Expression in Romantic Piano Music: Criteria for Choice of Score Events for Emphasis
Erica Bisesi, Richard Parncutt · 2011
A striking way to communicate expression is by emphasizing the local structure of the music. Bisesi & Parncutt (2011), Bisesi, Parncutt & Friberg (2011), and Parncutt (2003) investigated the relationship between accents and expression in piano performance. Accents are local musical events that attract a listener’s attention. They may be immanent (melodic, harmonic, metric, grouping) or performed (variations in timing, dynamics and articulation). The degree of accentuation varies on a continuous scale. Here we use the term “salience” for the perceptual importance of a musical event.