ERIC Number: EJ1154555
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0163-853X
EISSN: N/A
Method for Analyzing Gestural Communication in Musical Groups
Hospelhorn, Emma; Radinsky, Josh
Discourse Processes: A multidisciplinary journal, v54 n7 p504-523 2017
Musical performances provide a rich context for studying complex spatial and embodied modes of group learning. This article proposes a framework for analyzing gesture in musical performances to highlight the ways musicians' movements reflect and promote their emerging and changing conceptions of a piece of music. The constructs of "expressive musical gesture" (at the individual level of analysis) and "group expressive musical gesture" (at the collective level) are used to analyze a series of five sequential performances of a musical passage by a string quartet during rehearsal. The analysis identifies three functions of embodied gesture for score interpretation: (1) gestures served as a tool for group interpretation in passages that had previously been pointed to by verbal exchanges, (2) gestures served to fine-tune the location and enactment of dynamic markings in the score, and (3) group expressive gestures in the final "take" of the rehearsal incorporated group expressive gestures from other takes, constituting a negotiated set of score interpretations.
Descriptors: Nonverbal Communication, Music Activities, Performance, Musicians, Musical Instruments, Scores, Human Body, Video Technology, Coding, Observation, Motion
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A