This study investigates the importance of visual information in performance, focusing on the influence of dress on the musical evaluation of female classical soloists. In this study, four female violinists were filmed playing in four states of dress: jeans, a nightclubbing dress, black concert dress and point-light condition (body movement is apparent but not physical appearance), Each clip was recorded in two conditions: both as the performer's own version and with a mastertrack dubbed over the top. The dubbed versions therefore had a constant musical soundtrack. Fifteen male and 15 female musicians (age range 17-66 years) were asked to rate clips on six point scales in terms of technical proficiency, musicality, appropriateness of dress and attractiveness of performer. Significant effects were found of condition, dress and performer, and an interaction of performer and dress was observed on participant perceptions. Implications of these perceptions of female performers suggest that observers have a strong concept of what constitutes appropriate dress for a female recitalist, as the concert dress was overwhelmingly favoured above the nightclubbing dress and jeans. There is evidence that the historical dominance of mental attributes over physical attributes continues, as performer 3 is rated high for technical proficiency and musicality, but lower for appropriateness of dress.

This study investigates the effects of concert dress and physical appearance on perceptions of female classical soloists’ musical abilities over a range of genres. Four female violinists were recorded playing three pieces, in four styles of dress of varying formality. Each combination of performer, piece and dress was recorded twice, once as the performer’s own interpretation and again with a master-track dubbed over the top. The master-track provided a constant musical soundtrack and allowed the investigation of observer perceptions based on changes in visual information alone. The clips were rated by 15 male and 15 female observers (age range 18—28) in terms of technical proficiency, musicality, appropriateness of dress and attractiveness of performer on six-point Likert scales. Significant effects of dress, performer and piece suggest that (1) observers have a strong concept of appropriate dress by genre of music; (2) inappropriate and body-focused dress may have a detrimental effect on perceptions of performers’ musical abilities; and (3) performers’ body movement style may also affect perceptions of their abilities.

AURAL AND VISUAL INFORMATION HAVE BEENshown to affect audience evaluations of music performance (Griffiths, 2010;Juslin, 2000); however, it is not fully understood which modality has the greatest relative impact upon judgements of performance or if the evaluator's musical expertise mediates this effect. An opportunity sample of thirty-four musicians (8 male, 26 female M age ¼ 26.4 years) and 26 nonmusicians (6 male, 20 female, M age ¼ 44.0 years) rated four video clips for technical proficiency, musicality, and overall performance quality using 7-point Likert scales. Two video performances of Debussy's Clare de lune (one professional, one amateur) were used to create the four video clips, comprising two clips with congruent modality information, and two clips with incongruent modality information. The incongruent clips contained the visual modality of one quality condition with the audio modality of the other. It was possible to determine which modality was most important in participants' evaluative judgements based on the modality of the professional quality condition in the clip that was rated most highly. The current study confirms that both aural and visual information can affect audience members' experience of musical performance. We provide evidence that visual information has a greater impact than aural information on evaluations of performance quality, as the incongruent clip with amateur audio þ professional video was rated significantly higher than that with professional audio þ amateur video. Participants' level of musical expertise was found to have no effect on their judgements of performance quality.

Seeing a drummer's performance modulates the subjective experience of groove when listening to popular music drum patterns. Musicae Scientiae.

JWalk is a lazy systematic unit-testing tool for