Successful musical interpretation in performance involves the ability to go beyond the written notation, to “take the music off the page,” so to speak. Music theoretical analysis often stops at written notation, where performers only begin their interpretive processes.

The impression of ensemble sound and blending between musical instruments is an important feature relevant in music composition, orchestration, stage acoustics adaption, and virtual acoustics. Within a larger project, we perform research on musical instruments and the effect of blending.

In this video made for the 2020 meeting of Music Theory Midwest, Reymore describes some of her timbre research: building a cognitive linguistic model of timbre qualia, using the model to construct profiles for orchestral instruments, and applying these findings in analysis of the first movement of Mahler's first symphony, where Reymore looks at form and at the climactic breakthrough, or Durchbruch, moment.