From Soundscape to Musicscape: Applying Soundscape Attributes to Cretan Folk Dances

1. Introduction

Soundscape research has emerged as an interdisciplinary field concerned with the perceptual, contextual, and affective interpretation of acoustic environments. Unlike traditional acoustic approaches that focus primarily on physical sound characteristics, soundscape studies emphasize how individuals perceive, experience, and evaluate sounds within a specific context. This human-centered perspective is reflected in the ISO 12913 series, which defines a soundscape as the acoustic environment as perceived, experienced, and/or understood by a person or people, in context [1]. By distinguishing the physical acoustic environment from its perceptual interpretation, the soundscape approach has shifted attention from sound as a measurable phenomenon to sound as a component of human experience.

A central contribution of the ISO 12913 series is the introduction of standardized perceptual attributes for the assessment of acoustic environments (pleasant, annoying, eventful, uneventful, chaotic, monotonous, vibrant, calm) [2]. Based on an initial framework by Axelsson [3], these attributes provide a structured approach for describing auditory experience and enable the systematic evaluation of soundscapes across different contexts. In addition, by integrating a standardized conceptual framework [1], harmonized procedures for data collection and reporting [2], and systematic approaches for data analysis [4], the ISO 12913 series has established soundscape research as a mature and coherent methodological framework for investigating human responses to acoustic environments. As a result, the soundscape approach offers a foundation for examining how complex acoustic experiences are perceived, evaluated, and interpreted across different contexts.

The concept of musicscape emerged primarily from research on environmental influences in service settings. Building on Bitner’s Servicescape framework [5], which identified music as one of several ambient environmental conditions affecting customer experience, Oakes [6] proposed the musicscape as a conceptual model specifically focused on the role of music within service environments. The suggested framework synthesized empirical findings concerning the relationships between musical variables, such as tempo, volume, genre, and harmony, and behavioral outcomes including mood, perceived duration, purchase behavior, and approach–avoidance responses. In this context, musicscape was conceived as a means of understanding how music shapes human experience within a particular environment.

Since its introduction, the term musicscape has been adopted and interpreted across a wide range of disciplinary contexts. Within tourism and hospitality research, musicscape has been examined as a semiotic tourism product in cruise ship environments [7], as a component of restaurant experiences [8], and as an element of hotel lobby atmospheres influencing visitor perceptions and behaviors [9]. The concept has also been employed in urban tourism studies to investigate the role of music in shaping destination experiences [10], while broader applications in sensory marketing and destination experience design have highlighted music as a contributor to multisensory place-making processes [11]. Beyond physical environments, the notion of a televisual musicscape has been introduced in media studies to describe the interaction between music and visual narratives [12]. Similarly, the concept of semiotic musicscapes has been proposed to capture the imagined, embodied, emotional, and symbolic dimensions of musical engagement and listening experiences [13].

Within ethnomusicology and music studies, the concept has frequently been associated with the cultural, social, and symbolic dimensions of musical activity, emphasizing relationships between music, communities, heritage, and place. Ethnomusicological applications have further highlighted the role of musicscapes in the construction of place identity, collective memory, and cultural meaning. For example, musicscapes have been examined as culturally produced sonic environments shaped by nostalgic representations of urban heritage [14], as well as through creation and transformation of sonic identities through musical practices and cultural performances [15]. Collectively, these studies demonstrate the value of the musicscape concept for understanding music not only as an artistic expression but also as a constituent element of lived and culturally embedded auditory environments.

Despite this adoption, musicscape remains largely conceptual and lacks the methodological standardization that characterizes contemporary soundscape research. Existing interpretations primarily focus on cultural, geographical, or behavioral aspects of music and rarely address the perceptual organization of musical experience. Consequently, unlike soundscape research, musicscape lacks standardized perceptual descriptors capable of supporting systematic characterization and comparison across musical repertoires. This methodological gap motivates the exploration of a perceptually informed approach drawing on methodological principles established in soundscape research.

Against this background, the present study explores the applicability of soundscape-derived perceptual attributes within a musicscape context. Using a corpus of Cretan folk dance recordings as a case study, the study investigates whether perceptual attributes derived from the ISO 12913 framework can be used to characterize and differentiate distinct Cretan dance forms according to listener assessment.

The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. Section 2 discusses the conceptual choice of adopting musicscape as the focus of the present study. Section 3 presents the methodology adopted in this study, Section 4 reports the results, Section 5 discusses the findings in relation to the broader soundscape and musicscape perspectives, and Section 6 concludes the paper.

2. Musicscape as the Conceptual Focus of the Present Study

The term musicscape is adopted in the present study because the object of investigation extends beyond musical structure itself and focuses on the perceptual experience of musical expressions as they are encountered, interpreted, and understood within cultural contexts. While music primarily refers to organized sonic material and its structural characteristics, including elements such as rhythm, melody, harmony, and form, musicscape emphasizes the experiential dimension that emerges from the interaction between sound, listener, cultural meaning, previous experience, and context. Consequently, the present study does not aim to characterize musical structures or compositional properties per se, but rather to investigate how culturally embedded musical experiences are perceptually organized and differentiated by listeners.

This distinction is particularly relevant for Cretan folk dances, where musical expressions cannot be fully separated from the social and cultural practices in which they traditionally occur. Cretan dances represent more than autonomous musical works; they are embedded in communal activities, celebrations, social interactions, and processes of cultural identity formation. Although the present experiments employed isolated recordings under controlled listening conditions, the evaluated stimuli represent expressions that ordinarily exist within broader cultural environments and acquire meaning through their relationship with these practices. Therefore, examining these recordings through a musicscape perspective allows consideration of the perceptual experience associated with culturally situated musical expressions rather than only their internal sonic organization.

Although soundscape research and musicscape-oriented studies have traditionally addressed different auditory phenomena, both approaches share a fundamental interest in how listeners perceive, interpret, and assign meaning to complex auditory experiences. In both cases, perception is not determined exclusively by physical sound characteristics but emerges through the interaction between acoustic information, emotional responses, previous experience, cultural expectations, and contextual factors. This conceptual convergence suggests that perceptual approaches developed within soundscape research may provide useful perspectives for investigating musicscape experiences. The ISO 12913 framework, which has demonstrated the ability to systematically describe and differentiate perceived acoustic environments, may offer relevant methodological principles for exploring the perceptual organization of culturally embedded musical experiences. Thus, the present study adopts musicscape as its conceptual focus because it provides a perspective aligned with the listener-oriented and context-dependent principles that underpin contemporary soundscape research.

3. Methods

3.1. Musical Sample Selection

Cretan folk dances originate from Crete, the largest island of Greece, whose musical tradition constitutes a distinctive and enduring component of the broader Greek cultural heritage. The musical accompaniment of these dances is strongly associated with traditional instruments such as the Cretan lyra [16], which contribute to the characteristic sonic identity of the island’s folk repertoire. This subsection describes the procedure used to construct the musical corpus employed in the listening experiments. Specifically, it outlines the selection of the Cretan folk dances included in the study, the determination of the corpus size, and the criteria used to select the individual musical recordings.

Ethnomusicological literature was reviewed to identify representative Cretan folk dances for inclusion in the study. Relevant studies [17,18], identified five Cretan folk dances as the most prominent and widely recognized elements of the Cretan folk dance repertoire: Pentozali, Siganos, Sousta, Maleviziotis, and Syrtos. The Sousta is set to a light, elastic melody with a “spring-like” rhythmic feel, giving it a lyrical, flowing quality that supports its playful, couple-based interaction. The Siganos is musically slower and more restrained, with a calm, steady tempo that often serves as an introductory or foundational melodic structure for other dances. The Maleviziotis is driven by a fast, rhythmic and sharply accented musical pulse, with repetitive motifs and strong rhythmic accents that push the energy forward and allow sudden changes in intensity. The Syrtos is more melodic and expansive, built on multiple tunes and phrases that create a flowing, narrative musical development. Finally, the Pentozali has the most powerful and structured musical form, with a strong accelerating rhythm, distinct musical phrases, and a sense of continuous build-up in intensity, making it the most dramatic and “heroic” in sound among the five [17]. These Cretan dances constitute core elements of Cretan musical culture and collectively capture a broad range of rhythmic, melodic, and expressive characteristics within the repertoire.

Regarding the size of the corpus, several methodological considerations were taken into account, including the overall duration of the listening experiment, participant workload, and common practice in soundscape research. Since each musical excerpt had a duration of 30 s and participants were required to evaluate every stimulus using the eight perceptual attributes defined in ISO 12913-2, the total number of recordings had to remain compatible with a listening session of reasonable duration in order to minimize listener fatigue and maintain consistent attention throughout the experiment. Including the introductory instructions, familiarization procedure, and perceptual evaluations, the complete experimental session was designed to last approximately 40 min. In addition, the corpus size was informed by established soundscape listening-test protocols, where experiments commonly employ approximately 25–30 audio recordings to provide sufficient perceptual diversity while avoiding excessive cognitive demands on participants [19,20]. Considering these practical and methodological constraints, and aiming to achieve balanced representation across the selected dance repertoire, a corpus of 25 musical excerpts was assembled, consisting of five representative recordings from each of the five Cretan folk dance categories. This design provided comparable coverage of each dance form while maintaining an experimental protocol consistent with established perceptual evaluation practices.

Individual recordings were selected through a literature-informed [17,18], screening process designed to ensure that the resulting corpus was representative of the characteristic musical features of each dance form while maintaining adequate technical quality. An initial pool of approximately 50 recordings was compiled from commercially available releases and archival sources. The recordings were independently reviewed by the two researchers, both musicians familiar with the Cretan traditional repertoire, and a final set of recordings was selected through consensus. The selection was guided by predefined inclusion criteria, including stylistic consistency with the traditional form of each dance, preservation of its characteristic rhythmic, melodic, and instrumental features, and satisfactory audio quality. Recordings incorporating substantial contemporary arrangements, cross-genre influences, or fusion elements were excluded in order to maintain stylistic consistency across the corpus. Likewise, recordings exhibiting excessive background noise, distortion, or other technical deficiencies that could influence perceptual evaluation were not included. Following this screening process, five representative recordings were selected for each of the five dance categories, resulting in a corpus of 25 musical excerpts. Detailed information regarding all musical excerpts included in the study is provided in Appendix A (Table A1).

3.2. Listening Tests Procedure

In total, 32 persons participated in the listening tests (15 males, 17 females, M_age= 29.3 years, SD_age=4.2 years). All participants were residents of Crete, Greece and self-reported no hearing impairment at the time of the study. Participation was voluntary, and all participants provided informed consent before taking part in the study. Prior to the listening task, participants reported their familiarity with Cretan traditional music. Familiarity was assessed through a self-report question intended to capture previous exposure to and experience with the musical repertoire under investigation, as previous familiarity may influence perceptual evaluations of music. All participants reported being familiar with Cretan traditional music. This outcome was expected, as all participants originated from Crete, where Cretan folk music and dance constitute a prominent component of local cultural life and are commonly encountered through community events, celebrations, and everyday cultural practices. Consequently, familiarity was considered a shared contextual characteristic of the participant sample rather than an experimental variable. The implications of this homogeneous familiarity for the interpretation and generalizability of the findings are discussed in Section 5.3.

During the experiments, the acoustic stimuli were presented to the participants through the same type of circumaural, acoustically open headphones (Sennheiser HD 650). Playback was operated via a digital audio workstation deployed on a laptop and delivered using an external audio interface Focusrite Scarlett Solo (Focusrite plc, High Wycombe, UK). Prior to the listening tests, all audio excerpts were normalized to an integrated loudness level of −20 LUFS using the ITU-R BS.1770 loudness measurement standard. Loudness normalization was performed using Audacity version 3.7.5 (Audacity Team, USA). This was applied to reduce potential biases arising from differences in recording level across excerpts while preserving the original dynamic characteristics of the recordings. Since this study constitutes an extension of the SATP framework, headphone calibration was performed using the open-circuit voltage (OCV) calibration method [21], as described in the SATP dataset documentation [22]. The OCV method establishes a relationship between the headphone output voltage and the corresponding acoustic output level by considering the sensitivity of the headphones. The original SATP calibration procedure was developed for soundscape reproduction. However, the present study focuses on controlled music listening, where lower playback levels are commonly preferred to reduce listener fatigue and avoid potential effects of excessive loudness on perceptual judgments. Therefore, after establishing the playback calibration using the OCV method, the level was adjusted, at a preferred reproduction level for music according to the literature [23]. This adjustment maintained the calibrated relationship between the playback system and the stimuli while adapting the absolute listening level to the requirements of music perception experiments. For experimental consistency, all audio excerpts were trimmed to a duration of 30 s, and 10 ms fade-ins and fade-outs were applied. The excerpts preserved the characteristic musical features of each dance, including rhythm, melodic development, instrumentation, and performance style.

The experiments were performed in listening rooms, with a background sound level of less than 40 dB(A). All participants were tested individually. On average, the experiment lasted 40 min for a participant, including instructions and pauses. Upon arriving, a brief training session was conducted to familiarize participants with the experimental procedure. Participants individually experienced all the 25 audio stimuli presented in random order over consecutive sessions. After a 30-second exposure, participants were asked to assess each sound stimulus in a scale for each one of the 8 attributes of ISO/TS 12913-2. The scale ranging from 0 (‘strongly disagree’) to 100 (‘strongly agree’) and was presented with a 100-step visual analogue scale (VAS). Participants rated each audio excerpt by a vertical mark on the scale, representing how well the attribute matched their perception. Participants were presented with the Greek versions of the perceptual attributes obtained from the Soundscape Attributes Translation Project [19]. The translations were previously developed and reported in [24] and further evaluated in [25]. The data collection procedures were conducted under the ethical approval granted to the broader research project by the Committee on Ethics and Deontology of Research (C.E.D.R.) of the Technical University of Crete (Protocol No. 20/29.09.2020).

3.3. Data Analysis

Initially, descriptive statistics were calculated for each perceptual attribute and Cretan folk dance category to identify general perceptual trends within the dataset. Statistical analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics Version 26.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA).

To further investigate relationships among musical excerpts and dance categories, multivariate visualization techniques were applied to the perceptual data. Since each musical excerpt was described by multiple perceptual attributes, projection-based methods were used to represent the multidimensional perceptual space, allowing similarities and differences among recordings to be examined. Linear projections were generated using the circular placement method [26], in which perceptual attributes are arranged around a circular space and combined to determine the position of each recording within the resulting projection.

To identify the attribute combinations that provided the most informative representations of the different Cretan folk dance categories, candidate projections were systematically evaluated and ranked using the VizRank method [27]. VizRank evaluates the usefulness of each projection by examining how effectively the projected data can be separated according to class/category membership. For this purpose, a k-nearest neighbours (k-NN) classifier [28], similar to the approach described in [29], was applied to the projected data. Higher projection scores indicate that the corresponding perceptual attribute combinations provide greater discrimination among dance categories. In the k-NN implementation used by VizRank, neighbour contributions were weighted according to the function $e^{-t^2/s^2}$, where t represents the distance to the evaluated example and s is selected so that the contribution of the most distant neighbour among the k neighbours is equal to 0.001. All visualization and machine-learning analyses were conducted using the Orange data mining toolbox for Python [30].

4. Results

4.1. Descriptive Analysis of Perceptual Ratings across Cretan Folk Dances

Figure 1 presents the distributions of participant ratings for the eight ISO 12913-2 perceptual attributes across the five Cretan folk dance forms. The violin plots show differences in perceptual responses among dance categories. Across all dances, pleasant ratings tend to be relatively high, while more pronounced differences are observed for attributes related to perceptual activation and emotional intensity, particularly eventful, vibrant, chaotic, calm, and uneventful.

A clear contrast emerges between dance forms with high and low activation-related perceptual profiles. Pentozali consistently exhibits the highest ratings for eventful, vibrant, and chaotic, together with the lowest ratings for calm and uneventful, forming a highly activated and intense perceptual profile. In contrast, Siganos is characterized by the highest values of calm and relatively elevated uneventful ratings, indicating a more relaxed and low-activation perceptual profile. Sousta, Syrtos, and Maleviziotis occupy intermediate positions across most attributes, although each displays a distinct configuration of perceptual characteristics, particularly in vibrant, monotonous, and eventful ratings.

The violin plots further reveal differences in within-category variability. Some dance forms, particularly Pentozali, show broader dispersion in ratings for high-activation attributes, suggesting greater variability in participant perception across recordings. In contrast, Siganos exhibits comparatively narrower distributions, indicating more consistent perceptual evaluations.

To summarize the distributional patterns shown in Figure 1, Figure 2 presents the mean perceptual profiles of the five dance forms across the eight ISO attributes. The mean profiles confirm the distinct perceptual signatures associated with each dance category and highlight the overall separation between highly activated dances, such as Pentozali, and lower-activation dances, such as Siganos. Maleviziotis, Sousta, and Syrtos occupy intermediate positions within the perceptual space, remaining distinguishable through their specific combinations of perceptual attributes.

The internal relationships among perceptual attributes are further explored in Figure 3, which presents Spearman correlation matrices computed for each dance form and for the full dataset. Across the repertoire, several consistent relationships emerge. Pleasant is generally positively associated with vibrant and eventful, and negatively associated with annoying, indicating that more positively evaluated stimuli tend to co-occur with higher activation and lower negative affect.

In contrast, calm is consistently negatively associated with eventful, chaotic, and vibrant, reflecting the opposing structure between low- and high-activation perceptual dimensions. However, the strength and configuration of these relationships vary across dance forms, indicating that perceptual attributes are not combined in identical ways across the repertoire. For example, Pentozali shows stronger positive coupling among high-activation attributes such as eventful, vibrant, and chaotic, reinforcing its internally coherent high-intensity perceptual profiles. Siganos, in contrast, shows stronger associations involving calm and weaker coupling among activation-related attributes. The remaining dance forms exhibit more mixed correlation patterns, suggesting more heterogeneous perceptual organization.

Taken together, Figure 1, Figure 2 and Figure 3 demonstrate that Cretan folk dance musicscapes are characterized not only by perceptual profiles, but also by differences in distributional spread and internal perceptual structure. These findings indicate that the ISO 12913 perceptual attributes provide a structured descriptive approach for examining listener evaluations of musical excerpts within the present corpus.

4.2. Multivariate Visualization of Perceptual Data

To further investigate the multivariate organization of the perceptual data, a series of projection-based analyses were conducted using attribute combinations identified through the VizRank procedure. These projections aimed to evaluate the extent to which combinations of ISO 12913-2 perceptual attributes support the visualization and differentiation of Cretan folk dance forms.

Figure 4 presents the highest-ranked three-attribute projection. The resulting perceptual space is organized around the dimensions of Uneventful, Calm, and Annoying/Chaotic, revealing clear differences among dance forms. Siganos forms a distinct cluster towards the calm region of the space, consistent with its low-activation perceptual profile. In contrast, Pentozali is positioned towards the chaotic (Fig.4a) and annoying pole (Fig.4b), reflecting its greater perceived intensity and activation. Maleviziotis is associated primarily with the uneventful dimension, whereas Sousta and Syrtos occupy intermediate locations closer to the centre of the projection. Although some overlap is observed among these latter categories, the projection reveals a coherent perceptual structure and demonstrates that a small number of soundscape-derived attributes can already provide meaningful discrimination among dance forms.

Figure 5 presents the highest-ranked four-attribute projection. Compared with the three-dimensional solution, the inclusion of an additional perceptual dimension further clarifies the relationships among dance categories. In Figure 5a, the projection is structured around the dimensions Uneventful, Eventful, Chaotic, and Monotonous. Maleviziotis is primarily associated with the uneventful-eventful quadrant, forming a distinct cluster separated from the remaining dance forms. Pentozali and Sousta occupy the region characterized by higher levels of chaotic and monotonous, respectively. A complementary perspective is provided by Figure 5b. In this representation, Siganos forms a compact cluster within the calm–uneventful quadrant, highlighting its perceptually relaxed character. Maleviziotis remains strongly associated with the uneventful dimension but is more clearly separated from the remaining categories. Pentozali occupies the chaotic–annoying region of the space, while Sousta shows a similar directional tendency but with less extreme values. Syrtos is located near the centre of the projection, bridging the calmer and more activated regions of the perceptual space. Compared with the three-dimensional solution, the four-dimensional projections reduce category overlap and reveal more clearly defined cluster boundaries, thereby enhancing the perceptual differentiation among dance forms.

Figure 6 presents the highest-ranked five-attribute projections, providing the most detailed representation of the perceptual relationships among the Cretan folk dance forms. In Figure 6a, the perceptual space is defined by the dimensions Eventful, Uneventful, Calm, Chaotic, and Monotonous. The inclusion of five attributes produces a highly structured organization in which the dance categories occupy distinct regions of the projection. Maleviziotis forms a compact cluster associated primarily with the eventful and uneventful dimensions, remaining clearly separated from the other dance forms. Siganos is positioned towards the calm region of the space, with several recordings extending further along the calm axis than any other category, reinforcing its perceptually relaxed character. Pentozali and Sousta occupy the lower portion of the projection, sharing associations with the monotonous and chaotic dimensions. Although some proximity is observed between these two categories, Pentozali exhibits a stronger tendency towards the monotonous pole, whereas Sousta is positioned closer to the chaotic direction. Syrtos is concentrated near the centre of the perceptual space, overlapping partially with Siganos but remaining distinguishable through its lower calmness and greater proximity to the central region.

A complementary perspective is provided by Figure 6b, where the perceptual space is organized around the dimensions Monotonous, Vibrant, Chaotic, Uneventful, and Calm. This representation further enhances category separation and reveals a clearer partitioning of the repertoire into perceptually coherent groups. Maleviziotis forms a highly compact cluster in the vibrant–uneventful region, indicating strong internal consistency and clear separation from the remaining dance forms. Pentozali and Sousta occupy the upper-left portion of the projection and are associated with higher levels of monotonous and chaotic, although Sousta extends further towards the chaotic dimension. Siganos remains strongly associated with calm and occupies the right-hand side of the projection, while Syrtos is positioned between Siganos and the more activated dance forms, acting as an intermediate category. Compared with the lower-dimensional solutions, the five-attribute projections reveal the most pronounced cluster structure, minimizing overlap among categories and demonstrating that the combined ISO-derived perceptual attributes provide a robust basis for differentiating Cretan folk dance forms according to their perceptual profiles.

Taken together, the projection analyses show that combinations of ISO 12913-2 perceptual attributes can be used to visualize relationships among the evaluated Cretan folk dance recordings and to examine differences associated with the selected dance categories. Across all projection dimensionalities, consistent spatial organization emerges, with dance forms occupying distinct regions according to characteristic combinations of attributes. The increasing separation observed from the three- to the five-attribute solutions further supports the applicability of soundscape-derived perceptual approach for the characterization, visualization, and differentiation of Cretan folk dances.

5. Discussion

5.1. Interpretation of findings

The present study explored the applicability of perceptual attributes derived from the ISO 12913 soundscape framework within a musicscape context, using Cretan folk dances as a case study. The findings indicate that ISO-derived perceptual attributes were able to reveal variations in listener assessments among the evaluated dance forms and provided a structured perceptual space for examining relationships among the recordings.

Although all evaluated recordings belong to the same regional tradition, differences were observed across several perceptual dimensions, particularly those related to activation, such as eventful, vibrant, chaotic, calm, and uneventful. The projection analyses further illustrated that combinations of these attributes provided perceptual representations in which the evaluated dance forms occupied different regions of the perceptual space. These findings suggest that listener-based evaluations using soundscape-derived attributes can capture variations in the perceived characteristics of Cretan folk dances.

The results further indicate that the combination of multiple perceptual attributes provides additional insight into the organization of the evaluated recordings. The increasing separation observed in higher-dimensional projections suggests that considering several perceptual attributes simultaneously may offer a more comprehensive representation of listener assessments than individual attributes considered separately. Rather than replacing musicological approaches based on cultural, structural, or historical perspectives, this approach provides a complementary viewpoint based on perceptual evaluation.

Overall, the findings demonstrate the potential of ISO 12913-derived perceptual attributes for exploring musicscape from a listener-oriented perspective. While originally developed for environmental soundscapes, these attributes provided a structured vocabulary for examining perceptual relationships within the selected corpus of Cretan folk dances. The results therefore support further investigation of soundscape-informed perceptual approaches within musicscape research.

5.2. Bridging Soundscape and Musicscape

The findings of this study provide an initial indication that soundscape-derived perceptual attributes may offer a useful perspective for examining musicscape from a listener-oriented viewpoint. Although the ISO 12913 framework was originally developed to characterize acoustic environments as perceived, experienced, and understood in context, particularly with respect to environmental soundscapes [3], the present findings suggest that its perceptual attributes may also provide a meaningful basis for exploring structured musicscape experiences. The observed differences among Cretan folk dance forms indicate that soundscape-derived perceptual descriptors can capture variations in listener assessments within a culturally coherent repertoire.

These findings contribute to a conceptual exploration of musicscape by introducing a perceptual perspective informed by soundscape research. Since its introduction, the musicscape concept has been employed across diverse disciplines to describe relationships between music, place, culture, and human experience [6]. However, many existing interpretations have remained primarily conceptual and have rarely addressed the systematic examination of musicscape from the listener’s perceptual perspective. By examining the applicability of ISO 12913 perceptual attributes within a musicscape context, the present study provides an initial example of how soundscape-derived concepts may contribute to the perceptual investigation of musicscape.

From a methodological perspective, the combination of perceptual descriptors with multivariate visualization and machine-learning techniques provides a way to explore relationships among musicscape instances based on listener evaluations. Rather than replacing established approaches that consider cultural, structural, or contextual characteristics, this perspective offers a complementary way of examining how musicscape experiences are organized through perception. Such approaches may support future investigations involving comparisons across different repertoires, as well as contribute to perceptually informed research directions in areas such as music information retrieval [31] and data-driven music analysis [32].

At the same time, the application of soundscape-derived perceptual attributes to musicscape should be considered an initial exploration rather than a complete representation of perceptual experience. The ISO 12913 attributes were developed for environmental sound perception and may not fully encompass dimensions that are particularly relevant to musicscape, such as harmonic complexity, melodic expectation, or rhythmic organization. Further investigations are required to access additional perceptual descriptors to better represent musicscape experiences while maintaining the advantages of structured listener-based evaluation. Overall, the present findings suggest that soundscape research may provide useful concepts for further exploring musicscape from a perceptual perspective.

5.3. Limitations and Future Research

Several limitations should be considered when interpreting the present findings. First, the study examined a relatively limited corpus drawn from a single cultural and musical tradition. Although the selected recordings were intended to represent principal Cretan folk dance forms, they cannot encompass the full diversity of the Cretan folk dance repertoire or broader traditional practices. Second, the perceptual evaluation relied exclusively on the eight attributes defined in ISO 12913-2. While these attributes revealed perceptual variations among the selected dance forms, they may not encompass all dimensions relevant to musicscape experiences. Furthermore, perceptual responses are influenced by factors such as cultural background, musical expertise, familiarity, emotional associations, and listening context [33,34], which were not explicitly examined in the present study.

An additional consideration concerns participant familiarity with the musical repertoire. All participants reported being familiar with Cretan traditional music, which was expected given that they originated from Crete, where these musical traditions form an integral part of local cultural life. Within the conceptual framework adopted in this study, such familiarity should not necessarily be regarded solely as a source of bias. Soundscape research explicitly recognizes that auditory perception is shaped by context, previous experience, and listener characteristics, and the ISO 12913 framework defines soundscape as the acoustic environment as perceived, experienced, and/or understood by people in context. From this perspective, familiarity represents one of the contextual factors through which musicscape experiences are perceived and interpreted. At the same time, the homogeneity of familiarity within the present sample limits the extent to which the influence of previous exposure can be examined directly and restricts the generalizability of the findings to listeners with different cultural backgrounds or levels of familiarity. Future research should therefore investigate musicscape perception using participants with varying degrees of familiarity, including listeners from different cultural settings, to examine how previous musical experience contributes to perceptual evaluations and the organization of musicscape experiences.

Future research should investigate the applicability of soundscape-derived perceptual attributes using larger and more diverse corpora, different cultural traditions, and participants with varying cultural and perceptual backgrounds. Comparative studies could examine whether similar perceptual dimensions emerge across different musicscape contexts or whether distinct perceptual organizations characterize different cultural traditions. Further investigation of the relationship between perceptual evaluations and acoustic or musicological descriptors could also provide additional insight into the connections between listener experience and measurable characteristics. In addition, future work may explore whether expanded or refined sets of perceptual attributes can provide a more comprehensive description of musicscape experiences while maintaining the advantages of structured listener-based evaluation.

Taken together, these research directions may contribute to a deeper understanding of how perceptual approaches informed by soundscape research can be applied within musicscape studies. Extending investigation across diverse repertoires and listening contexts will be important for examining the broader applicability and potential of this perspective.

6. Conclusions

This study explored the applicability of perceptual attributes derived from the ISO 12913 soundscape framework to the evaluation of Cretan folk dances, using a representative corpus of recordings as a case study. The results showed that listener responses to the selected recordings varied systematically across the ISO-derived perceptual attributes and that combinations of these attributes provided meaningful representations of the perceptual relationships among the evaluated dance forms.

These findings suggest that perceptual attributes originally developed for soundscape assessment may also be informative for examining listener perceptions within a musicscape perspective. Although further investigation across different traditions and listening contexts is required, the present study indicates that the application of soundscape-derived perceptual attributes within musicscape research warrants further exploration.

Overall, this work represents an initial step towards investigating musicscape from a perceptual perspective and contributes empirical evidence that may support further exploration of the relationship between soundscape and musicscape.

Appendix A.1 Musical Corpus Used in the Listening Experiments

This appendix describes the musical corpus selected for the listening experiments. The included table summarizes the musical excerpts used in the study, along with relevant information regarding their recordings, performers, sources, and publication years.

Table A1. Musical excerpts included in the listening experiments.

Νο.	Sample ID	Dance Type	Recording Title	Performer(s) / Ensemble	Source (Album)	Year
1	mal1	maleviziotis	Δίστιχα για το ρακί	Hλίας Aνδρεουλάκης	Τα Τρία Aγαθά της Γης	2006
2	mal2	maleviziotis	Μαλεβιζιώτης	Ευτύχης & Νεκτάριος Κωστάκης	Κρητικοί Χοροί Νο 2	2024
3	mal3	maleviziotis	Μαλεβιζιώτης	Νίκος Μανιουδάκης	Πέτρινη Πολιτεία	2023
4	mal4	maleviziotis	Μαλεβιζιώτης (Oρχηστρικό)	Δημήτρης Βακάκης	Κόντρα και πείσμα στον καιρό	2015
5	mal5	maleviziotis	Μαλεβιζιώτης	Aντώνης Λεοντίδης	Κρυφό	2020
6	pen1	pentozali	Πεντοζάλι	Aντώνης Μαρτσάκης	Μουσικά πατήματα της Κρήτης	2019
7	pen2	pentozali	Πέντε βήματα (Πεντοζάλι)	Νίκος Μανιουδάκης	Ζωντανή Hχογράφηση	2018
8	pen3	pentozali	Πεντοζάλης Παραδοσιακό	Νίκος Ζωιδάκης	Ένα Ταξίδι Με Τη Λύρα Μου	2008
9	pen4	pentozali	Πεντοζάλι του Λυραντζάκη	Πέτρος Σαριδάκης	Το Νάμι	2015
10	pen5	pentozali	Πεντοζάλι Χορευτικό	Γιώργος Μαγγελάκης	Ζωντανή Hχογράφηση (Φραγκοκάστελο)	2017
11	sig1	siganos	Σιγανός ορχηστρικό	Ζαχαρίας Μελεσσανάκης	Μουσικοί θησαυροί της Κρήτης	2021
12	sig2	siganos	Σιγανός Μεραμπελιώτικος	Μανώλης Aλεξάκης	H Καλύτερη Χορευτική Κρητική Μουσική	2020
13	sig3	siganos	Hρακλειώτικος Σιγανός	Aντώνης Μαρτσάκης	Μουσικά πατήματα της Κρήτης	2019
14	sig4	siganos	Σιγανός	Στέλιος Μπικάκης	Μια βόλτα στο σκοτάδι	2000
15	sig5	siganos	Σιγανός	Γιάννης Μπουντρονικόλας	Μια βραδυά στο καρύδι	2018
16	sous1	sousta	Σούστα	Νίκος Ζωιδάκης	Ένα Ταξίδι Με Τη Λύρα Μου	2008
17	sous2	sousta	Σούστα	Βασίλης Σκούλας	Aναστορούμαι	1998
18	sous3	sousta	Σούστα	Νίκος Μανιουδάκης	Ζωντανή Hχογράφηση	2018
19	sous4	sousta	Σούστα	Λευτέρης Καλλέργης	Έχω την σκέψη σου οδηγό	2020
20	sous5	sousta	Σούστα	Χαράλαμπος Γαργανουράκης	Κρητικά Κλασσικά	1994
21	syr1	syrtos	Πρώτος Συρτός	Χαράλαμπος Γαργανουράκης	Κρητικά Κλασσικά	1994
22	syr2	syrtos	Συρτά	Νίκος Μανιουδάκης	Ζωντανή ηχογράφηση στην Γέργερη	2025
23	syr3	syrtos	Πρώτος Συρτός	Μιχάλης Σταυρουλάκης	Κάποτε Χαλαλίζαμε	2024
24	syr4	syrtos	Πρώτος Συρτός	Θανάσης Μαυροκώστας	Σαν’είναι η θάλασσα γυαλί	2014
25	syr5	syrtos	Πρώτος Συρτός (Στραταριστός)	Δημήτρης Βακάκης	Κόντρα και πείσμα στον καιρό	2015

Table A1. Musical excerpts included in the listening experiments.

Νο.	Sample ID	Dance Type	Recording Title	Performer(s) / Ensemble	Source (Album)	Year
1	mal1	maleviziotis	Δίστιχα για το ρακί	Hλίας Aνδρεουλάκης	Τα Τρία Aγαθά της Γης	2006
2	mal2	maleviziotis	Μαλεβιζιώτης	Ευτύχης & Νεκτάριος Κωστάκης	Κρητικοί Χοροί Νο 2	2024
3	mal3	maleviziotis	Μαλεβιζιώτης	Νίκος Μανιουδάκης	Πέτρινη Πολιτεία	2023
4	mal4	maleviziotis	Μαλεβιζιώτης (Oρχηστρικό)	Δημήτρης Βακάκης	Κόντρα και πείσμα στον καιρό	2015
5	mal5	maleviziotis	Μαλεβιζιώτης	Aντώνης Λεοντίδης	Κρυφό	2020
6	pen1	pentozali	Πεντοζάλι	Aντώνης Μαρτσάκης	Μουσικά πατήματα της Κρήτης	2019
7	pen2	pentozali	Πέντε βήματα (Πεντοζάλι)	Νίκος Μανιουδάκης	Ζωντανή Hχογράφηση	2018
8	pen3	pentozali	Πεντοζάλης Παραδοσιακό	Νίκος Ζωιδάκης	Ένα Ταξίδι Με Τη Λύρα Μου	2008
9	pen4	pentozali	Πεντοζάλι του Λυραντζάκη	Πέτρος Σαριδάκης	Το Νάμι	2015
10	pen5	pentozali	Πεντοζάλι Χορευτικό	Γιώργος Μαγγελάκης	Ζωντανή Hχογράφηση (Φραγκοκάστελο)	2017
11	sig1	siganos	Σιγανός ορχηστρικό	Ζαχαρίας Μελεσσανάκης	Μουσικοί θησαυροί της Κρήτης	2021
12	sig2	siganos	Σιγανός Μεραμπελιώτικος	Μανώλης Aλεξάκης	H Καλύτερη Χορευτική Κρητική Μουσική	2020
13	sig3	siganos	Hρακλειώτικος Σιγανός	Aντώνης Μαρτσάκης	Μουσικά πατήματα της Κρήτης	2019
14	sig4	siganos	Σιγανός	Στέλιος Μπικάκης	Μια βόλτα στο σκοτάδι	2000
15	sig5	siganos	Σιγανός	Γιάννης Μπουντρονικόλας	Μια βραδυά στο καρύδι	2018
16	sous1	sousta	Σούστα	Νίκος Ζωιδάκης	Ένα Ταξίδι Με Τη Λύρα Μου	2008
17	sous2	sousta	Σούστα	Βασίλης Σκούλας	Aναστορούμαι	1998
18	sous3	sousta	Σούστα	Νίκος Μανιουδάκης	Ζωντανή Hχογράφηση	2018
19	sous4	sousta	Σούστα	Λευτέρης Καλλέργης	Έχω την σκέψη σου οδηγό	2020
20	sous5	sousta	Σούστα	Χαράλαμπος Γαργανουράκης	Κρητικά Κλασσικά	1994
21	syr1	syrtos	Πρώτος Συρτός	Χαράλαμπος Γαργανουράκης	Κρητικά Κλασσικά	1994
22	syr2	syrtos	Συρτά	Νίκος Μανιουδάκης	Ζωντανή ηχογράφηση στην Γέργερη	2025
23	syr3	syrtos	Πρώτος Συρτός	Μιχάλης Σταυρουλάκης	Κάποτε Χαλαλίζαμε	2024
24	syr4	syrtos	Πρώτος Συρτός	Θανάσης Μαυροκώστας	Σαν’είναι η θάλασσα γυαλί	2014
25	syr5	syrtos	Πρώτος Συρτός (Στραταριστός)	Δημήτρης Βακάκης	Κόντρα και πείσμα στον καιρό	2015