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This article takes an in depth look into individuality and individual differences in music performance (I hope it's a scholarly article because I found it on google scholar).

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Department of Cognitive Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

The ability to discriminate among individuals is crucial in species, such as humans, that place a premium on kin recognition ( Tang-Martinez, 2001). Identity cues used by humans comprise not only visual cues, including relatively static cues such as facial features ( Carey, 1992) or dynamic displays such as gait and walking ( Blake and Shiffrar, 2007), but also auditory cues such as voices ( Belin et al., 2004), clapping patterns ( Repp, 1987), or even tones which follow temporal patterns similar to clapping ( Flach et al., 2004).

Cues to individuality can also be communicated efficiently through music. Indeed, along with emotion and structural cues, artistic individuality seems to be a key element conveyed in music performance. Over the last few decades, a growing body of research has examined issues related to individuality in musical performance (e.g., Repp, 1992; see Sloboda, 2000 for a review). Yet, the means by which individuality is musically expressed and perceived have remained poorly elucidated until recently. Hence, the aim of this Research Topic is to provide a forum for interdisciplinary research broadly centered on individuality and individual differences in music performance. This goal was successfully achieved, and the 14 contributed articles illustrate the depth and breadth of the topic, with themes ranging from personality correlates of flow proneness among pianists to unique "fingerprints" in the singing voice.

Setting the tone for the Research Topic, Wöllner (2013) emphasized in an opinion piece the importance of using averaged features, representing the mean of a large sample of performances by different performers, rather than computer-generated "deadpan" reproductions as the baseline for quantifying individuality in music performance. On a related issue, Farbood and Upham (2013) compared listener judgments of musical tension obtained for a recording of a Schubert song and its computer-generated harmonic reduction, showing that differences in perceived tension changes between the two excerpts highlighted interpretive choices in performance.

Historically, a substantial body of music performance research has focused on piano performance (see Gabrielsson, 2003 for a review), and this trend was maintained here. Van Vugt et al. (2013) explored the individuality associated with small but systematic temporal deviations in musical scales played by pianists, showing that although human listeners were not able to distinguish these "temporal fingerprints" by ear, high accuracy rates were obtained by classifiers. Bernays and Traube (2014) investigated individuality in pianists' performance of timbral nuances, and their analysis revealed that pianists exhibited unique profiles associated with different sonorities, while at the same time displaying common patterns of dynamics and articulation for each timbral color. Marin and Bhattacharya (2013) identified emotional intelligence and amount of daily practice as predictors of individual differences in proneness for flow among pianists, but did not observe a correlation between flow and high achievement in piano performance. Their study was the object of a commentary by Srinivasan and Gingras (2014) exploring the putative role of control and attention in flow states in music performance.

Two articles focused on the harpsichord, another keyboard instrument that, unlike the piano, has been relatively neglected so far in music performance research. Gingras et al. (2013) invited harpsichordists to record three different pieces and identified global markers of individuality, such as performers consistently using a more detached articulation across all three pieces, as well as associations between the note-by-note expressive profiles of different performers that subsisted across pieces or expressive parameters. In a follow-up to an earlier study on organ performance ( Gingras et al., 2011), Koren and Gingras (2014) investigated whether listeners could reliably identify harpsichordists playing short excerpts from two different pieces. They found that musicians were more accurate than non-musicians, and only musicians performed above chance when matching the two different pieces to the same performer.

Voice production and perception was a major area of interest, with five contributions. Hutchins and Moreno (2013) proposed a new model to account for the variability between vocal perception and performance abilities in the general population. Their Linked Dual Representation model, which posits that vocal information can be encoded either as a symbolic or as a motoric representation, leads to a series of intriguing predictions about speech imitation, singing, and response timing. In a similar vein, Yang et al. (2013) investigated the coexistence of perceptual pitch deficits with pitch production deficits in music and in Mandarin speech in both amusics and tone agnosics, and their results suggest that the perception-production relationship for pitch among individuals may be domain-dependent. Trehub et al. (2013) confirmed the presence of individual cross-modal signatures in maternal speech and singing which can be discerned by both adults and infants, enabling listeners to successfully link recordings of unfamiliar speaking or singing voices to silent videos of the talkers or singers. Two articles focused more specifically on emotional singing: Quinto et al. (2014) examined the use of facial movements to communicate emotion, confirming the central role of facial expressions in vocal emotional communication while at the same time highlighting individual differences between singers, while Livingstone et al. (2014) analyzed the influence of vocal training and acting experience on the perception of vocal quality and emotional genuineness. They reported that acting experience was associated both with a decrease in voice quality and with an increase in perceived genuineness.

Finally, two studies addressed applied research topics related to individual differences in music performance. Williamon et al. (2014) designed and tested two simulated performance environments to help performers cope with issues related to performance anxiety, and discussed potential implications for performance training. Fritz et al. (2013) showed that participants' mood during exercise machine workout is enhanced more strongly with individualized musical feedback modulated by the participants' movements than with passive music listening.

In summary, this Research Topic both confirms and extends earlier findings, while at the same time opening up new avenues of research, especially in keyboard and voice performance. More generally, it highlights the cross-fertilizing potential of applying a multidisciplinary approach to the study of individuality in music performance, emphasizing the importance of fostering collaborations among musicologists, computer scientists, psychologists, neuroscientists, and the performers themselves.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

References

Gabrielsson, A. (2003). Music performance research at the millenium. Psychol. Music 31, 221-272. doi: 10.1177/03057356030313002
CrossRef Full Text
Srinivasan, N., and Gingras, B. (2014). Emotional intelligence predicts individual differences in proneness for flow among musicians: the role of control and distributed attention. Front. Psychol. 5:608. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00608
CrossRef Full Text
Keywords: music performance, individuality, individual differences, piano performance, vocal emotions

Citation: Gingras B (2014) Individuality in music performance: introduction to the research topic. Front. Psychol. 5:661. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00661

Received: 27 May 2014; Accepted: 09 June 2014;
Published online: 25 June 2014.

Edited and reviewed by: Eddy J. Davelaar, Birkbeck College, UK

Copyright © 2014 Gingras. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: brunogingras@gmail.com

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Individuality in music performance: introduction to the research topic

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This article take a in depth look into how to quantify individuality/

studying artistic expression with averaging procedures (I hope it's a scholarly article because I found it on google scholar).

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In artistic fields such as western music performance of the past 200 years, individuality is highly valued as a performer's expression of his or her aesthetic concepts. Yet characterizations of individual performance qualities have largely remained on a descriptive level. In this opinion article, it is argued that if researchers aim at quantifying individuality, then the only feasible approach is to determine the baseline from which individual performances diverge. Rather than using a computer-generated "deadpan performance" with no expressive features, this baseline should refer to average features comprising a number of different human performances in a given cultural context.

Averages as Prototypes

Research in cognitive psychology has shown that people prefer average features in visual and auditory modalities. Averaged human faces ( Galton, 1878; Langlois and Roggman, 1990) and voice utterances ( Bruckert et al., 2010) were rated as more attractive. Averaging procedures typically result in even, smooth visual displays or sounds that show no extremes in any feature. Psychological theories suggest that people construct mental prototypes based on a large number of individual objects or people they encounter in their lives-an idea already expressed by Kant (1790/1995) in Critique of Judgment. Averaged individual features can thus approximate mental prototypes within an epoch or culture. Displays with prototypical characteristics conform to people's expectations and enable more fluent processing, which in turn may cause a cognitive bias for averages ( Rubenstein et al., 1999). Objects that are easily processed are thus often perceived to be more attractive. This bias resembles the enhanced ease of processing for repeatedly presented stimuli as demonstrated in the well-known mere exposure effect.

Expressiveness Indicates Individuality

These advantages for averaged features stand in remarkable contrast to notions of artistic and musical individuality. Listeners typically do expect more from a concert or a recording than a smooth and even performance. In popular music genres, the sound of a singer's voice, of the instruments and the mix of audio tracks are often aimed at conveying a distinct, individual character (cf. Frith, 1998). In classical genres, emphasis is laid on subtle timing perturbations and fluctuations in dynamic intensity. Sudden delays or changes in intensity that do not conform to prototypical expectations may cause surprise and other emotional reactions ( Huron, 2006) and reveal the individual performer's musical intentions. Research along these lines has for a long time studied expressive timing deviations from a non-expressive metronomic version. These timing deviations constitute an individual expressive microstructure (for an overview, see Clarke, 1995). Although it can be revealing to analyze the lengthening of note values in a final ritard for a number of different performers or for historical recordings during the course of the 20th century, no statements can be drawn about the degree of individuality in these performances. In other words, an expressive microstructure of a performance does not reveal per se whether the performance will be perceived as being individual. In earlier decades of the 20th century, for instance, musicians typically employed large rubati ( Timmers, 2007) in accordance with listeners' expectations of that time, while nowadays these variations would not conform to prototypical listening expectations. Furthermore, timing deviations are to some degree also caused by human physiological constraints ( Loehr and Palmer, 2009); performers are thus not able to render a perfect mechanical, metronomically exact performance. For these reasons, deviations from so-called deadpan renditions are no valid indicator of individuality.

Perceptions of Individuality May Diverge from Quality Judgments and Behavioral Advantages

In contrast to many other forms of art, musical performances can be averaged according to the main quantifiable dimensions of duration, dynamic intensity, and pitch. MIDI technology allows for both relatively simple analysis of these parameters from a given set of individual performances as well as synthesis, which results in an averaged performance approximating mental prototypes. In a seminal study by Repp (1997), experienced listeners ranked the quality of artificial piano performances with averaged timing patterns higher as compared to actual performances with individual timing. This outcome was obtained both for student and professional pianists, some of their performances showing large deviations from the average timing pattern. At the same time, individuality of averaged performances was ranked lower. These results suggest that averaged musical performances are preferred in one dimension (quality) as prototypes, while on the other hand, they may be perceived as somewhat "dull" in comparison with some highly individual performances.

In a recent study, we asked whether quantitatively averaged point-light displays of orchestral conductors are perceived as prototypes and lead to advantages in behavioral and evaluative experimental tasks ( Wöllner et al., 2012). While conductors shape musical performances according to their individual expressive intentions, they also need to organize the balance of the orchestral sound and synchronize the timing by means of gestures. In order to be recognizable to a large number of different musicians, there are thus constraints and limits to individuality. In our study, twelve orchestral conductors were recorded with a 3D motion capture system while they conducted typical four-beat measures with metronome-controlled timing. Based on the horizontal and vertical dimensions, averages were created and presented as point-light displays to participants in an experiment. Their task was to tap to the beat and to evaluate the conductors in terms of quality, clarity of beat, conventionality, and expressiveness. Our analyses revealed advantages for prototypes in action responses, which adds to previous research using perceptual judgments of attractiveness or quality. Participants' synchronization with averaged conducting displays was more consistent (reduced tapping variability) and more synchronous (smaller asynchronies) compared with displays of individual conductors. Kinematic analyses revealed reduced normalized jerk in averaged conducting, indicating smoother movements than for individual displays. Averages were also judged to be more conventional, which demonstrates that participants indeed perceived them as prototypes. Beat clarity of conducting gestures and quality, in contrast to Repp's (1997) findings, were not significantly higher for averaged compared with individual movements. Yet individual conductors were perceived to be more expressive. As a consequence, the predictability and smoothness of prototypical movements enhanced action responses, given that they were easier to perceive and process, while individual expressiveness was reduced. For fields with transitive gestures such as orchestral conducting, then, experienced individuals need to balance the functionality of their profession with the demand of conveying their distinct expressive intentions.

Quantifying Individuality

Apart from the above mentioned investigations of expressive timing deviations using MIDI technology, studies of musical individuality may focus more on musical timbre, pitch and intensity. Methods used by Bruckert et al. (2010) for acoustical morphing of the human voice could be employed to investigate individual musical timbres. Musicians are able to shape the timbre of certain instruments to some extent. Similarly, for singers as well as for instruments without fixed pitch such as many wind and string instruments, averaged deviations from notated pitch in equidistant temperament could be analyzed. The sharpening or flattening of tones may reveal certain expressive intentions of individual performers. Intensity can be measured with MIDI technology or by acoustical analyses. Studies have shown some dependencies between timing and intensity fluctuations (cf. Parncutt, 2003), and it would furthermore be revealing to analyze relationships with timbre and pitch in a systematic way.

When measuring the four musical dimensions of timing, intensity, timbre, and pitch to capture an individual musician's "fingerprint" of his or her performance, researchers may consider three relatively novel approaches in the field. First, as argued above, performances can be averaged according to these dimensions. In comparison to the analysis-by-synthesis approach that has been employed primarily for the study of the human voice ( Sundberg, 2006), averaged performance dimensions are not artificially generated to produce a naturally sounding voice or instrument. Rather, distances to a synthesized performance based on actual renditions are used to estimate individuality. Averaging and synthesizing music may, as a caveat, result in the loss of some musical detail present in individual performances, and the averaged timbre may even sound unnatural, since the averaging procedure smoothes out extremes. It is also worth considering whether one dimension in question should be investigated while keeping the others constant. Repp (1997) only averaged timing patterns and compared them to individual performances while using the same timbre, intensity and pitches for all examples he presented to participants. Researchers can thus measure continuous deviations from an averaged performance in any dimension or combination of dimensions. Second, rather than only employing perceptual judgments, action-specific effects should be investigated. Synchronization studies offer a particularly valid research paradigm in the field of music. People may behave differently to stimuli that conform to their mental prototypes, even if they are not aware of these effects. Therefore, it is intriguing to combine perceptual and behavioral tasks for analyzing the dimensions that distinguish individual performances from others. Third, musical performers may take part in research studies both as musicians and listeners/observers of their own performances to investigate sense of agency for individual musical characteristics. In a study using motion capture of a Mendelssohn string symphony ( Wöllner, 2012), orchestral conductors were able to identify point-light displays of their own conducting movements, while the corresponding short musical excerpts or point-light displays of gait did not contain sufficient cues for distinguishing their individual performances from those of other conductors.

Conclusion

Individual artistic expression should be considered in the boundaries of a given cultural context. It can be defined as deviation from a prototypical exemplar within this context. Research suggests that averages composed of a number of individual objects or performances approximate people's mental prototypes. These prototypes have no universal validity, since cultural norms vary and change considerably across time even for fairly specific questions such as what is considered to be an appropriate performance of a musical piece. The curious research finding that prototypes are only preferred in some dimensions such as quality-while they are rated lower in important dimensions such as expressiveness-should be given more attention. It may well be that even for performing arts there are limits to individuality as soon as overall quality and mastery of a technical skill come into question. Finally, the development of individual performance manners should be addressed. A great deal of learning occurs implicitly by imitating influential others or by trying to reach the standard of a given prototype, and individual intentions need to be well balanced with cultural norms.

References

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to quantify individuality in music performance? Studying artistic expression with averaging procedures

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In artistic fields such as western music performance of the past 200 years, individuality is highly valued as a performer's expression of his or her aesthetic concepts. Yet characterizations of individual performance qualities have largely remained on a descriptive level.