overview of previous research, mostly in acoustic science, on the same or closely related topics. In the third part of the article, characteristics of the present project are compared to those of the previous studies. In the following part, ’Room for interpretation’ is related to the ongoing discussion on the purposes and means of artistic research. The authors argue that the project, while showing certain similarities to previous studies, differs considerably with respect to aims and important aspects of design, and that its characteristic features agree well with those usually regarded as typical of artistic research. The article concludes with a summary of the most important results concerning: differences between performers’ reactions in the live situation and when listening to their own recordings; differences between chamber ensembles, conducted ensembles and soloists as to the influence of the acoustics on the performance; and the prevalence of sound over other musical parameters in performers’ comments on their recorded performances.
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| 3. |
- Jullander, Sverker, 1951-, et al.
(författare)
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Time and Space : Musical Tempo and Room Acoustics
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this presentation we discuss the influence of acoustics on temporal aspects of performance for different instrument constellations. In a concert hall with mechanically variable acoustics, professional soloists and ensembles each performed a programme of 3–4 pieces at three trials throughout the same day in the presence of an audience of experienced musicians–researchers. The instrument settings included solo instruments, chamber ensembles and a chamber choir. The trials were recorded for later analysis. The microphones were placed so as to minimize audible differences in acoustics between the recordings.For the solo instruments musicians tended to use slower tempi and allow themselves more agogic freedom in larger acoustics. A similar tendency, though less marked, was observed in conducted ensembles. For ensembles without conductor, the acoustics did not seem to influence the chosen tempi.When playing in larger acoustics, performers tended to feel more comfortable and relaxed – and more satisfied – which was often reflected in the choice of slower tempo as well as in a greater degree of tempo fluctuation. The listeners in the hall, on the other hand, did not always share the performers’ preferences. A different picture emerged in the evaluations of the recordings: here musicians viewed recordings made in drier acoustics, often using faster tempi with less fluctuation, in a more positive light. For some pieces in slow tempi, however, performances in larger acoustics were preferred. Generally, the preferences of musicians and listeners were more in agreement for the recordings than for the live performances.The results show that the room acoustic in many cases does seem to influence tempo and agogics, but also that this influence varies considerably between different instrument settings (especially solo vs. ensemble) as well as between individual pieces in different tempi and styles. Performers’ preferences may vary considerably between the live situations and listening to recordings.
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