Modeling Expression:
Previous Approaches of
An Empirical Analysis of Recordings of
Modeling Expression
Brahms’ Cello Sonatas
Ju-Lee Hong
DEPARTMENT of MUSIC, GOLDSMITHS, UNIVERSITY of LONDON
Wednesday 6 May 2009 Centre for Digital Music Seminar Queen Mary, University of London
Rule system for performance Machine learning
• KTH rule-based artificial model of • definition
performance – Goebl, Dixon, De Poli, Friberg, Bresin &
Widmer (2008)
• analysis by synthesis and by measurement
• human vs. algorithmic performances
• heavily relied on score for feature extraction
• example
• limitations:
– Clarke & Windsor (1997, 2000) on Todd’s
– Eck (2008) - not automatic enough,
algorithm (1992), also discussed in Clarke
– Rink (2009) - in relation to the listening
(2004)
experience of expression in performance
• limitation of laboratory-based performance
PCA / Quantitative Recordings Correlation rate: Timescape
• Repp (1998) 115 recordings, first 5 bars of • T/D scape is useful for identifying
Chopin’s Etude in E major – Similarity rate of two different performances
• PCA detects major components; i.e. – Phrasing
“cultural norms” • Rule-based visualisation (Sapp 2007, Cook
2008)
• PCA, however, is insensitive to spotting
– Basic tempo, (relative) modulation depth,
individual performance style
e.g. Rubinstein 1938 /1961

Time-alignment: Sonic Visualiser
Pedagogical Relationships
Audio alignment: the Casals duo (upper pane: referenced audio) and the Piatigorsky duo
(lower pane: aligned audio), bars 1-19, 2nd movement, Op.99 F major sonata
Rose Line: Rose, Harrell, Ma
Pedagogical Lineage
Ma and Ax
Leonard Rose, 1918-1984
Kocacevich, Harrell
Maisky = Piatigorsky + Rostropovich + x
Reception History of Brahms’
Cello Sonatas on Record
Rubinstein and Piatigorsky Rostropovich, Serkin
Maisky and Gililov

Early-recorded Brahms: Casals
The première
Max Kallbeck wrote in the Presse in 1886 :
 It is difficult to imagine how happy we are to hear this
brilliant composition performed so professionally before
the rest of musical world will be able to enjoy it. The
creative spirit is still hovering over the manuscript, and the
composer’s personality arises right in front of us. No
stranger stands between the work and the listener, and that
is why there appears a picture true down to the tiniest
details for those perceive it sincerely and ingenuously
(Campbell 1988 p.75).
Pablo Casals in 1930s
Casals’ Brahms (recorded in 1936) Casals’ Brahms
Musical Times (1979)
Gramophone (1940)
• Casals’ “classical” version of Brahms is unsatisfactory
 It would be difficult to praise too highly the magnificent (Anderson: p.158).
performance of the sonata given by Casals and
• Casals’ conversation with the cellist Corredor: Casals
Horszowski. From the splendid attack and eloquence of the
views Brahms in “strict classicism”.
opening bars to the last note the cellist is at the top of his
Gramophone (1994)
great form. The beauty of his tone and phrasing, the deep
• sensitive phrasing in Casals’ 1936-7 recording of
feeling of the slow movement, after the drama and passion
Beethoven and Brahms was the “hub” of Casals’ art.
of the first movement, the rhythmic vigour and charm of
(p.221)
the last two movements leave one lost in admiration. The
recording of the cello is exceedingly good throughout: • no other cellist could project the work’s heroic opening
often, indeed, as I have said, of startling fidelity (p.65). with the utmost confidence nor bring “greater suppleness
or tonal variety to the Adagio affettuoso” (Ibid).
Criticised Tempi: du Pré, Rostropovich du Pré and Barenboim
Gramophone (1968)
• “tear[s] a reviewer in half” (p.854)
• “extraordinarily expressive” (Ibid.)
• “it is a self-indulgent enough in rhythm and tempo to be un-
Brahmsian” (Ibid.)
• the cellist’s rhythm and tempo “extract the very last drop out of every
single note” of the two sonatas in her own way and
• the pianist, who does not do these things as much in his solo
recordings, also indicates similar rhythmic behaviours. He blames the
cellist for influencing her husband. The “rhythmic behaviours” were
more highlighted in the E minor sonata rendition.
Barenboim and du Pré Rostropovich and Serkin

Rostropovich and Serkin
du Pré and Barenboim
Musical Times (1969) Gramophone (1983a)
• du Pré’s Brahms with Barenboim shows “an eloquence and subtlety of • Rostropovich and Serkin seem “too rhythmically relaxed” (p.356).
vocabulary that only the finest minds in music ever attempt” (p.163). Gramophone (1985),
• the cellist’s brilliance in spreading “sunset colours” over Brahms and • Rostropovich-Serkin duo played in a “leisurely [and] full-bodied
Barenboim’s matching artistry. romantic way” (p.518) in comparison to the Harrell-Ashkenazy duo of
• each movement and section is “imagined with a detailed care that 1981, which presented a “lither composer”.
constantly reveals new beauties, and yet both works emerge with their Gramophone (1983b)
architecture the more impressive for the subtle and inspired • “rich flood of sound” (p. 356);
investigation to which it has been subjected” (p.164), although the
• the “younger generation” of cellists’ “refined upper range” balanced
minuet from the E minor appears the movement most preferred by the
with the other registers, which provides a strong and well-focused
reviewer.
sound.
• Rostropovich’s “larger than life musical personality”, Brahms’ bold
melodic lines and the duo’s responses to each other are well projected.
in films?
The Modeling Method
Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990) Hilary and Jackie (1998)
The Model IBI measurement
• Strategies
– Analysis by measurements
• Perspectives
– Comparing performance
– Boundary between cultural norm & individual
expression
– Cultural issues, including pedagogical
relationships
Automatic beat tracking
Casals’ duo, bars 1-8, 2nd movement, Op.99 F major sonata

Equations
Is the modeling method
necessary?
Equations
Performing Brahms
Recordings: Op.38 Phrase Structure: 2nd mvt, Op.38

Timing: Op.38
Repeat structure in section B
x; y = Harrison; other
Timing: Op.38 Timing: Op.38
x; y = Feuermann; other x; y = Piatigorsky; other
Timing: Op.38 Timing: Op.38
x; y = du Pre; other x; y = Rostropovich; other

Timing: Op.38
Recordings: Op.99
x; y = Maisky; other
Phrase Structure: 2nd mvt, Op.99 Time series
Timing: Op.99 Timing: Op.99
x; y = Casals; other x; y = Rose; other

Timing: Op.99 Timing: Op.99
x; y = Ma; other x; y = Bylsma; other
Timing: Op.99 Timing: Op.99
x; y = Harrell; other x; y = Schiff; other
Summary Further Readings
Eric Clarke and Nicholas Cook, 2004 [eds.] Empirical Musicology: Aims, Methods,
• In performing the E minor sonata, reception Prospects. (Oxford: OUP)
– Stephen Cottrell, 2006: Review of Empirical Musicology in Ethnomusicology Forum
history could have played a crucial role of Vol.15.
influencing the expressive timing. J.P.E. Harper-Scott and Jim Samson, 2009 [eds.] An Introduction to Music Studies
(Cambridge: CUP)
• In performing the F major sonata, a fair – Ju-Lee Hong and Yu-Lee Hong, 2009: Review of Music Studies in academici (assessed at
http://www.academici.com/blog/6079/music_studies.html 5 May 2009)
dissimilarity of timing style is identified Michael Musgrave and Bernard D. Sherman, 2003 [eds.] Performing Brahms: Early
Evidence of Performance Style (Cambridge: CUP)
between artists whether the two selected – Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, 2005: Review of Performing Brahms in Early Music Vol.33.
performances are by artists from the same John Rink, 2002 [ed.] Musical Performance: A Guide to Understanding (Cambridge:
CUP)
pedagogical relationships or by artists – W. Luke Windsor, 2005: Review of Musical Performance in Musicae Scientiae Vol. 9.
chosen by some other criterion. music and science articles in Nature including Nicholas Cook’s (2008) (assessed at
http://www.nature.com/nature/focus/scienceandmusic 5 May 2009)

Thank you!