Expressiveness in music performance: analysis and modeling

Expression is an important aspect of music performance. It is the added value of a performance and is part of the reason that music is interesting to listen to and sounds alive. Moreover, understanding and modeling expressive content communication is important in many engineering applications. In human musical performance, acoustical or perceptual changes in sound are organized in a complex way by the performer in order to communicate musical content to the listener. The same piece of music can be performed trying to convey a specific interpretation of the score, by adding mutable expressive intentions. The analysis of these systematic deviations has led to the formulation of several models that try to describe their structures, and aim at explaining where, how and why a performer modifies, sometime in an unconscious way, what is indicated by the notation of the score. Modeling paradigms and problems are reviewed and issues for future research efforts are discussed.