Applications / Evaluation / Tasting Polls / Introduction




This activity is the kind of thing music critics normally do when evaluating musical works. Without really knowing why, they manifest personal, intuitive preferences for certain works (or parts thereof), authors, or styles. This is precisely what you will be invited to do. Without any music score, name of author, or other indication of what is going on, you are asked to manifest your preference between a few musical examples (from as little as 2 to as many as 4). You send us your evaluation and we tabulate the average of the results. One could compare this to a blindfold test between a well-known brand and the ubiquitous "Brand-X", with the all-important difference that we do not expect any specific choice to win. We really want to know what the popular preference is.

It sounds great !
All of us know pieces of music which "sound great". The aim of this game is to progress from the uni-level "sounds great" to the multi-level "sounds greater". When 2 similar but not identical passages are compared, which one "sounds greater" than the other ? This is not always an easy thing to accomplish and several hearings, possibly spread out over several days, are occasionally required before reaching a decision. It is not advisable to try this in a hurry, or in a state of stress. Like everything else, one becomes better with experience and the desire toquantify qualitygradually becomes addictive. This process of evaluating is what Tasting Polls and Analysis are all about.

How does this work ?
1. From the list below, in which a short description is given of the material involved,
     you choose the Poll which tickles your fancy and click on its name to reach its specific page.
2. On that page you will find the choice of several similar examples

catp00a catp00b catp00c catp00d

     indicatedSpade,Heart,Club, andDiamond
          (which originally indicated the values 1, 2, 3, and 4).
     You will hear the example by clicking on the image.
3. You are asked to inscribe these examples in order of increasing satisfaction,
     starting with the least desirable (on the left) and ending with the most desirable (on the right).
          Just the initials (S, H, C, D) will suffice.
               In case of indecision (as little as possible), place 2 adjacent letters in parentheses.
     Points will be attributed 0, 1, 2, 3, as required, from left to right,
               cases of indecision accorded the average point,
          then transformed into percentage proportions.
4. You send us your evaluation and we thank you cordially by return email.
     You will then have access to the Revised Page of that specific Poll on which you will find -
          the average of the evaluations,
          with the music scores of the examples and possibly certain comments
               which will enable you to better understand what the Poll was all about.

List

Poll 1.A short 4-bar antecedent Chord Pattern with 4 choices
Poll 2.An 8-bar popular antecedent chord Pattern with 3 choices
Poll 3.Harmonizing a popular consequent descending scale with 2 choices
Poll 4.Ending a classical cA on the DOMINANT with 3 choices
Poll 5.Ending a classical development on the DOMINANT with 2 choices
Poll 6.A TONIC pedal in Bars 5-8 with 3 choices
Poll 7.The strongest Consequent with 4 choices

To theAnalysis main menu


Previous Top Next