Abstract

In musical communication among a composer, performer, and listener, the role of the performer is to communicate their interpretations of the composer’s idea to listeners. In our previous study, a pianist intended to express affective qualities of the piece more strongly in their “artistic” rendition than in the “mechanical” and “exaggerated” renditions, which were indicated by their ratings of multiple emotional words. The pianist’s affective interpretation in the artistic rendition was fully communicated to the audience via the recorded sound. However, the visual information of the performance did not affect the audience’s perception of the performer’s affective interpretation. In contrast, in public performances where the audience shares time and space with performers, the performer’s affective interpretation was communicated more strongly to the audience than when listening to a recorded performance. Further, our analyses of the audience’s heart rates and body movements showed that they were more entrained by the public performance than the recorded one. These findings suggest that one key element of performer-to-audience dynamics in public concerts is the audience’s continuous attention to the performance.