Re: The bach Choral Dilemma

[Woojay Jeon <wjjeon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

To study stream segregation effects, I would recommend Bach's Fugues or
"Goldberg Variations" for solo clavier (or piano). Most of the pieces here
are composed of three or so "voices" that are played simultaneously. If you
listen to the same composition played by different artists, the music can
sound dramatically different according to how the artists control the
"balancing" among the voices, thereby generating different melodic streams
even when using the same score (as with many other types of music as well).
A good example is the Goldberg Variations. If you listen to Variation 19,
for instance, played by (the virtuoso) Gould (1955) and (the somewhat more
lyric) Schiff (1983), you will notice that a significant difference can be
found in the "streams" created by each of them. In fact, I think it might be
interesting to study the things that artists do to generate different
streams -- Note intensity (playing harder the notes pertaining to a
particular voice), although certainly the biggest factor, is probably not
all that counts (subtleties with pedalling, inflections in timing, etc.).
Perhaps this could offer some more insight on how humans "stream".

Woojay Jeon


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bo Gehring" <bo@POLICH.COM>
To: <AUDITORY@LISTS.MCGILL.CA>
Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 10:40 AM
Subject: Re: The bach Choral Dilemma


> This would refer to the Ma and Heifetz recordings, respectively,
> or do you have other favorites?
>
> I for one would be very happy to learn the CD numbers for all these
> excellent citations provided by the list members, surely among
> the most expert of listeners.
>
> All the best,
>
> Bo Gehring
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Piet Vos" <vos@NICI.KUN.NL>
> To: <AUDITORY@LISTS.MCGILL.CA>
> Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 4:56 AM
> Subject: The bach Choral Dilemma
>
>
> >
> > Among the most beautiful and perceptually convincing examples of
> > melodic streaming certainly figure JS Bach's  suites for solo cello
> > and sonatas & partita's for solo violin.
> >
> > Piet G. Vos
> > --
> > Piet G. Vos
> > section Perception NICI, U. Nijmegen
> > P.O.Box 9104
> > 6500 HE Nijmegen NL
> > tel: +31 24 36126 31/20; fax: +31 24 361 60 66; vos@nici.kun.nl
> > home-page: http://www.nici.kun.nl/~vos
> >
> > et altissimus humilissimum facere debet
> >
> >
>