Deepening Musical Performance Through Movement: The Theory and Practice of Embodied Interpretation

Alexandra Pierce singles out elements of music such as melody, meter, and phrase, and investigates the defining quality of each through movement. Although simple, these exercises engage the listening attention in complex ways and can be integrated into a musician's daily practice. Practicing movements that accurately reflect a musical element can improve technique and are audible in performance. They become part of your technical command. Short narratives that illustrate how performance practice problems can be approached and solved are scattered throughout the book. A video companion to Deepening Musical Performance through Movement can be found at the author's website, alexandrapierce.net/deepening.

"Under the impetus of early influences as diverse as the Alexander technique, Rolfing, Schenkerian analysis and Stanislavski's Method acting... pianist, composer and music educator Alexandra Pierce has crystallized in this book a finely etched, lifetime quest to articulate the connection between the elements of music and the art of interpretation, through the prism of 'movement response to the music'." --American String Teacher

"From this [book]... we receive these two gifts... a compostional repertoire distinct in imaginative focus and a pedagogy with wide application to music making and full of implications for research." --The Open Space Magazine Indiana University Press

"This book is not only a wonderful resource for therapists, musicians and music teachers, but also... a well-researched academic work." --Structural Integrations

"[This] book is expressively written and brimming with imaginative ideas. It is not a book to read while sitting still!" --Journal of the International Alliance of Women in Music

"This book brings all aspects of music to life via kinesthetic understanding.... Pierce's extensive research is obvious, but though the book assumes considerable knowledge of the discipline, personal anecdotes and musical references render it relatively easy to digest." --Choice Indiana University Press

"Whether you teach private or group instrumental or vocal lessons, music theory, composition, music therapy or music appreciation, you will find a wealth of ideas to use with your students." --American Music Teacher

"The book is wonderful... My hope is that the book will be a doorway for many more musicians and music lovers into an exploration of the world of movement as a tool for musical growth, both as performer and listener." --Music Theory Online

"Because of her varied and extensive experience as a movement specialist, theorist, performer, teacher, and composer, Pierce is an unusually effective and articulate advocate for an embodied musical understanding... While performers probably have readier access to this kind of connection with a piece of music, Pierce's impressive achievement is to provide an effective way for theorists, too, to develop and deepen their embodied connection with the music that they analyze." --MUSIC THEORY SPECTRUM Indiana University Press

Alexandra Pierce helps musicians gain a richer understanding of music through the use of the body and gesture. She asserts that expression of character and affect in music corresponds to expression of character and affect in physical gesture. She seeks to answer the question, What is vitality in music? and to find answers that contribute to hearing and performing this core quality of music in order to help musicians integrate them into daily practice. Pierce's approach is to isolate and explore through movement such elements of music as melody, beat, and structural levels. Short narratives that illustrate how performance practice problems can be approached and solved are scattered throughout the book.

Alexandra Pierce is Professor of Music and Movement, Emerita Research Professor at the University of Redlands, California. She is author (with Roger Pierce) of Expressive Movement: Posture and Action in Daily Life, Sports, and the Performing Arts.

Introduction

1. Vitalizing the Musical Elements, One by One

2. Mobilizing Balance

3. Melody Awakened: Seven Stages for Embodying Its Contour

4. Resilience of Meter and Rhythm

5. The Integration of Structural Levels

6. Shaping Phrase with Span and Climax

7. Letting Gesture Through: Reverberation

8. The Movements of Juncture

9. Characterizing

10. Tone of Voice

11. The Spirit of Play

Notes

Bibliography

Index