The Inconspicuous Acceleration in Qin Music: An Insider's View with Validation by a Perceptive Study

Qin, the musical instrument of the Chinese literati, is characterized by its subtle expressiveness. There is often a gradual acceleration of the tempo which is considered inconspicuous by insiders. To validate this inconspicuousness, a comparative perceptive study was done in an undergraduate music class. The students' impression on acceleration and their ability to identify correctly the tempo change of a section of a traditional qin piece and a traditional zheng piece (as control) were compared. Both pieces nearly doubled the tempo in the one minute section. Out of 16 students, 5 and 14 noted some acceleration, and 1 and 7 students measured the tempo change correctly, for the qin and zheng piece respectively (p value 0.004 and 0.07 respectively). The relative inconspicuousness of the acceleration in the qin piece is thus demonstrated. The psychoacoustic features of the inconspicuousness, the generalizability of the finding, and the aesthetic implications are analyzed.