Project number P 29840
Einzelprojekt
Project lead Peter
Revers
Decision board 2017/03/06
Project on FWF website
https://pf.fwf.ac.at/en/research-in-practice/project-finder/39888
A) Initial investigations into using OMR (Optic Quantificational Music Recognition) for automated score linking, with largely negative results, due to the complexities of full orchestra scores.
B) Systematic studies on alignment accuracy and experimental quantification of inter-annotator agreement.
C) Improving alignment robustness by combining Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) with robust statistical methods.
A) manual annotation of the complete cycle of 9 symphonies by Karajan, to be used as reference for the following steps.
B) Checking and documentation of different repeat structures in this large set of recordings; manual annotation of sections, structure matching.
C) Semi-automatic transfer of annotations from Karajan reference set to other recordings via automatic audio-to-audio alignment and extensive plausibility checking.
D) Transfer to Open Music Annotations (OMA) Database.
Doubling (“Verdopplung”) of Flute 1 from orchestral parts of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony used by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Karajan, indicating in which sections the doubling instrument was supposed to play. Source: Archive of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
A) The overly simplified image of a “constant” tempo for an entire piece had to be dismissed early (considerable expressive fluctuations are sometimes present even on the level of the beat-patterns). Nevertheless, a relatively homogenous tempo shaping has been observed in many cases, particularly if compared to the recordings of many contemporary conductors, which led to an empiric reinforcement of that often-mentioned feature of Karajan’s performances. (Wozonig 2020, 2022a, 2022b, 2023a)
B) An important part of the project was the “Beethoven Symphonies Annotation Corpus”, a large set of temporal annotations relating to the complete set of 9 Beethoven Symphonies, as recorded by a number of different orchestras and conductors. One of them (1962/63) was annotated entirely manually; these annotations were than mapped to the other recordings in a semi-automatic way, relying on robust alignment algorithms. (Wozonig 2020)
C) Software Tools for finding structurally compatible performances in a large corpus of recordings, and for obtaining a visual overview of a given corpus. (Wozonig 2022b, 2023a)
D) It was demonstrated and visualized in selected examples how the parameters sound and dynamics contribute to Karajan’s shaping of certain dramaturgical developments, e.g., to create an extended, formally overarching intensification (see examples below)
E) Differentiation of the common view of Karajan as a “slow” conductor: It was demonstrated that whenever Karajan conducts relatively slow tempi with regard to performance history, this only applies to individual parts of works. Through this, Karajan often aims for a strong contrast between sections and, therefore, a specific formal-dramaturgical shaping. A specific case was highlighted by an analysis of Sibelius’s First Symphony, where it was demonstrated that Karajan’s standalone rendition of the 2nd movement was actually the result of an observance of the composer’s metronome markings. (Aringer 2019, 2020a, 2020b, Wozonig 2022b)
F) It was demonstrated that Karajan’s conception of a musical work (e.g., basic tempo choices) was often developed at an early stage, and that these conceptions would only change gradually in the course his career. Particularly revealing was the finding that if there were bigger changes in later performances, they were often connected to a stronger influence of Espressivo elements.
G) By an interdisciplinary reading of various sources, we were able to show that the orchestra and individual musicians played an important part in the performances conducted by Karajan, and that this artistic partnership was even welcomed by him in that he relied on musicians that were able to understand and share his artistic concepts. This was not only true with regard to the string section during his time in Berlin, but especially to their concertmaster Michel Schwalbé. This relativizes the popular concept of the conductor and especially Karajan as a “philharmonic autocrat”.
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