Subjective Evaluation of Several Intonations in Piano

Research Project

Project/Area Number	06610079
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	実験系心理学
Research Institution	Kyoto City University of Arts
Principal Investigator	OHGUSHI Kengo Kyoto City University of Arts, 音楽学部, 教授 (00203745)
Project Period (FY)	1994 – 1995
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1995)
Budget Amount *help	¥1,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000) Fiscal Year 1995: ¥600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000) Fiscal Year 1994: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
Keywords	equal-tempered intonation / Just intonation / Pythagorean intonation / Werckmeister intonation / Kirnberger intonation / temperament / tuning / 古典音律 / ヴェルマイスター音律 / 多次元尺度法
Research Abstract	The purpose of this study is to investigate the overall subjective acceptability of the performances playd by the piano in several intonations. Musical materials were excerpts of four piano pieces : a Mozart sonata, a Bach's well-tempered clavier and a Schoenberg's short composition. They were playd in five kinds of intonations, namely the equaltempered, the Werckmeister No.1, the Kirnberger No.3, the Pythagorean and the just intonations. The Pythagorean and the just intonations were tuned by C major, regardless of performances.13EA02 : In experiment 1 and 2, seven musically trained students and thirteen less trained students participated. They were asked to make comparative judgments for all possible pairs of the above five intonations. The result was that the equal-tempered intonation was highly rated in both experiments. In experiment 3, four pieces in five kinds of intonations were presented to about sixty musically trained students and they were asked to rate their subjective acceptability on a five point of scale.The result was that the equal-tempered intonation was highly rated in three pieces, except Bach's piece. In Bach's piece, the equal-tempered intonation was rated as highly as the Werckmeister and the Kirnberger intonations. In a Mozart's sonata, the equal-tempered intonation was also rated as highly as the Pythagorean intonation. The just intonation was rated as the lowest in four pieces.