734 research outputs found
A Study in Violinist Identification using Short-term Note Features
The perception of music expression and emotion are greatly influenced by performer's individual interpretation, thus modelling performer's style is important to music understanding, style transfer, music education and characteristic music generation. This Thesis proposes approaches for modelling and identifying musical instrumentalists, using violinist identification as a case study. In violin performance, vibrato and timbre play important roles in players’ emotional expression, and they are key factors of playing style while execution shows great diversity. To validate that these two factors are effective to model violinists, we design and extract note-level vibrato features and timbre features from isolated concerto music notes, then present a violinist identification method based on the similarity of feature distributions, using single feature as well as fused features. The result shows that vibrato features are helpful for the violinist identification, and some timbre features perform better than vibrato features. In addition, the accuracy obtained from fused features is higher than using any single feature. However, apart from performer, the timbre is also determined by musical instruments, recording conditions and other factors. Furthermore, the common scenario for violinist identification is based on short music clips rather than isolated notes. To solve these two problems, we further examine the method using note-level timbre features to recognize violinists from segmented solo music clips, then use it to identify master players from concerto fragments. The results show that the designed features and method work very well for both types of music. Another experiment is conducted to examine the influence of instrument on the features. Results suggest that the selected timbre features can model performers’ individual playing reasonably and objectively, regardless of the instrument they play. Expressive timing is another key factor to reflect individual play styles. This Thesis develops a novel onset time deviation feature, which is used to model and identify master violinists on concerto fragments data. Results show that it performs better than timbre features on the dataset. To generalise the violinist identification method and further improve the result, deep learning methods are proposed and investigated. We present a transfer learning approach for violinist identification from pre-trained music auto-tagging neural networks and singer identification models. We then transfer pre-trained weights and fine-tune the models using violin datasets and finally obtain violinist identification results. We compare our system with state-of-the-art works, which shows that our model outperforms them using our two datasets
Identifying master violinists using note-level audio features
The same piece of music can be performed in various styles by different performers. Vibrato plays an important role in violin players' emotional expression, and it is an important factor of playing style while execution shows great diversity. Expressive timing is also an important factor to reflect individual play styles. In our study, we construct a novel dataset, which contains 15 concertos performed by 9 master violinists. Four vibrato features and one timing feature are extracted from the data, and we present a method based on the similarity of feature distribution to identify violinists using each feature alone and fusion of features. The result shows that vibrato features are helpful for the identification, but the timing feature performs better, yielding a precision of 0.751. In addition, although the accuracy obtained from fused features are lower than using timing alone, discrimination for each performer is improved
Playing Technique and Violin Timbre: Detecting Bad Playing
For centuries, luthiers have committed to working towards better understanding and improving the sound characteristics and playability of violins. With advances in technology and signal processing, studies attempting to define a violin’s sound qualityvia physical characteristics and resonance patterns have ensued. Existing work has primarily focused on physical aspects reflecting an instrument’s sound quality. In the music information retrieval domain, advances have been made in areas suchas instrument identification tasks. Although much research has been completed on finding suitable features from which musical instruments can be represented, little work has focused on the violin’s complete timbre space and the effect a player has on the sound produced. This thesis specifically focuses on representing violin timbre such that a computer can detect the sound associated with a beginner from that of a professional standard player and detect typical beginner playing faults based on analysis of thewaveform signal only. Work has been limited to nine playing faults considered by professional musicians to be typical of beginner violinists. In order to achieve these goals, it was necessary to create a suitable dataset consisting of an equal number of beginner and professional standard legato notesamples. Feature extraction was then carried out by taking features from the time, spectral and cepstral domains. Selected features were then used to represent the samples in a classifier based on their efficacy at reflecting change within the violin’s timbrespace. The dataset underwent the scrutiny of professional standard stringed instrumentplayers via listening tests from which the target audience’s perception was captured. This information was verified and normalised before use as a priori labels in the classifier. Based on different feature representations, classification of violin notesreflecting perceived sound quality is presented in this thesis. The results show that it is possible to get a computer to determine between beginner and professional standard player legato notes and to detect playing faults. This thesis involves a thoroughunderstanding of violin playing, its perception, suitable analysis methods, feature extraction, representation and classification
Demetrios Constantine Dounis: the philosophy behind the methods
Thesis (D.M.A.)--Boston UniversityDemetrios Constantine Dounis was a concert violinist, mandolinist, conductor, and medical doctor. Above all, he was a teacher who developed some of the most innovative methods for violin playing of the 20th century. Dounis carefully observed the technique of the great masters of the violin, both privately and in concert, including Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, and Eugene Ysaye. His keen sense of observation played an important role in the development of his methods. Dounis's background in medicine helped to form the anatomical and physiological basis for his technical principles. Although it is often assumed that Dounis's teaching was exclusively technical, he referred to his technique as "Expressive Technique", signifying that a violinist without technical limitations is a violinist with inexhaustible expressive potential. An explanation of these principles are presented in this dissertation, according to Dounis's published works on technique, as well as the author's acquired understanding of the technique through the tutelage of former Dounis student, George Neikrug. This dissertation also explores Dounis's unique approach to teaching, his philosophy on practicing, as well as his methods of facilitating technical change for his students. The final chapter is an exploration into the cognitive aspects of achieving physical habit change in violin technique. The struggle to change the technical habits of violin playing is both physical and mental on many levels, and this difficulty is the main reason as to why Dounis's unique methods have often been met with resistance
The Impact of Violin Playing Techniques Specifically Designed to Simulate the Human Voice on Anxiety Reduction of College Students
The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of the violin played with techniques specifically designed to simulate the human voice on anxiety reduction of college students prior to stressful events. This study attempted to answer the following questions: (a) Does listening to violin music that simulates the human singing voice decrease anxiety levels in healthy individuals? (b) Does violin music that simulates a singer’s breath have a different effect on individuals’ self-reported anxiety levels than violin music that does not simulate a singer’s breath? Forty healthy undergraduate and graduate students participated in the study. Participants were assigned to the experimental or control group; assignments were predetermined based on the research schedules yet remained unknown to the participants. A one-way repeated-measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was computed to analyze the between-participants factor (i.e., experimental and control conditions) and the within-participants factor (i.e., time of measurement). Results indicated a statistically significant main effect for Time, while the main effect for ‘Group’ and the interaction effect were not statistically significant. Although this research study was limited by small sample size, personal coping skills, and past experience associates with the violin timbre, the ability of violin music to effectively reduce anxiety is undeniable regardless of whether or not it simulated the human singing voice. The better we understand the therapeutic potential and benefits of this fascinating instrument, the more convincing it will be for music therapists to use the violin clinically. Therefore, future studies in this topic area are encouraged
Violin Curriculum Incorporating Visual, Aural and Kinesthetic Perceptual Learning Modalities
abstract: To be a versatile violinist, one needs interdependence of aural, visual and kinesthetic skills. This thesis introduces aural, visual and kinesthetic learning modalities, and explores the way each is used in the Suzuki, Paul Rolland, Orff, Kodály, and Dalcroze methods, as well as in Edwin Gordon’s Musical Learning Theory. Other methods and pedagogical approaches were consulted and influential in developing the curriculum, such as the teaching of Mimi Zweig, but were not included in this paper either because of an overlap with other methods or insufficient comparable material. This paper additionally presents a new curriculum for teaching beginning violin that incorporates aural, visual, and kinesthetic learning in a systematic and comprehensive manner. It also details a sequenced progression to learn new repertoire and develop proficiency with rhythm, solfège, reading and writing musical notation, and left- and right-hand technique.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Music 201
Style and interpretation in the nineteenth‐century German violin school with particular reference to the three sonatas for pianoforte and violin by Johannes Brahms
From the mid nineteenth to early twentieth centuries the performance of Brahms’s music was intricately bound with the performance style of artists within his circle. In violin playing Joseph Joachim (1831‐1907) was the foremost exponent of the German violin school. The stylistic characteristics of this school, which included selective use of a pre‐modern style of vibrato, prominent application of portamento, predominantly legato approach to bow strokes and the frequent and noticeable modification of tempo and rhythm, were considered indispensable expressive devices by Joachim, Brahms and others associated with this circle. While the use of such devices in the nineteenth century has been well documented in published research over the past 15 years or so, there is currently much contention about the extent to which such devices were employed. Importantly, in addition to written documentation and solo recordings, this thesis examines recordings of chamber ensembles—whose members had a connection to the German violin school and/or Brahms—that as yet have been little consulted as primary source evidence. Spectrogram analyses of many of these recordings provide definitive evidence of vibrato that was narrow in width, fast, and applied selectively. Other new evidence in my thesis strongly supports the hypothesis that portamento, tempo modification and rhythmic alteration were used to a much greater extent than today, and this significantly enhanced the rhetorical features in Brahms’s music. A detailed Performance Edition with Critical Notes about Brahms’s three Sonatas for Pianoforte and Violin Opp. 78, 100 and 108, applies the evidence elucidated throughout the thesis
Style and interpretation in the nineteenth‐century German violin school with particular reference to the three sonatas for pianoforte and violin by Johannes Brahms
From the mid nineteenth to early twentieth centuries the performance of Brahms’s music was intricately bound with the performance style of artists within his circle. In violin playing Joseph Joachim (1831‐1907) was the foremost exponent of the German violin school. The stylistic characteristics of this school, which included selective use of a pre‐modern style of vibrato, prominent application of portamento, predominantly legato approach to bow strokes and the frequent and noticeable modification of tempo and rhythm, were considered indispensable expressive devices by Joachim, Brahms and others associated with this circle. While the use of such devices in the nineteenth century has been well documented in published research over the past 15 years or so, there is currently much contention about the extent to which such devices were employed. Importantly, in addition to written documentation and solo recordings, this thesis examines recordings of chamber ensembles—whose members had a connection to the German violin school and/or Brahms—that as yet have been little consulted as primary source evidence. Spectrogram analyses of many of these recordings provide definitive evidence of vibrato that was narrow in width, fast, and applied selectively. Other new evidence in my thesis strongly supports the hypothesis that portamento, tempo modification and rhythmic alteration were used to a much greater extent than today, and this significantly enhanced the rhetorical features in Brahms’s music. A detailed Performance Edition with Critical Notes about Brahms’s three Sonatas for Pianoforte and Violin Opp. 78, 100 and 108, applies the evidence elucidated throughout the thesis
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Continuity and Change in Eugène Ysaÿe’s Six Sonatas, Op. 27, for Solo Violin
The Six Sonatas, Op. 27, for Solo Violin by the Belgian violinist and composer Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931), written in 1923/24, are increasingly adopted into the standard repertoire of violinists. Ysaÿe saw them as containing his legacy to future generations of violinists and composers and also as a statement of his aesthetic identity. However, not much research has been done on the aesthetics reflected in them. Yet, a greater awareness of Ysaÿe’s aesthetics will add to the understanding of this important historical figure who did so much to popularise French and Belgian music of the turn of the twentieth century and very much identified with the circle of composers around César Franck.
This thesis focusses on Ysaÿe’s relationship with music history as represented in Op. 27. It explores his aesthetics, in particular his attitude to the past, present and future as well as his insistence on the continuity of history. Part I examines Ysaÿe’s historical and biographical context as well as his aesthetic predilections. It particularly focuses on composers to whom he was close, notably the Franckists, as well as on the violin tradition of which he was part, with an emphasis on Henri Vieuxtemps. As each Sonata is dedicated to a violinist of the generation after Ysaÿe, their personalities and playing styles are also discussed. Part II turns to the Sonatas themselves and explores ways in which Ysaÿe engages with past and contemporaneous composers, notably J. S. Bach, César Franck and Claude Debussy, as well as with the violin tradition and the possible influence of the dedicatees on their Sonata. It also demonstrates Ysaÿe’s contribution to music history, especially to the development of the technical and expressive possibilities of his instrument
String fundamentals for the non-string-playing conductor
There are presently few resources on stringed-instrument fundamentals geared specifically toward the conductor who does not have string-playing experience. This paper is designed to fill this void through an explanation of string fundamentals, which the non-string-playing conductor should comprehend before addressing a string section on the podium. In addition to covering string fundamentals, this paper includes options for designing bowings and case studies of W. A. Mozart’s Divertimento in F major, K.138 and Edward Elgar’s Serenade for Strings in E minor, Op. 20
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