Characterizing Idiomatic Organization in Music: A Theory and Case Study of Musical Affordances

Huron, David; Berec, Jonathon

doi:10.18061/1811/44531

Cited by 20 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 12 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…TAKEN at face value, some instruments seem better suited than other instruments for certain kinds of tasks (Huron & Berec, 2009). For example, some instruments seem more able to convey or express sadness.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“You Can’t Play a Sad Song on the Banjo:” Acoustic Factors in the Judgment of Instrument Capacity to Convey Sadness

Huron

Anderson

Shanahan

2014

EMR

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Forty-four Western-enculturated musicians completed two studies. The first group was asked to judge the relative sadness of forty-four familiar Western instruments. An independent group was asked to assess a number of acoustical properties for those same instruments. Using the estimated acoustical properties as predictor variables in a multiple regression analysis, a significant correlation was found between those properties known to contribute to sad prosody in speech and the judged sadness of the instruments. The best predictor variable was the ability of the instrument to make small pitch movements. Other variables investigated included the darkness of the timbre, the ability to play low pitches, the ability to play quietly, and the capacity of the instrument to "mumble." Four of the acoustical factors were found to exhibit a considerable amount of shared variance, suggesting that they may originate in a common underlying factor. It is suggested that the shared proximal cause of these acoustical features may be low physical energy.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“You Can’t Play a Sad Song on the Banjo:” Acoustic Factors in the Judgment of Instrument Capacity to Convey Sadness

Huron

Anderson

Shanahan

2014

EMR

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Existing research suggests that musicians tend to take advantage of the expressive opportunities afforded by various instruments and playing techniques (e.g., Gimenes, & Manzolli, 2006;Horton, 1986;Huron, Anderson & Shanahan, 2014;Huron & Berec, 2009;Jiranek, 1971;Schutz, et al, 2008;Sudnow, 1978). Recall that the initial motivation for this study was the conjecture that nominally sad musical expressions might gravitate toward the use of darker timbres-as evident in sad speech.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are Stopped Strings Preferred in Sad Music?

Huron

Trevor

2017

EMR

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

String instruments may be played either with open strings (where the string vibrates between the bridge and a hard wooden nut) or with stopped strings (where the string vibrates between the bridge and a performer's finger pressed against the fingerboard). Compared with open strings, stopped strings permit the use of vibrato and exhibit a darker timbre. Inspired by research on the timbre of sad speech, we test whether there is a tendency to use stopped strings in nominally sad music. Specifically, we compare the proportion of potentially open-to-stopped strings in a sample of slow, minormode movements with matched major-mode movements. By way of illustration, a preliminary analysis of Samuel Barber's famous Adagio from his Opus 11 string quartet shows that the selected key (B-flat minor) provides the optimum key for minimizing open string tones. However, examination of a broader controlled sample of quartet movements by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven failed to exhibit the conjectured relationship. Instead, major-mode movements were found to avoid possible open strings more than slow minor-mode movements.

show abstract

“…This music that is "suited, adapted, and optimised for an instrument" is what Tanaka [11] refers to as 'idiomatic writing', and is therefore the result of the physical affordances of the instrument. Huron and Berec [12] show idiomatic writing for an instrument can become less idiomatic if the circumstances change, observing that trumpet players find it more difficult to perform trumpet repertoire that is shifted in key or tempo so as to alter key fingerings and duration of breath.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Embodied Cognition in Performers of Large Acoustic Instruments as a Method of Designing New Large Digital Musical Instruments

Mice

McPherson

2021

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We present The Large Instrument Performers Study, an interview-based exploration into how large scale acoustic instrument performers navigate the instrument's size-related aesthetic features during the performance. Through the conceptual frameworks of embodied music cognition and affordance theory, we discuss how the themes that emerged in the interview data reveal the ways size-related aesthetic features of large acoustic instruments influence the instrument performer's choices; how large scale acoustic instruments feature microscopic nuanced performance options; and how despite the preconception of large scale acoustic instruments being scaled up versions of the smaller instrument with the addition of a lower fundamental tone, the instruments offer different sonic and performative features to their smaller counterparts and require precise gestural control that is certainly not scaled up. This is followed by a discussion of how the study findings could influence design features in new large scale digital musical instruments to result in more nuanced control and timbrally rich instruments, and better understanding of how interfaces and instruments influence performers' choices and as a result music repertoire and performance.

show abstract

Characterizing Idiomatic Organization in Music: A Theory and Case Study of Musical Affordances

Cited by 20 publications

References 12 publications

“You Can’t Play a Sad Song on the Banjo:” Acoustic Factors in the Judgment of Instrument Capacity to Convey Sadness

“You Can’t Play a Sad Song on the Banjo:” Acoustic Factors in the Judgment of Instrument Capacity to Convey Sadness

Are Stopped Strings Preferred in Sad Music?

Embodied Cognition in Performers of Large Acoustic Instruments as a Method of Designing New Large Digital Musical Instruments

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About