Are Stopped Strings Preferred in Sad Music?

Are Stopped Strings Preferred in Sad Music?. Huron, D. & Trevor, C. Empirical Musicology Review, 11(2):261, 2016.
doi abstract bibtex

String instruments may be played either with open strings (where the string vibrates between the bridge and a hard wooden nut) or with stopped strings (where the string vibrates between the bridge and a performer's finger pressed against the fingerboard). Compared with open strings, stopped strings permit the use of vibrato and exhibit a darker timbre. Inspired by research on the timbre of sad speech, we test whether there is a tendency to use stopped strings in nominally sad music. Specifically, we compare the proportion of potentially open-to-stopped strings in a sample of slow, minor-mode movements with matched major-mode movements. By way of illustration, a preliminary analysis of Samuel Barber's famous Adagio from his Opus 11 string quartet shows that the selected key (B-flat minor) provides the optimum key for minimizing open string tones. However, examination of a broader controlled sample of quartet movements by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven failed to exhibit the conjectured relationship. Instead, major-mode movements were found to avoid possible open strings more than slow minor-mode movements.

@Article{          huron.ea2016-are,
    author       = {Huron, David and Trevor, Caitlyn},
    year         = {2016},
    title        = {Are Stopped Strings Preferred in Sad Music?},
    abstract     = {String instruments may be played either with open strings
                   (where the string vibrates between the bridge and a hard
                   wooden nut) or with stopped strings (where the string
                   vibrates between the bridge and a performer's finger
                   pressed against the fingerboard). Compared with open
                   strings, stopped strings permit the use of vibrato and
                   exhibit a darker timbre. Inspired by research on the
                   timbre of sad speech, we test whether there is a tendency
                   to use stopped strings in nominally sad music.
                   Specifically, we compare the proportion of potentially
                   open-to-stopped strings in a sample of slow, minor-mode
                   movements with matched major-mode movements. By way of
                   illustration, a preliminary analysis of Samuel Barber's
                   famous Adagio from his Opus 11 string quartet shows that
                   the selected key (B-flat minor) provides the optimum key
                   for minimizing open string tones. However, examination of
                   a broader controlled sample of quartet movements by Haydn,
                   Mozart and Beethoven failed to exhibit the conjectured
                   relationship. Instead, major-mode movements were found to
                   avoid possible open strings more than slow minor-mode
                   movements.},
    doi          = {10.18061/emr.v11i2.4968},
    issn         = {1559-5749},
    journal      = {Empirical Musicology Review},
    keywords     = {barber,music analysis with computers,s adagio,sad
                   music,stopped strings,string instruments},
    mendeley-tags= {music analysis with computers},
    number       = {2},
    pages        = {261},
    volume       = {11}
}

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