Musical Expressiveness

Research Project 1

Musical Expressiveness: The relationship between ancillary gestures and musical phrase organization

This project aims to broaden current musical expressiveness knowledge, considering the relationship between physical gestures and musical phrasing.

During the musical performance, body movements are part of the experience, even without producing sound. Furthermore, some of these gestures can be closely related to the musicians’ expressive intentions.

We study gestures as participation in musical communication. In areas such as psycholinguistics, the act of communicating involves speech and gestures produced by speakers during a conversation, suggesting that ignoring the physical gestures during a dialogue amounts to missing a significant part of the communication. Gestures and hand movements are directly tied to speech; consequently, they carry on the intentionality of expression.

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