A Longitudinal Study Investigating Synchronization in a Singing Quintet

Research suggests that synchronization between musicians during ensemble performances can be affected by the rhythmic or tonal complexity of the piece being performed and by group roles such as leader-follower relationships. Since previous studies have mostly been conducted within single performance sessions, developmental aspects of interpersonal synchronization in ensembles remain underinvestigated. This longitudinal study followed a newly formed singing ensemble from initial rehearsals to the performance stage in order to investigate the evolution of synchronization between advanced singing students during a university term of study in relation to the musical content of the piece and leader-follower relationships.

An advanced postgraduate singing quintet was recorded using head-worn microphones and laryngograph electrodes to allow fundamental frequency evaluation of the individual voices. The quintet, formed to complete a 1-year Master’s programme in ensemble singing, rehearsed two pieces composed for the study, during five rehearsals over 3 months. Singers practised the same pieces in a randomized order across rehearsals and performed three repetitions of the same pieces before and after each rehearsal, resulting in six recordings per piece/rehearsal. Audio and laryngograph data of the repeated performances were collected, and synchronization was measured by extracting note times from the fundamental frequency values. The asynchronies of the two pieces before and after rehearsals were calculated and compared both within rehearsals (pre and post) and between rehearsals (rehearsals 1-5).

Results demonstrate an increase in the precision of synchronization over the course of study, depending on the piece being rehearsed, and a more variable synchronization for the more rhythmically complex piece. Results also show changes in the distribution of the tendency to precede all co-performers across rehearsals, which became equally distributed among the musicians during the last rehearsal. The results reported here could have important implications for the tailoring of rehearsal strategies that could improve interpersonal synchronization between musicians during ensemble performances.