Honing, H. (2007). Is expressive timing relational invariant under tempo transformation? Psychology of Music, 35 (2), 276-285.

Abstract

This empirical study is concerned with examining the relation between tempo and expressive timing in music performance. This was investigated by asking listeners (N = 307) to distinguish between an original recording and a tempo-transformed version in a musical genre of their preference (Jazz or Classical). A majority of the participants was able to correctly identify the original recording. This result is taken as support for the tempo-specific timing hypothesis which suggests that the relationship between timing variations and average tempo may function as cue for identification of a real performance, and counter-evidence for the relationally invariant timing hypothesis that predicts a tempo-transformed performance to sound equally natural.

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