Coordination between players in musical performance

Abstract

This research is concerned with the timing of actions in the production of music. Musical skill presents a critical challenge for theories of information aquisition and action planning, as any comprehensive theory must be able to-explain complex as well as simple behaviour. Nor can a reductionist explanation be validly generalised to more complex behaviour, as there are qualitative changes in the development of skill.

The first section of chapter one introduces this problem and considers the phenomenon of music, concluding that it is a celebration of intersubjectivity and principles of organisation. The second section reviews the various models that have been proposed to account for the serial ordering and timing problems involved in playing music. The third section looks at the role of the conductor in coordinating musicians and communicating details of timing structure. The final section presents the experimental approach and methodology of chapters two to four.

The second chapter examines the interaction of multiple sources of timing information, concluding that the normal role of the conductor is to provide general, rather than precise, timing information, and that musicians normally look to each other for precise synchrony.

The third chapter examines the nature of the beat to see how the conductor communicates a series of points in time with a baton in continuous motion. The feature of the baton trajectory that most closely corresponds to the beat proves to be the Y-axis minima. It is also established that the underlying rhythm does not correspond precisely to the beat, but stands in a structured relationship to it.

The fourth chapter looks at the principles of communication to see how the conductor tells the musicians how and when to play, and concludes that this is done by holding constant all parameters of mavement except those that are used in direct proportion to communicate the essential details. Exactly the same principle is adopted by the musicians in actualising these requirements* Chapter five introduces the second series of experiments, reviews the problems of modelling the musical situation, outlines the principal questions dealt with in chapters six to eight, and describes the methodology in common to these chapters.

Chapter six examines the detection of visual-auditory asynchrony, and proves that the subjects would first select an offset and then replicate it, indicating that this is in fact a two-stage process.

Chapter seven finds that if subjects are required to synchronise with an isochronic target series they will spontaneously group their responses. It is suggested that this reflects the operation of the planning and motor system.

Chapter eight reports on four experiments. The first compared information modalities, concluding that subjects can track an auditory series more accurately than a visual one, and, where both are present and offset, will track the auditory series in preference. It is suggested that this underlies the finding of chapter two. It also emerges that entrainment and synchronisation are separate processes, which supports the finding of chapter six. The second experiment analysed the variance of grouped taps and discovered that, while taps were grouped, the variance was homogeneous. The third experiment found that when subjects had to attempt to minimise asynchrony by actively tapping a switch, this entailed additional error variance as compared to their passive judgement of asynchrony in chapter six. The fourth experiment goes further into the relationship between tempo and accuracy that is observed in several earlier chapters.

Chapter nine discusses the problem posed by the study of music for a reductionist and dualistic model of science. The historical development and context of this model is reviewed. It becomes apparent that this model has only a limited domain of applicability, and that we are consequently engaged in a paradigm revolution. The emergent paradigm, based on an ecological philosophy, is outlined.