Exploring the influence of cellists’ postural movements on musical expressivity
Authors: Roze J., Aramaki M., Bourdin C., Chadefaux D., Dufrenne M., Kronland-Martinet R., Voinier T., Ystad S.
Publication Date: July 2015
Journal: Proceedings of ICMEM 2015 ( Sheffield: HRI Online Publications, 2015. ISBN 978-0-9571022-4-8. Available online at:
Tags: Musical Interpretation, Musical Sounds, Sound and Motion, Sound Control
Studies in embodied music cognition have shown that musical expression and body movements are inextricably connected (Toiviainen, Luck, & Thompson, 2010). Some studies investigated links between audio features and the musical score (De Poli, Rodà, & Vidolin, 1998), or the player (Chudy & Dixon, 2010). Others investigated relationships between musicians’ expressive intentions and sound-producing gestures (Winold & Thelen, 1994). The influence of ancillary gestures (i.e. gestures that are not directly involved in sound production) on musicians’ expressive intentions has been investigated in the case of the clarinet (Wanderley, Vines, Middleton, McKay, & Hatch, 2005; Desmet et al. 2012), and the piano (Thompson & Luck, 2011). Our study extends this research to a context of professional cellists.