Analysis and synthesis of the violin playing style of Heifetz and Oistrakh
Our experiment on expressive synthesis contains two tasks. The first task is to synthesize excerpts that are part of our dataset (i.e. excerpts that have been observed in the analysis stage), in order to test the feasibility of our proposed features and parameters to simulate the fine structure of the original sound. Here, we take Brahms' Violin Concerto, Mov. I, bars 129-132, and Sibelius' Violin Concerto, Mov. III, bars 133-135 as examples. To receive a synthetic sound that looks like the original, the statistical parameters are from the excerpt itself. In other words, we calculate the parameters of each of the two excerpts independently, and apply them to synthesize the playing style of Heifetz or Oistrakh. The second task is to synthesize an excerpt outside of the dataset, Beethoven's Violin Sonata No.5, Op.24, Mov. I, bars 1-10, which is also known as Spring. The parameters, however, are from the entire dataset, because we do not have any prior knowledge on the expressive parameters of Spring. In other words, we want to test via this task whether a computer is able to imitate the two violinists' playing style on an excerpt, which is not collected in the dataset.
Task 1: Synthetic excerpts from the dataset
The original sources of these music pieces are of gramophone recordings, which include background accompaniment such as cello or second violin and the white noise.
To avoid the influence of the background accompaniment, we use a high-pass filter to remove it.
In Sibelius' case, the threshold is 250 Hz, since the lowest note of this excerpt is 277 Hz,
while in Brahms' case, the threshold is 300 Hz, since the lowest note of this excerpt is 311 Hz.
| Original version(from gramophone recordings) | |
| Sibelius' VC, Op.47, Mov III, bars 133-135 | Brahms' VC, Op.77, Mov I, bars 129-132 |
| HeifetzWavFile | HeifetzWavFile |
| OistrakhWavFile | OistrakhWavFile |
In task 1, the synthetic parameters are from the original excerpt.
For the similarity between the original and synthesis versions, some post-processings are adopted. That is, we adjust the volume of synthesis version to make the energy equal to the original version, which has also been modified by the high-pass filter.
| Synthesis version(based on proposed features) | ||
| Sibelius' VC, Op.47,Mov III,bars 133-135 | Brahms' VC, Op.77,Mov I, bars 129-132 | |
| HeifetzWavFile | HeifetzWavFile | |
| OistrakhWavFile | OistrakhWavFile | |
Task 2: Synthetic excerpt outside of the dataset
Since we don't have the gramophone recording of Spring, the original sources are from the Youtube .
| Beethoven' VS, No.5, Op.24, Mov I, bars 1-10
Spring(from Youtube link) | |
| link 1 | link 2 |
| Heifetz | Heifetz |
| Oistrakh | Oistrakh |
For the synthesis of Spring, we narrow down the scope of excerpts to those, whose beat per minute (BPM) is around 120, according to the Allegro notation on the score of Spring. Specifically, we choose 18 excerpts from the dataset, take the mean value of each parameter over such ones, and then apply them to the synthesis system. The synthesis process is the same as the first task.
The post-processings adopted in task 1 are also applied to task 2.
| Synthesis version(based on proposed features) | ||
| Beethoven' VS, No.5, Op.24, Mov I, bars 1-10
Spring
| ||
| HeifetzWavFile | ||
| OistrakhWavFile | ||
Dataset
To compare the style of Heifetz and Oistrakh, we choose the music pieces that both of them have played before. In particular, we focus on the work recorded in the prime of their lives, for they are considered to be representative of their style.
In addition, we pick only the violin solo parts to keep the influence from the background accompaniment minimal.
As illustrated in Table 1, we select 26 excerpts from six famous violin concertos from gramophone recordings, whose information is listed in Table 2.
Table 1: Dataset Information of 26 Excerpts
| Composer | Music Name | Mov. | Bars |
| L. V. Beethoven | Violin concerto in D major, Op. 61 | I | 96, 97-98, 100-101, 128-130, 130-131, 134-136, 137-139 | II | 77, 81-82, 83 |
| J. Brahms | Violin concerto in D major, Op. 77 | I | 115-118, 124-127, 129-132 |
| P. I. Tchaikovsky | Violin concerto in D major, Op. 35 | I | 28-29, 31-33, 39-41, 105-106 |
| M. C. F. Bruch | Scottish Fantasy, Op.46 | II | 97-101, 107-109 |
| E. V. A. Lalo | Symphonie espagnole in D minor, Op. 21 | I | 41-51, 66-69 |
| J. Sibelius | Violin concerto, Op. 47 | I | 26-31 | III | 124-127, 128-130, 133-135, 146-152 |
Table 2:Dataset Information of Six Gramophone Recordings
| Composer | Music Name | Heifetz Info. | Oistrakh Info. | ||
| Label | Year | Label | Year | ||
| L. V. Beethoven | Violin concerto in D major, Op. 61 | RCA - RR 6082-M | 1959 | Columbia - FCX 817 | 1960 |
| J. Brahms | Violin concerto in D major, Op. 77 | RCA Victor Red Seal - LM-1903 | 1955 | Columbia - SAX 2411 | 1961 |
| P. I. Tchaikovsky | Violin concerto in D major, Op. 35 | RCA Victor Red Seal - LSC-2129 | 1958 | Deutsche Grammophon - DGM 18196 | 1954 |
| M. C. F. Bruch | Scottish Fantasy, Op.46 | RCA Victor Red Seal - LSC-2603 | 1962 | London Records - CS 6337 | 1962 |
| E. V. A. Lalo | Symphonie espagnole in D minor, Op. 21 | La Voix De Son Maître - FBLP 1019 | 1953 | Columbia - FCX 427 | 1955 |
| J. Sibelius | Violin concerto, Op. 47 | RCA Victor Red Seal - LM-2435 | 1960 | Columbia Odyssey - Y 30489 | 1971 |
