The Interpersonal Entrainment in Music Performance Data Collection

The Interpersonal Entrainment in Music Performance Data Collection (IEMPDC) comprises six related corpora of music research materials: Cuban Son & Salsa (CSS), European String Quartet (ESQ), Malian Jembe (MJ), North Indian Raga (NIR), Tunisian Stambeli (TS), and Uruguayan Candombe (UC). The core data for each corpus comprises media files and computationally extracted event onset timing data. Annotation of metrical structure and code used in the preparation of the collection is also shared. The collection is unprecedented in size and level of detail and represents a significant new resource for empirical and computational research in music. In this article we introduce the main features of the data collection and the methods used in its preparation. Details of technical validation procedures and notes on data visualization are available as Appendices. We also contextualize the collection in relation to developments in Open Science and Open Data, discussing important distinctions between the two related concepts.

Influence of Regular Rhythmic Versus Textural Sound Sequences on Semantic and Conceptual Processing

Conceptual priming studies have shown that listening to musical primes triggers semantic activation. The present study further investigated with a free semantic evocation task, 1) how rhythmic vs. textural structures affect the amount of words evoked after a musical sequence, and 2) whether both features also affect the content of the semantic activation. Rhythmic sequences were composed of various percussion sounds with a strong underlying beat and metrical structure. Textural sound sequences consisted of blended timbres and sound sources evolving over time without identifiable pulse. Participants were asked to verbalize the concepts evoked by the musical sequences. We measured the number of words and lemmas produced after having listened to musical sequences of each condition, and we analyzed whether specific concepts were associated with each sequence type. Results showed that more words and lemmas were produced for textural sound sequences than for rhythmic sequences and that some concepts were specifically associated with each musical condition. Our findings suggest that listening to musical excerpts emphasizing different features influences semantic activation in different ways and extent. This might possibly be instantiated via cognitive mechanisms triggered by the acoustic characteristics of the excerpts as well as the perceived emotions.

Phonetic and phonological vowel reduction in Brazilian Portuguese

The present study examines the phonetic and phonological status of vowel reduction in Brazilian Portuguese. In order to compare the effects of duration and metrical structure, we tested the influence of duration on the realization of /a/ in five prosodic positions: word-initial pretonic, word-medial pretonic, tonic, word-medial posttonic, and word-final posttonic. The results revealed that, while both phonetic duration and prosodic position had effects on F1 values for /a/, the categorical effect of prosodic position was much stronger and more reliable. In particular, F1 values for /a/ were best predicted by a two-way distinction between posttonic and non-posttonic syllable positions. Correlations between a vowel’s duration and its F1 frequency were statistically significant but generally weak in all positions. We argue that these findings suggest that vowel reduction in Brazilian Portuguese primarily reflects phonological patterning rather than phonetic undershoot, although there was also evidence for some amount of undershoot. Brazilian Portuguese can therefore be said to have a mixed system of phonological and phonetic reduction. The present study discusses the results in the context of Brazilian Portuguese metrical organization, sound change, and the relation between phonetics and phonology.

Finding and Keeping the Beat: Neural Mechanisms Differ as Beat Perception Unfolds

Perception of a regular beat is essential to our ability to synchronize movements to music in an anticipatory fashion. Beat perception requires multiple, distinct neural functions, corresponding to the perceptual stages that occur over time, including 1) detection that regularity is present (beat finding), 2) prediction of future regular events to enable anticipation (beat continuation), and 3) dynamic adjustment of predictions as the rhythmic stimulus changes (beat adjustment). The striatum has been shown to be crucial for beat perception generally, although it is unclear how, or whether, distinct regions of the striatum contribute to these different stages of beat perception. Here, we used fMRI to investigate the activity of striatal subregions during the different stages of beat perception. Participants listened to pairs of rhythms (polyrhythms) whose temporal structure induced distinct perceptual stages—finding, continuation, and adjustment of the beat. Dorsal putamen was preferentially active during beat finding, whereas the ventral putamen was preferentially active during beat adjustment. We also observed that anterior insula activity was sensitive to metrical structure (greater when polyrhythms were metrically incongruent than when they were congruent). These data implicate the dorsal putamen in the detection of regularity, possibly by detection of coincidences between cortical oscillations, and the ventral putamen in the adjustment of regularity perception, possibly by integration of prediction errors in ongoing beat predictions. Additionally, activity in the supramarginal and superior temporal gyri correlated with beat tapping performance, and activity in the superior temporal gyrus correlated with beat perception (performance on the Beat Alignment Test).

Beat perception in polyrhythms: Time is structured in binary units

In everyday life, we group and subdivide time to understand the sensory environment surrounding us. Organizing time in units, such as diurnal rhythms, phrases, and beat patterns, is fundamental to behavior, speech, and music. When listening to music, our perceptual system extracts and nests rhythmic regularities to create a hierarchical metrical structure that enables us to predict the timing of the next events. Foot tapping and head bobbing to musical rhythms are observable evidence of this process. In the special case of polyrhythms, at least two metrical structures compete to become the reference for these temporal regularities, rendering several possible beats with which we can synchronize our movements. While there is general agreement that tempo, pitch, and loudness influence beat perception in polyrhythms, we focused on the yet neglected influence of beat subdivisions, i.e., the least common denominator of a polyrhythm ratio. In three online experiments, 300 participants listened to a range of polyrhythms and tapped their index fingers in time with the perceived beat. The polyrhythms consisted of two simultaneously presented isochronous pulse trains with different ratios (2:3, 2:5, 3:4, 3:5, 4:5, 5:6) and different tempi. For ratios 2:3 and 3:4, we additionally manipulated the pitch of the pulse trains. Results showed a highly robust influence of subdivision grouping on beat perception. This was manifested as a propensity towards beats that are subdivided into two or four equally spaced units, as opposed to beats with three or more complex groupings of subdivisions. Additionally, lower pitched pulse trains were more often perceived as the beat. Our findings suggest that subdivisions, not beats, are the basic unit of beat perception, and that the principle underlying the binary grouping of subdivisions reflects a propensity towards simplicity. This preference for simple grouping is widely applicable to human perception and cognition of time.

Bernal de Bonaval, Fremosas, a Deus grad’, é tan bon dia comigo (B1135/V726)

Il contributo presenta una nuova edizione critica della cantiga di Bernal de Bonaval, Fremosas, a Deus grad’, è tan bon dia comigo (B1135/V726). A partire dall’edizione di José Joaquim Nunes, pubblicata nel 1926, tutti gli editori sono intervenuti, senza però addurre perspicue motivazioni, sulle lezioni manoscritte dei vv. 1, 3 e 4. Il risultato è un testo la cui struttura metrica, grazie alla presenza sistematica di rime interne, può essere analizzata in almeno due modi: formula sillabica interamente a versi brevi, oppure formula sillabica interamente a versi lunghi. Sviluppando un suggerimento di Manuel Ferreiro (2016), l’articolo cerca di dimostrare che non sussistono ragioni valide per respingere ed emendare le lezioni manoscritte dei vv. 1, 3 e 4 e che, pertanto, la cantiga ammette solo ed esclusivamente formula sillabica a versi lunnghi. This paper set up a new critical edition of Bernal de Bonaval’s cantiga Fremosas, a Deus grad’, é tan bon dia comigo (B1135/V726). Since the edition published by José Joaquim Nunes in 1926, all scholars have always modified, without providing solid arguments, the manuscript lessons of vv. 1, 3, and 4. The result was a text whose metrical structure, as stated by the systematic presence of internal rhymes, could be analyzed in at least two ways: syllabic pattern with short verses or syllabic pattern with long verses. By developing a suggestion of Manuel Ferreiro (2016), this paper proves that there is no reason to reject the manuscript lessons of vv. 1, 3 and 4 and that, consequently, the cantiga admits only syllabic pattern with long verses. Il contributo presenta una nuova edizione critica della cantiga di Bernal de Bonaval, Fremosas, a Deus grad’, è tan bon dia comigo (B1135/V726). A partire dall’edizione di José Joaquim Nunes, pubblicata nel 1926, tutti gli editori sono intervenuti, senza però addurre perspicue motivazioni, sulle lezioni manoscritte dei vv. 1, 3 e 4. Il risultato è un testo la cui struttura metrica, grazie alla presenza sistematica di rime interne, può essere analizzata in almeno due modi: formula sillabica interamente a versi brevi, oppure formula sillabica interamente a versi lunghi. Sviluppando un suggerimento di Manuel Ferreiro (2016), l’articolo cerca di dimostrare che non sussistono ragioni valide per respingere ed emendare le lezioni manoscritte dei vv. 1, 3 e 4 e che, pertanto, la cantiga ammette solo ed esclusivamente formula sillabica a versi lunghi.

Feeling the Beat in an African Tone Language: Rhythmic Mapping Between Language and Music

Text-setting patterns in music have served as a key data source in the development of theories of prosody and rhythm in stress-based languages, but have been explored less from a rhythmic perspective in the realm of tone languages. African tone languages have been especially under-studied in terms of rhythmic patterns in text-setting, likely in large part due to the ill-understood status of metrical structure and prosodic prominence asymmetries in many of these languages. Here, we explore how language is mapped to rhythmic structure in traditional folksongs sung in Medʉmba, a Grassfields Bantu language spoken in Cameroon. We show that, despite complex and varying rhythmic structures within and across songs, correspondences emerge between musical rhythm and linguistic structure at the level of stem position, tone, and prosodic structure. Our results reinforce the notion that metrical prominence asymmetries are present in African tone languages, and that they play an important coordinative role in music and movement.

Beat Perception in Polyrhythms: Time is Structured in Binary Units

In everyday life, we group and subdivide time to understand the sensory environment surrounding us. Our perceptual system establishes hierarchical structures by nesting different groups of time intervals. Organizing time in units such as diurnal rhythms, phrases, and beat patterns, is fundamental to everyday behavior, speech, and music. When listening to music, we extract rhythmic regularities to create a hierarchical metrical structure that enables us to predict the timing of the next events. Foot tapping and head bobbing to musical rhythms are observable evidence of this process. In the special case of polyrhythms, at least two metrical structures compete to become the reference for these temporal regularities, rendering several possible beats with which we can synchronize our movements. While there is general agreement that tempo, pitch, and loudness influence beat perception in polyrhythms, we focused on the yet neglected influence of beat subdivisions. In three online experiments, 300 participants listened to a range of polyrhythms and tapped their index fingers in time with the perceived beat. The polyrhythms consisted of two simultaneously presented isochronous pulse trains with different ratios (2:3, 2:5, 3:4, 3:5, 4:5, 5:6) and different tempi. For ratios 2:3 and 3:4, we additionally manipulated the pitch of the pulse trains. Results showed a highly robust influence of subdivision grouping on beat perception manifested as a propensity towards beats that are subdivided into two or four equally spaced units, as opposed to beats with three or more complex groupings of subdivisions. Additionally, lower pitched pulse trains were more likely to be perceived as the beat. Our findings suggest that subdivisions, not beats, are the basic unit of beat perception, and that the principle underlying the binary grouping of subdivisions reflects a propensity towards simplicity. This preference for simple grouping is widely applicable to human perception and cognition of time.