Measuring Aksak Rhythm and Synchronization in Transylvanian Village Music by Using Motion Capture

Abstract

Techniques based on motion capture can be useful in analyzing a wide range of musical styles and practices: in this case, Transylvanian village music. We focused on a repertoire known as 'Gypsy songs of sorrow', played by professional Gypsy musicians during parties and celebrations of their own community. Two parameters were the object of study: rhythmic duration, and synchronization between musicians (a violinist and a viola player). Results show that rhythm is a local variant of aksak and is based on two duration units (S=short, L=long) which respect the formula 2:3 < S:L < 3:4. Performances are characterized by large variations of the S:L ratio from period to period, which have an expressive function. Tracking the bow's movements with motion capture techniques allowed to show that these variations are related to a swinging interpretation, which also involves a voluntary asynchrony between the two musicians.

Between Film and the World: Roma Ways of Seeing and Perceiving Persons

“…The skeletons' mathematical models of the musicians' movements have been very useful to analyze some musical parameters, such as rhythm and swing, intended as subtle asynchronies between the two musicians (Bonini Baraldi et al 2015). We also used these images to undertake perceptual experiments with the Roma musicians, with the aim of understanding to what extent the simple vision of movements allowed them to mentally recall the music being played (Figure 4).…”

“…I contend that foreign observers who watch the film, or find themselves spectators at such wakes, must be caught up by this emotional movement even when they do not understand the laments or know the people involved. While Roma value the act of looking overtly at someone else's expression of grief, as this enables them to become moved by compassion, the most frequent reaction of a non-Roma audience is to associate compassion with an uncomfortable feeling, similar to shame, caused by the impression of "not having the right" to look at the pain expressed by strangers (Blumenberg 1994). Before fully understanding the meaning of the Roma funeral wakes, I myself had this type of feeling.…”

The effects of rhythmic structure on tapping accuracy

“…However, outside the broad generalities of the above musical genres, and in much non-Western music, more complex nonisochronous rhythms are common and aesthetically prized. For example, the rhythmic emphases in Balkan aksak music often form extended repeating patterns of “long” ( L ) and “short” ( s ) interonset intervals like the 3-onset Lss , approximated by (3 2 2) (the numbers represent the number of eighth-notes or quavers, although, in performance, the ratios between the differently sized IOIs may not be precisely equivalent to low-integer ratios; Bernacki, 2022 ; Bonini-Baraldi et al, 2016 ; Goldberg, 2015 ), or the 5-onset ssLss approximated by (2 2 3 2 2) —see Fracile ( 2003 ) and Moelants ( 2006 ) for numerous other examples. In both these cases, the period of the rhythm (the number of isochronous pulses in the rhythmic cycle of repetition) are prime numbers: 7 and 11, respectively, which cannot be factorized by either 2 or 3.…”