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project: Techniques for the analysis of expressive gestures in musical performance
Subject Domains
- Music
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Tools
- Adobe Photoshop LE
- Steinberg Wavelab
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Content Types
- Sound
- Still Image/Graphics
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| Project start date: 2002-04 | Project end date: 2003-03 |
Classical music is traditionally studied from notation; but music sounds, and how it sounds depends on performance style. The project developed techniques to show what constitutes a performance style. Expressive gestures in sound that characterise personal styles of playing and singing were identified and analysed in detail, using computer visualisation techniques for sound analysis. Their deployment and function in different musical contexts were examined. The process of style change over 100 years of recorded music can be seen as resulting from the changing constituents of personal styles. Original 78rpm discs were used as source materials, and transfers of some of these performances are available from the King's Sound Archive website: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/music/ksa/ksa_sound.html.
| Methods used | Category |
|---|---|
| 2d scanning and photography | Data capture |
| Sound analysis | Data analysis |
| Sound compression | Data structuring and enhancement |
| Sound editing | Practice-led research |
| Sound editing | Data structuring and enhancement |
| Sound encoding | Data structuring and enhancement |
| Sound recording | Practice-led research |
| Sound recording | Data capture |
All the sound files derive from original shellac discs held in the King's Sound Archive at King's College, London, where they can be accessed via the Department of Music. They were transferred to digital format by Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, using a range of stylus shapes and sizes, a variable speed turntable, an Elberg equalising pre-amp, a Flying Cow A/D converter, CEDAR de-clicker and de-crackler noise reduction units, and a Lynx L22 digital sound card in a Novatech PC. Conversion to mp3 was done in Steinberg Wavelab 4.0 software. Selected label scans were also provided.
The project generated a collection of digisations of early 20th-century musical performances originally issued on 78rpm discs. Most are performances of songs by Franz Schubert. The original discs are out of copyright in the UK and the transfers, presented in mp3 format, are freely available for download, listening and study. The AHDS and the project author retain copies in uncompressed .WAV format for consultation upon request.
Production of compressed .MP3 files from uncompressed .WAV files from analogue recordings for web delivery.
| Principal staff member: | Professor Daniel Leech-Wilkinson |
|---|---|
| Other staff: | |
| External expertise: | Roger Beardsley, independent recording transfer engineer, advised on the purchase and use of equipment for transferring 78rpm discs to digital formats. |
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| This project description was developed as part of the ICT Guides project. |
| Metadata on this arts-humanities.net record | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) of record | Daniel Leech-Wilkinson |
| Title | Techniques for the analysis of expressive gestures in musical performance |
| Record created | 2008-07-14 |
| Record updated | 2010-01-27 15:08 |
| URL of record | http://www.arts-humanities.net/node/2064 |
| Citation of record | Daniel Leech-Wilkinson: Techniques for the analysis of expressive gestures in musical performance. <http://www.arts-humanities.net/node/2064> created: 2008-07-14, last updated 2010-01-27 15:08 |
