Windsor, W. L., Aarts, R., Desain, P., Heijink, H., and Timmers, R. (2001) The timing of grace notes in skilled musical performance at different tempi: a preliminary case study. Psychology of Music, 29, 149-169.
Abstract
An experiment is reported which investigates the relationship between musical structure, predictions from the performance practice literature, and the timing of 11 grace notes in 45 performances of a short Beethoven piano piece at a range of tempi. These performances were recorded and analyzed so as to extract timing measurements, and the pianist was interviewed to gain insights into his conscious performing strategies. Significant differences in the relative length of different grace notes were found: the two grace notes with a large descending pitch interval were played significantly longer than the others. Additionally, the grace notes were timed such that they did not 'take time' from the note they are nominally attached to, but from the preceding time interval. Close attention to the qualitative data provided by the pianist reveals that the relative timing of the grace notes is best explained by his efforts to mimic the motor constraints of vocalists and string players, and by his tacit avoidance of dissonant vertical relationships between melody and accompaniment. Both of these interpretative decisions are in line with an explicit decision to attempt to play the piece in a 'song-like' manner. Lastly, the data provided evidence against the notion that changes in overall tempo leave the relative proportion of adjacent events invariant. Grace notes with a longer mean duration tended to deviate significantly from proportional duration, whilst shorter grace notes were roughly invariant over tempo. In summary, the results suggest that, in addition to the performer's grasp of musical structure, both overall tempo and subtle communicative issues play important and measurable roles in determining the timing of musical events.
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