Social implications arise in embodied music cognition research which can counter musicological “individualism”

Abstract

The agenda in music research that is broadly recognized as embodied music cognition has arrived hand-in-hand with a social interpretation of music, focusing on the real-world basis of its performance, and fostering an empirical approach to musician movement regarding the communicative function and potential of those movements. However, embodied cognition emerged from traditional cognitivism, which produced a body of scientific explanation of music-theoretic concepts. The analytical object of this corpus is based on the particular imagined encounter of a listener responding to an idealized “work.” Although this problem of essentialism has been identified within mainstream musicology, the lingering effects may spill over into interdisciplinary, empirical research. This paper defines the situation according to its legacy of individualism, and offers an alternative sketch of musical activity as performance event, a model that highlights the social interaction processes at the heart of musical behavior. I describe some recent empirical work based on interaction-oriented approaches, arguing that this particular focus – on the social interaction process itself – creates a distinctive and promising agenda for further research into embodied music cognition.

Negotiating individuality and collectivity in community music. A qualitative case study

“…Communication and understanding are largely generated "organically" through the dynamic processes of interaction associated with the movements, gestures, sounds and patterns that arise in the ensemble. Here musical meaning evolves and is negotiated in real time, allowing attendees to generate an autonomous identity that is expressed and transformed through meaningful musical (inter)actions (De Jaegher 2009De Jaegher & Di Paolo, 2007;Moran 2014). Interestingly, when Facilitator 1 was asked what skills she regarded as crucial for fostering such open-ended forms of musical meaning-making she answered:…”

Listening to Improvisation

“…At the very least, the present study suggests that there is a deep connection between ontology and aesthetics, and that our appreciation is thoroughly shaped by the ontological category under which we perceive the music we are listening to. Listening to music as something that people do is definitely not the same as listening to music as an abstract sound sequence encoded in a written score (on this topic, see Cook 2013 andMoran 2014). Listening to music as full-fledged human actions, that involve both body and mind, intra-personal and inter-personal expression, imperfection and moments of grace, gives rise to a specific type of subjective experience, one that highlights the deep ethical resonance that music can have in our lives and reminds us that there is much beauty to be found in the fragility of our endeavors and in the complexity of our relations to others.…”

Spontaneous preferences and core tastes: embodied musical personality and dynamics of interaction in a pedagogical method of improvisation

“…In the end, since embodiment is constituted in our interactions with the world, our behaviors and our experiences are directly shaped by the dynamics of our interactions with others (De Jaegher et al, 2010 ; Froese et al, 2014 ; Laroche et al, 2014 ). This has been acknowledged in the fields of personality (Kyselo, 2014 ), music experiences (Krueger, 2013 ; Moran, 2014 ), and improvisation (Gratier and Magnier, 2012 ; Schober and Spiro, 2014 ). Interactions with others should therefore play a role in one's embodied musical personality.…”