Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Mental representations of structural content in music can be communicated to listeners by expressive variations in performance. W e attempt to recover structural content from patterns of expression in skilled music performance, and we contrast possible mappings between structure and expression that allow communication of musical ideas. Three types of musical structure are investigated: metric, rhythmic grouping, and melodic accent structures. Skilled pianists performed musical sequences which were examined for expressive variations that coincide with each accent structure. The mapping of structure to expression is compared for music in which the accent structures are presented singly, are combined to coincide or conflict, or naturally co-occur. The findings suggest that associated sets of expressive variations in performance provide an unambiguous and flexible system for communicating musical structure.