Verbal expression of piano timbre: Multidimensional semantic space of adjectival descriptors (original) (raw)

2011, Proceedings of the In- ternational Symposium on Performance Science (ISPS2011), Toronto, ON, edited by A. Williamon, D. Edwards, and L. Bartel. Utrecht, Netherlands: European Association of Conservatoires (AEC), 299–304.

High-level pianists refer to and can identify nuances in timbre by way of a wide and rich vocabulary, whose abstract, imaged, and metaphoric terms acutely designate a variety of sounds. This timbre-describing lexicon is hereby studied quantitatively. The semantic proximity between pairs taken among 14 common piano timbre descriptors was evaluated in questionnaires distributed to 17 pianists. Ratings were analyzed with multidimensional scaling algorithms, yielding a four-dimensional space representing the semantic proximity between descriptors. Using cluster analyses, five main subsets were identified, within which the most familiar terms were selected. We thus obtained five descriptors which optimally describe the whole semantic space for the group of pianists taking part in this study: bright, dry, dark, round, and velvety.

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