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Comparative analysis of expressivity in recorded violin performances. Study of the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin by J. S. Bach

Title Comparative analysis of expressivity in recorded violin performances. Study of the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin by J. S. Bach
Publication Type Master Thesis
Year of Publication 2007
Authors Puiggròs, M.
preprint/postprint document files/publications/26e9e7-MasterThesis07-mpuiggros.pdf
Abstract Expressive performance characterization is traditionally based on the analysis of the main differences between performances, players, playing styles and emotional intentions. This work addresses the characterization of expressive violin performances by means of analysing audio recordings played by professional violinists. This study compares the performers’ interpretations of a piece, a piece which might be considered the most important in violin history "Sonatas and Partitas for solo Violin" by Bach. The importance is given by the relevance of their composer, J.S. Bach, as by the shining difficulty in its interpretation. In regard to the data we will work from real audio recordings. This allows the possibility of analysing the most accomplished performers, obtaining robust results by extrapolating the findings to different performers, and comparing their particular styles. In terms of audio descriptors, we will use state-of-the-art tools to extract them from the audio recordings. Thus, the work aims at finding some expressive behaviour using the audio descriptions extracted from the tools. One of the main results is the finding of a common behaviour at the end of phrases and in the repeated phrases.