Measuring and Enhancing Expressive Musical Performance with Digital Instruments: Pilot Study and Research Workshop

伦敦大学玛丽皇后区数字音乐中心（C4DM）成员与多机构AHRC音乐表演创作实践研究中心（CMPCP）之间的合作项目解决了以下问题：* 数字技术如何帮助解释是什么使表演表现力？*对表现力的理解如何指导新乐器和技术的创造？两个新兴的趋势，如果结合起来，在音乐表演实践的变革潜力。首先，最新的数字乐器以前所未有的细节捕捉表演者的动作，允许对结果声音的每个方面进行连续，精确的控制。第二，音乐表演作为一种创造性行为的研究在音乐学中占据了核心地位，表演者和学者在理论和实践之间产生了活跃的互动。音乐和技术长期以来一直联系在一起，但技术本身并不是音乐创造力的驱动力。通过扩展，更多的控制维度并不能使数字乐器更具表现力，过于复杂的界面甚至会成为表现力的障碍。新一代数字乐器的设计，需要演奏家和演奏学者的共同努力，以满足音乐家的创作需求。另一方面，数字技术在音乐表演的测量和建模中也是不可或缺的。对执行者行为的控制性定量研究补充了访谈和问卷调查等定性技术，以产生一个详细的，平衡的绩效实践画面。数码乐器，包括传统的原声乐器，加上电子传感器，可以提供有关演奏者身体姿态的宝贵数据来源。本项目通过两个主要部分促进演奏学者和数码音乐研究人员之间的合作和知识交流：首先，将使用传感器增强的原声钢琴进行试点研究。这项研究将专注于表达意图和键盘上的物理手势之间的联系，它将成为未来扩展的跨学科合作的模型。我们将发表一篇关于结果的评论文章，为长期以来关于物理键盘技术（通常称为"触摸"）的本质的争论做出贡献。第二，我们将在2012年6月举行的计算机音乐建模与检索（CMMR）会议上举办一次研究网络活动，作为特别论文会议。该活动将吸引来自音乐学和技术学科的学者，博士后和学生，目的是确定共同感兴趣的领域。随后将举行一场音乐会，邀请作曲家、表演者和音乐学家提交作品。我们将鼓励表演者和学者参加论文会议和表演，在每次活动中推广广泛的观点。活动结束后，项目研究人员将起草一份文件，概述会议中出现的潜在合作领域。拟议的研究将由C4DM的PI Andrew McPherson在博士后研究人员的协助下指导。C4DM的共同研究者Elaine Chew和伦敦国王学院/CMPCP的丹尼尔利奇威尔金森将协助设计试点研究和组织特别会议。C4DM和CMPCP的所有成员将被邀请就数字技术如何建模和增强表现力提出想法。该研究开发项目产生或影响的长期影响包括动态适应表演者能力和品味的乐器，非专家在音乐上表达自己的界面，新的教学技术以及表演中形状，措辞和手势的数学模型。

This collaborative project between members of the Centre for Digital Music (C4DM) at Queen Mary, University of London and the multi-institution AHRC Research Centre for Musical Performance as Creative Practice (CMPCP) addresses the following questions:* How can digital technology help explain what makes a performance expressive?* How can an understanding of expressive performance guide the creation of new musical instruments and technologies?Two emerging trends, if combined, hold the potential for transformative change in musical performance practice. First, the latest digital musical instruments capture the performer's actions with unprecedented detail, allowing continuous, precise control over every aspect of the resulting sound. Second, the study of musical performance as a creative act has taken a central role in musicology, with performers and scholars producing a vibrant interaction between theory and practice.Music and technology have long been linked, but technology alone is not a driver of musical creativity. By extension, more dimensions of control do not make a digital instrument more expressive, and excessively complex interfaces can even become an impediment to expressive performance. The perspectives of performers and performance scholars are required to shape a new generation of digital instruments that are ideally suited to musicians' creative requirements.On the other hand, digital technology is indispensable in the measurement and modelling of musical performance. Controlled quantitative studies of performers' actions complement qualitative techniques such as interviews and questionnaires to produce a detailed, balanced picture of performance practice. Digital musical instruments, including traditional acoustic instruments augmented with electronic sensors, provide a valuable data source concerning a performer's physical gestures.This project promotes collaboration and knowledge exchange between performance scholars and digital music researchers through two main components:First, a pilot study will be conducted using a sensor-enhanced acoustic piano. The study will focus on the link between expressive intent and physical gesture at the keyboard, and it will serve as a model for future extended cross-disciplinary collaborations. A refereed article will be published on the results, contributing to longstanding debates on the nature of physical keyboard technique (commonly known as "touch").Second, a research networking event will take place as a special paper session of the Computer Music Modeling and Retrieval (CMMR) conference in June 2012. The event will draw academics, postdocs and students from musicological and technological disciplines with the goal of identifying areas of shared interest. A concert performance will be held afterward with submissions invited from composers, performers and musicologists. Performers and scholars will be encouraged to attend both paper session and performance, promoting a wide range of perspectives at each event. Following the event, the project investigators will draft a document outlining potential areas of collaboration emerging from the session.The proposed research will be directed by PI Andrew McPherson of C4DM with assistance from a postdoctoral researcher. Co-investigators Elaine Chew of C4DM and Daniel Leech-Wilkinson of King's College London/CMPCP will assist in the design of the pilot study and the organisation of the special session. All members of C4DM and CMPCP will be invited to contribute ideas on how digital technology can model and enhance expressive performance. Long-term impacts emerging from or influenced by this Research Development project include musical instruments that dynamically adapt to the abilities and tastes of the performer, interfaces for non-experts to express themselves musically, new pedagogical techniques and mathematical models of shape, phrasing and gesture in performance.