The present study investigated the expert-novice difference in the kinetics of upper-limb movement during the keystroke on the piano. Kinematic recordings were made while experts (N = 7) and novices (N = 7) of classical-piano players performed a right hand octave keystroke with staccato articulation to produce four different sound dynamics. Using the inverse dynamics method, interaction and muscular torques generated at the shoulder, elbow and wrist joints were computed. At all sound dynamics, the experts produced larger interaction torques at the elbow and wrist joints compared to the novices, and there by had smaller muscular torques at these joints. This suggests that through the long-term piano training the expert pianists acquired motor skill of reducing muscular load during the keystroke by effectively exploiting the interaction torques.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of libretto (Text) on comprehension of emotional expression in opera (Musikdrama). Subjects were 30 professional musicians and asked to rate on 12 mono-polar affective scales to 9 great stuffs extracted from “Die Walküre”. During the rating task, half of them could read libretto in addition to the great stuffs given to all. The results revealed that libretto did not affect to the factor structure of affective space of subjects, but significant libretto-stimulus interaction was found and some stimuli were highly influenced by libretto. It was also found that libretto significantly reduced the mean rating time.

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There have been　many　studies　for　the　effect of repeated exposure of music. In most of them, participants are exposed to musical pieces repeatedly and make affective ratings of each presentation. In the others, mere-exposure paradigm or correlational designs where no experimental operations are involved are applied. This article reviews these research paradigms and the problems of them, especially the problems relating to time factors. Recommendations for future research are discussed.

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The effect of onset and offset on the subjective congruence between telop and sound effects was examined by rating experiments. The synchronization of onsets was the dominant factor to create subjective congruence by the synchronization　between　sound　and moving picture. When the on sets of sound and moving picture were synchronized and their offsets were not synchronized, the subjective congruence was as high as when both the onsets and offsets were synchronized. The effect of changing pattern between visual brightness and auditory loudness tended to be dominant at the latter half of the telop pattern. When the changing pattern between brightness and loudness in the former half and did not in the latter half, the subjective congruence was lower than when changing pattern between brightness and loudness corresponded throughout the telop pattern.

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