An Analysis of Tone Durations in Recorded Musical Performances

The effect of pitch on tone durations was studied in several poeces of music. In previous work it was found that higher pitched sounds, of a given duration, were perceived to be of longer duration. That work however, was not undertaken in a musical context. The present work was done to determine whether the previously observed trend was also apparent in musical performances. Several measurements were undertaken. One of these involved analysing the recorded performance duration of notes in several performances of the Mozart Flute Quartet in A-mojor, K.298. Performed durations were also obtained from a Bach Flute Sonata and a Brahms Clarinet Quintet. An analysis of the musical performances revealed that while there were individual differences and exceptions in notes, the musicians tended to play higher notes significantly shortened.