Adolescent Musicians' Perceptions of Conductors within Musical Context

Attention to subtle changes in music, whether inadvertent or purposeful, occupies a great deal of practice and rehearsal time for the performer. Regardless of the extremely subtle acoustic changes that have been found to be perceptible within almost all studies, it is the total overall effect that most occupies the individual listener. This study investigated perception of digitally edited performances of Johann Strauss's Blue Danube Waltz, all performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra with various conductors across an 18-year period. Two groups of string musicians in grades 7 through 12 participated (N = 104). One group was an intact class; the second was a group of summer camp students. All participants listened to two conditions: (a) audio only and (b) audiovideo combination. Results indicated that there were no significant differences between groups and that no one was able to identify correctly that there were five different conductors in the audio-only condition. Results were much the same as earlier research with college students. In addition, many students indicated that there were differences in the audio portions of the two conditions when in fact there were not.