TauG-guidance of transients in expressive musical performance
Schogler, Benjaman Pepping, Gert-Jan Lee, David N.
Schogler, Benjaman
Pepping, Gert-Jan
Lee, David N.
Abstract
The sounds in expressive musical performance, and the movements that produce them, offer insight into temporal patterns in the brain that generate expression. To gain understanding of these brain patterns, we analyzed two types of transient sounds, and the movements that produced them, during a vocal duet and a bass solo. The transient sounds studied were inter-tone f0(t)-glides (the continuous change in fundamental frequency, f0(t), when gliding from one tone to the next), and attack intensity-glides (the continuous rise in sound intensity when attacking, or initiating, a tone). The temporal patterns of the inter-tone f0(t)-glides and attack intensity-glides, and of the movements producing them, all conformed to the mathematical function, τG(t) (called tauG), predicted by General Tau Theory, and assumed to be generated in the brain. The values of the parameters of the τG(t) function were modulated by the performers when they modulated musical expression. Thus the τG(t) function appears to be a fundamental of brain activity entailed in the generation of expressive temporal patterns of movement and sound.
Keywords
brain, movement control, acoustics, Tau coupling, musical expression, General Tau Theory
Date
2008
Type
Journal article
Journal
Experimental Brain Research
Book
Volume
189
Issue
3
Page Range
361-372
Article Number
ACU Department
School of Behavioural and Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences