Re: [AUDITORY] Note durations in music

[Bob Masta <audio@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 17 Jun 2013 at 9:48, Edward Large wrote:

> Hi Ani and list,
> 
> I can't seem to think of any paper that has done such measurements systematically.
> But I would caution that notated duration in music is fundamentally about onset-onset
> time, not onset-offset time. So, while studying midi renderings (or other 
> notation-related representations) would provide an answer to this question, it would
> be of questionable value.The only way to get a reasonable answer would be to
> study audio recordings of performances. 

MIDI encodes onset and offset separately.  However, in this 
context "offset" should be thought of more like "key 
release". If the selected instrument is, say, an organ (no 
note decay), the encodings should give correct timings as-
is.  But for instruments with lots of decay (tonal 
percussion, struck or plucked strings, etc) the perceptual 
offset may come sooner then the key release.  

MIDI also includes an optional separate sustain, which 
would mess with offset times.

One neat thing about MIDI is that you can easily edit the 
MIDI file to change instruments and settings "after the 
fact" of the original recording.  So you could force all 
instruments to be non-decay types, and listen again to make 
sure the result seems acceptably faithful to the original. 

Best regards,

Bob Masta

 
> Ed
> 
> Edward Large, Ph.D.
> Professor of Complex Systems & Brain Sciences
> Florida Atlantic University
> www.ccs.fau.edu/~large
> 
> 
> On Jun 12, 2013, at 4:07 PM, "Patel, Aniruddh D." <a.patel@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> > Dear list,
> >  
> > I?m trying to find papers which report measurements of two aspects of note duration in solo instrumental monophonic music (e.g., recordings of solo violin, cello, trumpet, clarinet, flute, etc. ? not piano, guitar, or other instruments that can play multiple notes simultaneously).
> >  
> > 1.       The average duration of notes in a piece
> > 2.       A histogram of note durations in the piece
> >  
> > Thus for example this solo cello prelude by JS Bach last about 4 minutes and contains N notes (anybody know?), so the average note duration in this piece is about N/240 notes/sec.  
> >  
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtLKjeEssAo
> >  
> > If one could measure the duration of each note in this recording, then one could plot the histogram of note durations in the piece.
> >  
> > Is anyone aware of such data for any solo monophonic instrument?  Musical style doesn?t matter (can be classical, folk, etc.).  
> > 
> > Thanks,
> >  
> > Ani Patel
> >  
> >  
> > Aniruddh D. Patel
> > Associate Professor
> > Dept. of Psychology
> > Tufts University
> > 490 Boston Ave.
> > Medford, MA 02115
> >  
> > a.patel@xxxxxxxxx
> > http://ase.tufts.edu/psychology/peoplePatel.htm
> >  
> >  
> >  
> >  
> > 
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> 

Bob Masta
 
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