Music, Movement and Marimba: Solo Marimbists' Bodily Gesture in The
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Music, Movement and Marimba: Solo Marimbists’ Bodily Gesture in the Perception and Production of Expressive Performance Mary Broughton Bachelor of Music, Master of Music A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Western Sydney March 2008 i I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and, to the best of my knowledge, it contains no material previously published or written by another person, nor material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at the University of Western Sydney, or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project’s design and conception is acknowledged. Signature: ________________ Date: ________________ ii Acknowledgements With most sincere gratitude I thank my supervisor Associate Professor Kate Stevens for her unmitigated support and expert guidance throughout my candidature. I consider myself very fortunate to have had Kate as my mentor and guide through this life-changing experience. I can not thank you enough Kate for your investment of time, energy, knowledge and skills in the planning, testing, and writing phases of this project. Your high standards have laid the groundwork for personal standards to carry me through my career. I would also like to thank my co-supervisors Professor Michael Atherton and Professor Roger Dean. Thank you, Michael, for your musical input into the planning stages of the project, and the positive references you have provided me. I am most appreciative for maintaining a musical connection in what could sometimes seem like a ‘sea of scientists’. Similarly I thank you, Roger, for your musical connection. I am also very appreciative of your assistance in analysing data, feedback on written work, and conversation and guidance regarding my future career. For his assistance in analysing data, and feedback on written work, I would like to thank Dr Emery Schubert. I am most appreciative of the time, patience, and expertise in helping me to understand aspects of time-series analysis. My gratitude extends to Dr Kim Vincs for her assistance in the early stages of applying Laban movement principles to analysing marimba players’ bodily gestures. Your feedback and conversation was very much appreciated. I would also like to thank Ms Sandra Kay Lauffenburger for sharing her knowledge and expertise as a certified Laban Movement Analyst. iii For their assistance in putting together the recital aspect of this project I thank: Ms Sarah Broughton, Mr Dom Harvey, Ms Kym Buckley, Dr Diana Blom, Mr Mitchell Hart, Mr Andrew Heron and Ms Jocelyn Fegent. Many thanks to Mr Jeremy Barnett for his expert marimba playing that contributed to the stimulus material for Experiment 1. I would like to thank Ms Kerryn Joyce, Ms Alison Eddington, Ms Wyana Etherington and Mr Timothy Constable for their input and assistance in analysing the marimba performance excerpts for Study 1. My thanks are also extended to the participants of Experiments 1 and 2, and the audience members who attended the recital. I would like to thank several members of MARCS Auditory Laboratories. Colin Schoknecht for his practical and technological assistance around the office; Gail Charlton for organising conference travel; Johnson Chen, Brett Marriage, and Clare Howell for technical assistance; Mel Gallagher for formatting assistance; Jemma Harris and Barbara Schwanhaeusser for help with editing and proofreading; and in addition to Jemma and Barbara, my office mates Bettina Keresztesi and Sonia Wilkie for ‘keeping it real’. Most sincere thanks go to my sister Sarah, and my brother Jonathan for their unconditional love, care, and support throughout this experience. To my partner, Dom Harvey, I extend gratitude for his understanding, care, support, and encouragement. I also thank my dog, Sacsan, for being my companion throughout the writing of this thesis, and for making sure I kept routine working hours and exercise breaks. I offer my heart-felt thanks to my parents Beverley and Michael Broughton for their unconditional love, care and support. I would especially like to thank my iv parents for the educational opportunities they have afforded me so that I could achieve this pinnacle of learning. v Abstract A combination of experimental and empirical studies investigate the assumption that musical expression is communicated in marimba performance through at least two channels – sound and action. A parallel is drawn between the bodily movements and gestures occurring with expressive musical sound, and gestures produced in concurrence with speech. Experiment 1 investigated the assumption that bodily movements and gestures can enhance or diminish the perception of expression and interest in solo marimba performance when presented audio-visually compared to presentation in audio-only form. Body movement is of particular relevance here as the expressive capabilities of the marimba are relatively restricted, and the movements required to play it are visible. Twenty-four musically-trained and 24 musically-untrained observers rated auditory-only and auditory-visual presentations of 20th Century solo marimba excerpts for perceived expressiveness and interest. Performances were given by a male and a female professional musician in projected (public performance expression) and deadpan (minimised expressive features) performance manners. As hypothesised, significantly higher ratings were recorded in response to projected performances than to deadpan. The hypothesised interaction between modality and performance manner was observed. Higher expressiveness ratings were observed for projected performances, and lower ratings were observed for deadpan performances when the presentation was audio-visual compared to audio-only. Higher interest ratings were observed for projected performances when the presentation was audio-visual. Musically-trained participants recorded higher ratings than musically-untrained observers upholding the final hypothesis. The results suggest that expressive vi functional bodily movements and bodily gestures play an important role in marimba performer-audience communication. Findings are relevant for both performers and educators. The aim of Experiment 2 was to investigate whether the results of Experiment 1, conducted in laboratory conditions, would generalise to an ecologically valid setting – a real concert. Experiment 2 investigated audience continuous self-report engagement responses from 21 participants collected using the portable Audience Response Facility (pARF). The stimulus material was a solo marimba piece performed in a live concert. A female musician performed two musically similar sections within the piece in two different performance manners (deadpan and projected). The second- order standard deviation threshold method was used to analyse signal reliability. As hypothesised, mean engagement responses were greater in the projected sample than the deadpan sample. Reliable signal was only observed in the projected sample. Differences between deadpan and projected sample mean engagement responses may be due to expressive bodily movement from the performance manner manipulation; alternatively, serial order effect, necessitated by the concert setting, may be responsible. Such experimentation in ecologically valid settings enables understanding of audience perception of live music performance as it unfolds in time. Expressive qualities of marimba players’ bodily gestures, witnessed in several projected and deadpan marimba performances in the stimulus material from Experiment 1 were analysed in Study 1. Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) observation techniques, involving embodied thinking and kinaesthetic mirroring, enabled analysis of force. Force is the third element of motion additional to temporal vii and spatial aspects for which technology measuring only kinematics can not account. Effort-shape analysis and notation described and recorded expressive qualities of marimba players’ bodily gestures at specific locations on the musical score. With basic training, professional percussionist performers were able to understand and apply effort-shape analysis and notation. This inspired confidence that effort-shape analysis and notation has potential as an analytical tool for performers, teachers and students. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 and Study 1 lead to the formation of a theory of bodily gestures in marimba performance. This theory accounted for functional bodily movements and bodily gestures in marimba performance based on an embodied interpretation of the musical score. Combined experimental and empirical results indicate that bodily movements and gestures can enhance perception of expressive marimba performance and therefore warrant focussed attention in pedagogy and practice. viii Table of Contents LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................. xiv LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................... xvi LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES........................................................................ xvii CHAPTER 1:Introduction..........................................................................................1 1.1 Background to the Project and Overview of Assumptions to be Investigated...............................................................................................2