Musical Embodiment and Perception: Performances, Avatars and Audiences

• Published in: Signata Vol. 6; no. 6; pp. 353 - 381
• Main Authors: Westney, William, Grund, Cynthia M, Latimer, Jesse, Cloutier, Aimee, Yang, James, O’Boyle, Michael, Hou, Jiancheng, Fang, Dan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Presses universitaires de Liège (PULg) 31.12.2015; Université de liège
• Subjects: body; cognitive sciences; practices; sound; teaching; enseignement; son; sciences cognitives; pratiques; sound; teaching; cognitive sciences; body; corps; practices
• ISSN: 2032-9806; 2565-7097
• DOI: 10.4000/signata.1117

The empirical study presented in this chapter has implications for performance studies, philosophy of music, music aesthetics and music perception. The impetus for the experiment was pedagogical and originated in the piano studio. The working hypothesis was that in the teaching of classical technique there can be negative consequences for students (physical tension, self-consciousness) when instructors give too much detailed verbal information about how specific body parts should function when performing this phrase or that. Our research poses the questions: Are there distinctive and measurable changes in pianists’ body use and gestures when they are invited simply to “enjoy” playing a piece? Are such distinctive qualities perceived by others, and if so, in what way? The protocol for our study comprised four advanced-level classical pianists, all given the same two (contrasting) pieces to learn and memorize on their own. In the motion-capture laboratory, they performed them in two ways: (1) “as correctly as you can” and (2) “just enjoying yourself.” The resulting three-dimensional, point-light recordings of piano-playing “avatars” were subsequently viewed by two groups — trained musicians and non-musicians — from inside an fMRI scanner. The neurological activity of the subjects in the scanner was monitored while they viewed the contrasting videos and answered a series of questions about each. These questions dealt with their perceptions of the congruence of music and gesture, what the gestures themselves conveyed, and how the subjects responded to observing the distillation of expressive human movement that is presented by a performing “avatar.”