FROM OBJECTIVE MEASUREMENTS TO SUBJECTIVE RATINGS OF SIMILARITY BETWEEN EXPRESSIVE PERFORMANCES OF MUSIC

Measurements of tempo and dynamics from audio files or MIDI data are frequently used to get insight in the performers contribution to the music. It is unclear how well measured data represent perceptually salient characteristics of performances and what data representation comes closest to subjective perception. The aim of this study was to test the validity of different techniques to represent the perceptually salient characteristics of performances by comparing the ability of these techniques to predict the perceptual distance between pairs of performances. Fragments of five recordings of a Chopin prelude and six recordings of a Mozart sonata by famous pianists were used and the tempo and dynamics was analyzed at the beat level. The distance between pairs of performances in tempo and dynamics was calculated usin