Giorgio, M. 1 , Olivetti Belardinelli, M. 1, 2 & Imberty, M. 3
1 Department of Psychology, “Sapienza” University of Rome
2 ECoNA - Interuniversity Centre for Research on Cognitive Processing in Natural and Artificial Systems, “Sapienza” University of Rome
3 Université de Paris-Ouest-Nanterre La Défense
In inquiring musical grouping the focus has been posed, time by time, on different features of the musical surface, making extensive use of ad hoc created stimuli often far from real music. An ecological approach was developed by Irène Deliège (1990) in her study on the segmentation of Berio’s Sequenza VI. Since the detection of musical meaning is highly influenced by the differences in performance, we investigated the role of the instrumentalist’s interpretation on the perceived segmentation. At the scope we used two versions of Sequenza VI performed respectively by Desjardins (1998) and Knox (2006). These variants are different in duration (12.13min. vs 13.14min.) and show differences in dynamics, accents distribution and gaps duration. Thirty subjects were invited to attentively listen to each piece, to understand its plan and to mark off the sections of the work pushing a computer key. The order of presentation of the two performances was balanced. We hypothesize that musical structure affects grouping more than performance. Results show a good number of coinciding segmentations in the two versions but a different number and location of segmentations in the central part of the piece. These differences are discussed with regard to Deliègeʼs Cue Abstraction Hypothesis.