Respiration Reflecting Musical Expression: Analysis of Respiration during Musical Performance by Inductive Logic Programming

In this paper, we describe the analysis of respiration during musical performance by Inductive Logic Programming (ILP). For effective musical performance, it is one of the most important factors to control one’s respiration in response to the aspects of the music performed. It is, however, often difficult even for experts to explain how to do so clearly. We measured respiration during cello performance by using a respiration sensor, and tried to extract rules of respiration from the data together with musical/performance background knowledge such as harmonic progression and bowing direction. As a result it was found that there was repeatability and regularity in performers’ respiration pattern during musical performance, and then consistency in respiration with regard to musical structure was confirmed. It was also discovered that players tend to exhale at the beginning of new large musical structures, and inhale immediately before the change of keys.