Musical gestures : concepts and methods in research

In the last decade, cognitive science underwent a paradigm shift by bringing human movement into the focus of research. Concepts such as embodiment and enactive have been proposed as core concepts reflecting the role of the human body in complex processes such as action and perception, and the interaction of mind and physical environment (Varela et al. 1991; Noë 2004). In music research, body movement has often been related to the notion of gesture. The reason is that many musical activities (performance, conducting, dancing) involve body movements that evoke meanings, and therefore these movements are called gestures. However, there are many ways in which music-related body movements can be approached, measured, described and applied. For example, in Camurri et al. (2005), musical gestures are addressed from the viewpoint of their expressive character. Accordingly, there are many ways in which musical gestures can be meaningful. Given the different contexts in which gestures appear, and their close relationship to movement and meaning, one may be tempted to say that the notion of gesture is too broad, ill-defined, and perhaps too vague. Yet the use of this notion is very convenient in modern music research because it builds a bridge between movement and meaning. A closer look at the term “gesture” reveals its potential as a core notion that provides access to central issues in action/perception processes and in mind/environment interactions