The benefits and challenges of real-world compositions in the study of music and time

Description

Berlyne (1974) contrasts two approaches to the study of aesthetic works: the synthetic
which uses simpler stimuli manipulating single elements of the artistic medium while
controlling others, and the analytical which studies genuine works. This study is concerned with listeners’ experience of time for real-world musical compositions, which has received far less attention in literature. It aims to examine the effects of unexpected endings on experiential time, which has previously been studied only using unaccompanied melodies.
Participants provided duration estimates for two extracts from a newly composed piece for brass band, one which ended on time and another which ended too soon. To consider other factors which may influence perceived duration, liking, subjective tempo, and perceived complexity were also measured.
Multiple linear regression showed no significant effect of any predictor variables on
duration estimates. However, though subjective tempo responses were varied, correlation matrices found that liking and complexity covaried significantly with the on time/too soon condition, making effects of these difficult to measure.
In this presentation, I will discuss the benefits and limitations of using genuine, complex compositions in the study of music and time, and the implications for live concert research which will also, by definition, adopt an analytical approach.

Period	11 Sept 2024
Event title	Workshop on Concert Research
Event type	Conference
Location	Oslo, NorwayShow on map