"Life, Color, Warmth and Truth": Expressive timing in German late Romantic organ music

Yulia Draginda; Ichiro Fujinaga

doi:10.35699/2317-6377.2020.26080

Authors

Yulia Draginda McGill University, Canada https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0905-7631
Ichiro Fujinaga McGill University, Canada https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2524-8582

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35699/2317-6377.2020.26080

Keywords:

Hugo Riemann, Music information retrieval, Expressive timing, Organ performance

Abstract

This paper proposes a mathematical model for expressive timing in German late Romantic organ music based on Riemannian phrasing principles. The model is built following the symmetric hierarchical motivic scheme and then applied to the organ work of Max Reger. It was shown that music expressive content is carried by the model parameter defined as temporal elasticity. Along with the standard analytical and empirical evaluation, the model was also evaluated in terms of its naturalness. We found that the correlation between model and human performance is comparable with the correlation between distinct professional human interpretations.

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Author Biographies

Yulia Draginda, McGill University, Canada

Yulia Draginda is an international concert organist and a music technology researcher. She holds a Diploma cum laude in organ performance (Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory) and a Master of Arts degree from Musik-Akademie Basel (Switzerland), as well as a Diploma cum laude in Physics (Moscow State Lomonosov University) and a Ph.D. in Physics and Mathematics (Russian Academy of Sciences). She is currently studying for a doctorate in organ performance at McGill University (Montreal, Canada) and a postgraduate Diploma in Data Science (AI University, Moscow). Her ongoing research includes interdisciplinary projects in organ performance, music perception and artificial intelligence.

Ichiro Fujinaga, McGill University, Canada

Ichiro Fujinaga is an Associate Professor in the Music Technology Area at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University. He has Bachelor's degrees in Music/Percussion and Mathematics from University of Alberta, a Master's degree in Music Theory, and a Ph.D. in Music Technology from McGill University. Before coming to McGill, he was a faculty member of the Computer Music Department at the Peabody Conservatory of Music of the Johns Hopkins University. Research interests include optical music recognition, music theory, machine learning, music perception, digital signal processing, genetic algorithms, and music information acquisition, preservation, and retrieval.

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"Life, Color, Warmth and Truth"

Expressive timing in German late Romantic organ music

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Abstract

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Author Biographies

Yulia Draginda, McGill University, Canada

Ichiro Fujinaga, McGill University, Canada

References

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