New perspectives on music and gesture - Gritten, Anthony; King, Elaine (Ashgate, 2011)
Building on the insights of the first volume on Music and Gesture (Gritten and King, Ashgate 2006), the rationale for this sequel volume is twofold: first, to clarify the way in which the subject is continuing to take shape by highlighting both central and developing trends, as well as popular and less frequent areas of investigation; second, to provide alternative and complementary insights into the particular areas of the subject articulated in the first volume. The thirteen chapters are structured in a broad narrative trajectory moving from theory to practice, embracing Western and non-Western practices, real and virtual gestures, live and recorded performances, physical and acoustic gestures, visual and auditory perception, among other themes of topical interest. The main areas of enquiry include psychobiology; perception and cognition; philosophy and semiotics; conducting; ensemble work and solo piano playing. The volume is intended to promote and stimulate further research in Musical Gesture Studies.Contents: Introduction, Anthony Gritten and Elaine King; Psychobiology of musical gesture: innate rhythm, harmony and melody in movements of narration, Colwyn Trevarthen, Jonathan Delafield-Butt and Benjaman Schögler; Gestures in music-making: action, information and perception, W. Luke Windsor; Co-articulated gestural-sonic objects in music, Rolf Inge Godøy; Musical gesture and musical grammar: a cognitive approach, Lawrence M. Zbikowski; Distraction in polyphonic gesture, Anthony Gritten; The semiotic gesture, Ole Kühl; Gestural economies in conducting, Philip Murray Dineen; Computational analysis of conductors' temporal gestures, Geoff Luck; Gestures and glances: interactions in ensemble rehearsal, Elaine King and Jane Ginsborg; Imagery, melody and gesture in cross-cultural perspective, Gina Fatone, Martin Clayton, Laura Leante and Matt Rahaim; Whose gestures? Chamber music and the construction of permanent agents, Roger Graybill; In the beginning was gesture: piano touch and the phenomenology of the performing body, Mine Dogantan-Dack; Motive, gesture and the analysis of performance, John Rink, Neta Spiro and Nicolas Gold; Index.