Associations Between Ancillary Body Movements and Acoustic Parameters of Pitch, Dynamics and Timbre in Clarinet Playing

Abstract

When playing an instrument, there are two main categories of body movements: instrumental movements, which are necessary for the sound production, and ancillary movements, which are associated with individual musical intentions and expressions. In this study, the particular purpose of ancillary movements of clarinet player was investigated especially in respect to how these movements were related to the musical structure of the piece and to specific audio parameters. 3D motion capture data of 19 clarinet players performing the same piece were analyzed regarding common motion patterns during the performance and in accordance with acoustic features related to pitch, dynamics (RMS energy) and timbre (spectral centroid and flux). A focus of the body movements was on the arms and the knees. The results showed that there were certain motion patterns performed by the players depending on specific musical structures. When playing a melodic part, the players often did so by bending their knees. At musical transitions, however, the knees were mainly stretched. Similarly, arm movements were more pronounced during playing melodious parts. At transitions, the arms were put closer to the torso. Considering the connection with the acoustics, a larger range of knee motions was correlated with a larger variation of the timbre. Moreover, at specific moments during the performance, when some players strongly bent their knees or lifted the arms, the RMS energy of the signal was significantly higher. The correlations of the body movements and the acoustic features showed that some players synchronized their movements with particular audio parameters more than others did. In summary, the ancillary movements of the clarinetists pursued both musical expressive intentions and physiologically necessary movements and tended to be performed with individual differences in terms of visual and auditory expression.

The impact of visual display of human motion on observers’ perception of music performance

“…For example, actors and musicians may reinforce verbal speech and musical expression with gestures. Body movements are also reported to accompany structural features of musical pieces [1,9,10], thus modifying the auditory perception of spectators [3,11]. Briefly, body motion has the potential to enrich artistic experiences, bringing together performers and audience in meaningful interactions [12,13].…”

Ancillary and instrumental body movements during inhalation in clarinetists

“…For instance, body sways can transport emotional expressions ( Demos et al, 2018 ) and create a shared emotional expression in a musical ensemble ( Chang et al, 2019 ). These movements reflect musical structures, such as melodic changes and transitions ( MacRitchie et al, 2013 ), as well as dynamics ( Nusseck et al, 2022 ), and can aid tempo perception ( Massie-Laberge et al, 2019 ). When studying the movements of professional pianists, it was found that certain movement strategies were used not only to express musical goals but also to compensate for individual physical constraints in order to economize movements ( Turner et al, 2021 ).…”

“…It was found that these movements mainly involve bending the knees and raising the arms ( Weiss et al, 2018 ). At certain musical transitions or endings, ancillary movements across players become very similar, and the players adopt a rather neutral and upright body posture ( Nusseck et al, 2022 ).…”

“…The inhalation itself can be seen as an instrumental movement to prepare for sound production and must be integrated into the context of the performance. In previous studies, clarinetists played a piece in which inhalation coincided with transitions or endings of melodic phrases ( Nusseck et al, 2022 ). The players performed at those points with a more upright body posture and neutral arm positions.…”

Educação: Saberes em Movimento, Saberes que Movimentam IV

“…In the embodied music cognition paradigm (Leman, 2008;Godøy & Leman, 2010;Cox, 2016;Leman et al, 2017;Lesaffre et al, 2017;Newen et al, 2018;Ryan & Schiavio, 2019;Reybrouck, 2021;Tomás et al, 2022), movement and body are considered fundamental tools to achieve knowledge, as this appears to be embedded and achieved through a constant body-mind relationship. These concepts are essential when playing acoustic instruments because without the body-which is the tool that is in contact with the external world (Merleau-Ponty, 2002) -and movement there is no sound production (Jensenius, 2007;Nusseck et al, 2022). In performing music, a musician's entire body is involved through movement, revealing and shaping "all mental states, both conscious and unconscious" (Davidson and Malloch, 2009, p. 565).…”