Deepening Musical Performance Through Movement

Uses gesture to explore performance, therapeutic, and compositional practices. The author 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.

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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.