Is expressive timing relational invariant under tempo transformation?

This empirical study is concerned with examining the relation between tempo and expressive timing in music performance. This was investigated by asking listeners (N = 307) to distinguish between an original recording and a tempo-transformed version in a musical genre of their preference (jazz or classical). A majority of the participants was able to correctly identify the original recording. This result is taken as support for the tempo-specific timing hypothesis which suggests that the relationship between timing variations and average tempo may function as a cue for identification of a real performance, and counter-evidence for the relationally invariant timing hypothesis that predicts a tempo-transformed performance will sound equally natural.