Evaluation of Tone Quality in Piano Performance by Sight and Sound: A Performer’s Perspective

Abstract

In the present thesis, a classically trained pianist aims to explore whether her movements, with various degrees of amplitude, affect observers’ assessment of her singing tone quality. The study experiment involved audiovisual stimuli, with certain performances being mimicked to prerecorded audio, which constituted the first part of the experiment. In contrast, others included matching or mismatching sound material and hand movements, constituting the experiment's second part. Thirty-seven music students observed these audiovisual stimuli and rated the quality of a singing tone on a scale of 1 (poor) to 7 (excellent). Analysis of variance with one repeated factor of hand movement (minimal, medium, and large) was used to test the effects of movement type on the rating of singing-quality tone production in the mimicking part of the experiment, while a two-factorial, repeated-measure analysis of variance was used for the mismatching part of the experiment. The results for the mimicking part revealed no significant differences in ratings (F[2, 72] = 1.91, p = .156, η2 = .05). Conversely, the results of the mismatching part of the experiment revealed that the effect of hand movement was significant (F[2, 72] = 10.02, p < .001, η2 = .22), while the effect of sound (F[2, 72] = 0.63, p > .05, η2 = .02) and the interaction between hand movement and sound (F[4, 144] = 2.13, p = .08, η2 = .06) were not significant. Altogether, the results indicate that the assessment of tone quality is a complex process in which a visual component of a player’s touch might improve the audience’s timbre evaluation, as demonstrated in the mismatching portion of the experiment. At this stage, it is unclear what caused a discrepancy in the results between the mismatching and mimicking parts. Additional research is required to explore many contributions to evaluating tone quality, such as the potential relationship between performers’ bodily sensations and audience recognition of them.