Old instruments or new? Listeners’ preferences for Baroque violin music performed on period and modern instruments

When performing music of earlier eras, musicians commonly perform on period instruments, yet there is limited empirical evidence regarding listeners’ perceptions of those instruments compared with modern instruments. In two experiments, we examined listeners’ preferences for Baroque violin music performed on period and modern instruments. In Experiment 1, collegiate musicians listened to an excerpt from Telemann’s Concerto à 4 Violini No. 1 performed both on period instruments and modern instruments and indicated which performance they preferred. Results revealed a small but nonsignificant preference for the period instruments and participants explained that their preferences were primarily due to elements related to tuning, intonation, and key. In Experiment 2, participants listened to both recordings and rated their enjoyment and perceived performance quality. However, participants heard one of the three types of framing information (congruent, incongruent, or none) regarding the instruments used in the recording (period vs. modern instruments). Participants provided significantly higher enjoyment ratings when they were told they were listening to period instrument recordings, whether or not they actually heard period instruments. However, significant condition by order interaction effects indicate that participants’ perceptions were further influenced by the order of recordings.