Study of the technical and expressive qualities of piano hand gestures based on the comparison of performance between two pianists.
I determined features of music and motion based on significant qualities of the piano technque, indicated by experts. I calculated and visualized the features for different partitions of the played exercises and pieces (measures, or larger parts corresponding to structural/harmonic transitions).
Piano technique comparisons are based ontechnical exercises (scales and arpeggios).
Expression in performance is explored by comparing two interpretations by the pianists of Prelude in C Minor, BWV.999 by J.S. Bach. Specifically, an inexpressive performance of the Prelude was used to control expressiveness in the pianist’s expressive performance.
Visualizations of technical features computed in the performances of the two pianists capture the differences in their techniques.
Visualizations of sound intensity variation (dynamics) of the Prelude performances by the second pianist reveal the pianist's expressive intent in the performance’s dynamic contour.
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note accuracy
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tempo & tempo variation
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dynamics, articulation
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finger control
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hand control
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hand coordination
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Shoulder - elbow - wrist motion pattern inspection
The features are defined and calculated for synchronized multimodal piano performance data (motion and MIDI).
MIDI should be aligned with the digital score.
--------------> The code will soon be updated to include the motion features and link to the performance datasets