Studies of performance intonation and musicians’ own statements suggest that classical string instrumentalists often deviate in their intonation from equal temperament for expressive purposes. However, it is not clear to what extent corresponding perceptual preferences for intonational deviations might rely on listeners’ instrumental expertise or such contextual aspects as the metrical placement of tones. We investigated higher-education music students’ perceptual preferences for melodic intonation of local leading tones in unaccompanied classical violin performances. Recordings of 12 excerpts were manipulated in the size of ascending semitones (110, 90, or 70 cents) leading to tones that were more stable in the tonal context. Groups of violin students and music education students listened to pairs of excerpts differing only in the size of semitones and chose the intonation variant that they preferred. In the comparison between 90- and 110-cent semitones, violin students showed a stronger group consensus for preferring 90 cents. However, greater instrumental expertise did not result in a stronger overall preference for the sharpest 70-cent variant. Instead, the violin students showed an expertise-related connection between intonation preference and meter, which was not observed for the music education students. In particular, the violin students more often preferred 70-cent intonation (i.e., the sharpest leading tones) in metrically unaccented than in accented positions. In effect, this is to prefer an expressive intonation that colors the music while not challenging the harmonic structure at metrically salient tones. It is argued that understanding expressive intonation in musical performance requires consideration of the metrical context.

Melodic intonation is generally considered a central expressive means in musical performance. In Western classical music, relationships between intonation in perception and performance have shown to be less straightforward than one might expect. In the present study, we investigated leading-tone intonation for solo violin, as perceived and performed by six accomplished violinists. We selected excerpts from classical violin repertoire, each of which include ascending semitone intervals leading up to tonally stable tones. Each violinist performed the excerpts and participated in a listening study and a semi-structured interview. Prior recordings of the excerpts, manipulated in terms of the pitch of the leading tones, were used in the listening study to obtain information about each participant’s accepted perceptual range of leading-tone intonation. The violinists’ preferred semitone sizes were between 80–90 cents, on average, both in their perceptual preferences and their performance practice. This group average appeared to approximate the “standard” of leading-tone intonation that the participants consistently mentioned in their verbal protocols. However, the perceptual preferences and the performance intonation also varied both within and between individuals. Given the overall sharp standard of leading-tone intonation, even an equal-tempered leading tone might sometimes represent an expressive gesture in the violinists’ artistic practice.

Challenges of intonation derive from discrepancies between justly tuned intervals. In theoretical literature, string intonation is depicted as a balancing act between melodic and harmonic ideals, or between distinct tuning systems. However, practical string teachers’ and empirical researchers’ accounts sometimes appear to bypass such theory, focusing instead more informally on listening, kinesthetics, or tools and practice routines. In this survey study, our aim was to see how working string instructors approach questions of intonation, both as teachers and as musicians. A qualitative analysis of 95 Swedish professional string teachers’ responses reveals a rather intuitive approach to the topic, without any traces of intonation theory as such. The participants reported using a rich variety of teaching strategies, but teaching intonation was typically framed simply as helping the student find the right pitch categories. Regarding their own intonation as musicians, the emerging view was that finer pitch adjustments might succeed just by good posture, slow practice, and listening in ensemble contexts. Overcoming the constraints of this practice-based tradition remains an important challenge for string pedagogy in higher music education. 

String intonation is a topic of pedagogical interest, but also a domain involving implicit, embodied knowledge that may be hard to convey in words. The present study investigated how prominent string musicians approach expressive aspects of intonation, when only verbal means of pedagogical communication are possible. A search through the professional periodical The Strad with the combined keywords “expressive” and “intonation” generated a set of articles that were subjected to narrative analysis. Four approaches emerged in this textual material: Casals’ “expressive intonation” as reference; expressive aspects of intonation as implied between the lines; ambiguous communication surrounding the connection between intonation and expressivity; and intonation and expressivity as separate concepts. Musicians’ strategies for verbal communication varied greatly, and intonation was clearly described as an expressive means in only a quarter of the articles. It is argued that passing on the tacit knowledge of expressive intonation requires not only performance experiences and artistic insights, but also a well-developed and accurate vocabulary in teaching.