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The Body in Musical Performance - MUS00108C

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  • Department: Music
  • Module co-ordinator: Prof. Catherine Laws
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: C
  • Academic year of delivery: 2024-25

Module summary

In this module we explore the significance of the body in the composition, performance and reception of music.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 2 2024-25

Module aims

This project will explore the significance of physicality in the composition, performance and reception of music.

We will examine the ways in which instrumental and vocal performers use their bodies, in relation to both sound production and expressive intent. This will include exploration of ‘traditions’ of gesture associated with particular instruments, styles and periods, and the ways in which dress codes and other aspects of presentation are employed in the expression (and suppression) of physicality. We will consider approaches to instrumental and vocal training in relation to awareness of ergonomics and physicality.

The project will also explore the ways in which compositional practices require and reflect an understanding of the performing body; idiomatic and non-idiomatic approaches to composition (both historically and today), the relationship between notation and bodily action, and the ways in which certain contemporary composers are exploring the physicality of sound production and the representation of the body on stage.

We will examine the significance of the body in the reception of musical performance, and the ways in which musicology and performance theory help us to understand aspects of physicality, gesture and representation.

The key questions to be addressed in the project are as follows:

  • how is the body mediated through musical performance?
  • what is the relationship between musical intention and physical gesture?
  • how does the visual influence our reception and understanding of the aural in this context?
  • how do we take account of (theorise) this relationship?
  • how does a understanding of these questions inform compositional and performance practices?

The project will comprise practical workshops (focusing on students’ own performance and compositional practices), lectures, seminars (including analysis of video footage), and tutorials.

Module learning outcomes

All students, on completion of the project, should have

1. participated in workshops exploring the body in musical performance;

2. developed an awareness of the role of the body in the composition, performance and/or reception of music;

3. demonstrated familiarity with relevant musicological and performance theory;

4. developed the ability to apply theory to selected examples of practice;

5. gained the skills to reflect critically on the role of the body in their own musical practice.

On completion of the module, in their independent work, students should demonstrate Learning Outcomes A1-7.

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark Group
Essay/coursework
4000 word Essay		 N/A 80 A
Essay/coursework
Presentation (written up)		 N/A 20 A
Essay/coursework
Presentation (written up)		 N/A 20 B
Practical
Performance plus documentation		 N/A 80 B
Essay/coursework
Composition plus documentation		 N/A 80 C
Essay/coursework
Presentation (written up)		 N/A 20 C

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

Assessment is by:

1. A seminar of 15 minutes, presented in class and subsequently written up for submission (20%);

2. An essay (4000 words) on an agreed topic OR (by negotiation) a performance or composition. If the latter option is agreed, it should be accompanied by documentation analysing the ways in which the practical process is a relevant form of research; how it has addressed questions raised in the project.

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Reassessment: 4000 word Essay		 N/A 80
Essay/coursework
Reassessment: Presentation (written up)		 N/A 20

Module feedback

Mark and report within University designated turnaround time.

Indicative reading

3 books and one article are particularly useful for this project:

Clayton, Martin, and Laura Leante. ‘Embodiment in Music Performance’. In Experience and Meaning in Music Performance, edited by Martin Clayton, Byron Dueck and Laura Leante, 188-207. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Godøy, Rolf Inge, and Marc Leman, ed. Musical Gestures: Sound, Movement Meaning. New York and London: Routledge, 2010.

Gritten, Anthony, and Elaine King, ed. Music and Gesture. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

Gritten, Anthony, and Elaine King, ed. New Perspectives on Music and Gesture. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2011.

Other useful texts:

NB this is a wide-ranging module, drawing on research from different fields of musical study but also from developments in neuroscience, embodied cognition and phenomenology. The list below therefore includes resources across this range, but there is no attempt to be comprehensive: additional resources will be recommended according to assessment choices.

Aksnes, Hallgjerd. ‘Music and its Resonating Body.’ Dansk Årbog for Musikforskning XXIX (2002): 81-101.

Birdsall, Carolyn and Anthony Enns, ed. Sonic Meditations: Body, Sound Technology. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008.

Butler, Judith. Bodies That Matter. London: Routledge, 1993.

Clarke, David, and Eric F. Clarke, ed. Music and Consciousness: philosophical, psychological, and cultural perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Chapters 12-14 are most relevant.

Clarke, Eric and Jane W. Davidson. ‘The Body in Performance’. In Composition, Performance, Reception: Studies in the Creative Process, edited by Thomas Wyndham, 74-92. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998.

Cox, Arnie. Music and embodied cognition: listening, moving, thinking and feeling. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2016.

Cusick, Suzanne L. ‘Feminist Theory, Music Theory and the Mind/Body Problem’. Perspectives of New Music 32/1 (1994): 8-27.

Damasio, Antonio. Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain. London and Basingstoke: Papermac, 1996.

Davidson, Jane. ‘Bodily Communication in Musical Performance’. In Musical Communication, edited by Dorothy Miell, David J. Hargreaves and Raymond Macdonald, 215-37. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

DeSouza, Jonathan. Music at Hand: Instruments, Bodies and Cognition. Oxford University Press, 2017.

Fisher, George and Judy Lochhead. ‘Analyzing from the Body’. Theory and Practice: Journal of the Music Theory Society of New York State XXVII (2002): 37-67.

Johnson, Mark L. ‘Embodied Musical Meaning.’ Theory and Practice 22-23 (1998): 95-102.

Kim, Youn and Sander Gilman, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Music and the Body. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.

Le Guin, Elisabeth. Boccherini’s Body: an Essay in Carnal Musicology. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2006.

Leman, Marc (2007). Embodied Music: Cognition and Mediation Technology. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.

Leman, Marc and Pieter-Jan Maes. ‘The Role of Embodiment in the Perception of Music’. Empirical Musicology Review IX/3-4 (2014): 236-246.

Leppert, Richard. The Sight of Sound: Music, Representation, and the History of the Body. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.

McCaleb, Murphy, Embodied Knowledge in Ensemble Performance. Aldershot: Ashgate , 2014.

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Phenomenology of Perception. Translated by Colin Smith. London and New York: Routledge, 1996 [1945].

Peters, Deniz, Gerhard Eckel and Andreas Dorschel, ed. Bodily expression in Electronic Music: perspectives on reclaiming performativity. New York and London: Routledge, 2012.

Rebstock, Matthias and David Roesner, eds. Composed Theatre: aesthetics, practices, processes. Bristol: Intellect, 2012.

Rosset I Llobet, Jaume, and George Odam. The Musician’s Body. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007.

Salzman, Eric and Thomas Dési. The New Music Theater: seeing the voice, hearing the body. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Spatz, Benjamin. What a Body Can Do: technique as knowledge, practice as research. London: Routledge, 2015.

Straus, Joseph. Extraordinary Measures: Disability in Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Chapters 5 and 7 most relevant.

Wöllner, Clemens, ed. Body, sound and space in music and beyond: multimodal explorations. London: Routledge, 2017.

Two special volumes of the journal Contemporary Music Review are relevant:

Volume 25, issues 1-2 (2006): Bodily Instruments, Instrumental Bodies. Probably the most useful article is: Gascia Ouzonian, ‘Embodied Sound: Aural Architectures and the Body’ (pp.69- 79).

Volume 35, issues 4-5 (2016): Gesture-Technology Interactions in Contemporary Music.


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.