Intuitive visualization of gestures in expressive timing: A case study on the final ritard

Expressive timing is vital for the aesthetic quality that makes us appreciate performed music. It is a largely tacit skill that musicians acquire by practice. A long-standing intuition is that expressive timing is closely related to the concept of motion. This view leads naturally to the adoption of a dynamical systems approach to the study of expressive timing. A well-known visualization technique from dynamical systems theory is the phase-plane representation. The application of this technique, that highlights the dynamic aspects of the data, is demonstrated in a case study on the final ritard in performances of Schumann’s Träumerei. We argue that expressive gestures are visible in a clear and intuitive manner in the phase-plane representations. Another striking aspect of the phase-plane trajectories is their suggestion of human gestural motion.