The Influence of Room Acoustics on Solo Music Performances. An Empirical Investigation

227 Pages·2015·9.66 MB·English

by  Zora Schärer Kalkandjiev

The Influence of Room Acoustics
on Solo Music Performances.
An Empirical Investigation
Zora Schärer Kalkandjiev

The Influence of Room Acoustics on Solo Music Performances.
An Empirical Investigation
vorgelegt von Zora Schärer Kalkandjiev, M.A.
geb. in Zürich
von der Fakultät I - Geisteswissenschaften
der Technischen Universität Berlin
zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades
Doktorin der Philosophie
- Dr. phil. -
genehmigte Dissertation
Promotionsausschuss
Vorsitzende: Prof. Dr. Bénédicte Savoy
Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Stefan Weinzierl
Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Heinz von Loesch
Tag der wissenschaftlichen Aussprache
05.10.2015
Berlin 2015

CONTENTS
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Zusammenfassung . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
1. Introduction 1
2. Theory 5
2.1. Performance and interpretation of music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2. Model of a solo music performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.3. Performative adjustments recommended by scholars and musicians 16
3. Related Work 25
3.1. Room acoustics and the performance of music . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.2. Stage acoustics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4. Methods 41
4.1. Research design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.2. Room acoustical measurements and simulation . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.2.1. Room acoustical measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.2.2. Room acoustical models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.2.3. Auralisation and acquisition of binaural room impulse re-
sponses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.3. Performance analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.4. Hierarchical linear models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.5. Qualitative content analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
i
5. Field Study 65
5.1. Performances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5.2. Room acoustics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.2.1. Concert venues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.2.2. In-situ measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.2.3. Room acoustical models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.3. Statistical analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5.3.1. Predictor variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5.3.2. Data structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5.3.3. Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.4. Guided interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
5.4.1. Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
5.4.2. Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
5.5. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
6. Laboratory Study 119
6.1. Performances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
6.2. Room acoustics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
6.2.1. Room acoustical models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
6.2.2. Room acoustical measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
6.3. Technical setup and experimental procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
6.4. Statistical analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
6.4.1. Predictor variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
6.4.2. Data structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
6.4.3. Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
6.4.4. Influence of subjective room acoustical quality . . . . . . . . 148
6.5. Guided interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
6.5.1. Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
6.5.2. Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
6.6. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
7. Overall Discussion and Conclusions 171
ii
Bibliography 179
A. Performance Data I
B. Room Acoustical Data III
B.1. In-situ measurements field study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . III
B.2. Parameters of room acoustical simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VII
B.3. PCA components used in laboratory study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IX
C. Interviews and Questionnaire XI
C.1. Qualitative content analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XI
C.2. Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XIII
iii
iv
Abstract
During the performance of music the surrounding space is a factor essentially
affecting the sound of what is played. An adjustment of the performance to the
concert hall acoustics as described by many musicians is therefore intuitive and
comprehensible but it has rarely been the subject of research. In this thesis, the
relationship between room acoustics and solo music performance was empiri-
cally investigated.
Music performances of the same pieces were recorded in different room acous-
tical environments by conducting one study with a cellist in real-world con-
cert halls and another study with musicians of standard orchestral instruments
in virtual rooms simulated with dynamic binaural synthesis. By means of a
software-based analysis and perceptually motivated regression models the per-
formance characteristics tempo, agogic, dynamic strength, dynamic bandwidth
and timbre aspects were subsequently determined from the recordings. Further-
more, theroomacousticalpropertiesoftherealandsimulatedconcerthallswere
characterised by measuring impulse responses and calculating room acoustical
parameters. Here, computer models were utilised, in particular to take the di-
rectivity of the played instruments into account when exciting the rooms. In
this way, the room acoustical conditions that musicians are typically confronted
with on concert hall stages were determined as accurately as possible and their
impact on the performance was examined in detail. Moreover, the influence of
the played instrument and the musical content was taken into account.
Morethanhalfofthevarianceintheperformancecharacteristicsthatweredeter-
mined in the real-world concert spaces could be explained by four room acous-
tical parameters. This is a remarkable result considering the presence of many
other factors possibly influencing a concert situation such as audience, personal
form of the performer and environmental factors other than the room acous-
tics. One fifth of the variance in the performance characteristics obtained in the
simulatedenvironmentswasexplainedbyfiveroomacousticalmeasures. Afun-
damental result of this experiment furthermore was that the musicians reacted
very individually to the room acoustical conditions. In both investigations, sig-
v
nificant effects of the studied room acoustical parameters on the performance
characteristics were revealed. The investigated timbre aspect describing soft and
hardplayingwasaffectedmoststronglybetheroomacousticalconditions,while
the adjustment of the performers’ tonal rendition in the laboratory experiment
was at the same time particularly individual. From the room acoustical param-
eters measured in the real concert halls, it was the duration and the amount of
reverberant energy that had the strongest influence on the investigated perfor-
mance characteristics. The acoustical enhancement and amount of reverberant
energy were the parameters with the strongest effect in the study with virtual
concert halls.
The musicians’ descriptions of their performative adjustments given in guided
interviews that were conducted in both studies provided information on the
strategies behind some of the significant relations between room acoustical pa-
rameters and performance characteristics found in the statistical analysis. In
the investigation carried out in real-world concert situations, the influence of
contextual variables was furthermore enquired from the performer in the inter-
views, which revealed a distinct network of influences among the factors for
each concert situation.
vi