Description
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. |
Author Bio
| 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. |
Reviews
"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
"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
"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
"This book is not only a wonderful resource for therapists, musicians and music teachers, but also . . . a well-researched academic work." —Structural Integrations
"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
"[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 |
Customer Reviews
CommentsThere are currently no reviewsWrite a review on this title.
Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
To Performers
To Music Theorists
To Composers
To Movement Professionals
To Music Therapists
1. Vitalizing the Musical Elements, One by One
Movement in the Studio and in Theory Teaching
Movement Becomes More Musical
Focusing and Refining Movement
Movement as a Schenkerian Discipline
Principles of Effective Movement
Movement Processes for Research and Teaching
2. Mobilizing Balance
Balance and Grounding
Resting Balance, Sitting
A Familiar Class Scene
Resting Balance, Standing
Activated Balance and Tonic
The Sitting Balance Process and the Standing Balance Process
Carlos
Common Snares
The Games of Where Are You? and Where Am I?
Activated Balance and the Cadential Tonic
Spinal Flexibility
Sitting Sways
Standing Sways
The Swaying Process
Luisa
Swaying and Melody
Core Support
Recognizing Core Support
Luke
Core Support in Playing Phrase
Weight-Throwing into Action
Arm Swings
Weight-Throwing with Regard to Measure and Beat
Reabsorption and Completion of Action
Ending
The Game of Where Is It?
The Gracious Curve
Preliminary Experience
The Gracious Curve Process, Standing
The Gracious Curve Process, Sitting
The Gracious Curve Process and Playing Technique
Doing the pPocesses
3. Melody Awakened: Seven Stages for Embodying Its Contour
Singing
Finding the Main Melody
Contouring Melody
Stage 1. Laddering the Pitches and Intervals
Stage 2. Emphasizing Continuity
Stage 3. Emphasizing Melody's Shape
Stage 4. Engaging the Whole Body
Stage 5. Swaying, to Take Contouring into Playing or Singing
Stage 6. Embodying the Nuances of Melody
Stage 7. Melody's Affect
4. Resilience of Meter and Rhythm
Basics
Tony
Equality and Variety of Beats
Arm Swings, Side to Side
Tapping the Air
Metric Levels
Meter and Phrase
Detailed Experiences of Ping and Lilt
Sonya, Part 1
Balloon Tapping to Refine the Ping
Kendall
Sonya, Part 2
Soft-Springs
Hypermeasure Soft-Springs
Jonathan
Finding Rhythmic Clusters
Walking the Durations
Evelyn and Ricardo
5. The Integration of Structural Levels
Toward an Engaged Music Theory
Beginnings
Leading Questions
Fundamental Attributes of Schenkerian Sound: Coalescence, Middleground Rhythmic Vitality, and Span
Coalescence and Middleground Rhythmic Vitality
Coalescence as a Musical Quality
Kosta, Part 1
Middleground Rhythmic Vitality as a Musical Quality
Rachel
Coalescence and Middleground Rhythmic Vitality as Movement: Stepping
Eric
Kosta, Part 2
Coalescence and Middleground Rhythmic Vitality in a Nonmusical Context: Pole Vaulting
Jonathan
Other Contributors to Schenkerian Sound
Reluctance
Andrew
6. Shaping Phrase with Span and Climax
Span as a Musical Quality
Slow-motion Sculpting
Span as Movement: Hand-stretch
Jonathan
Arcing with an Arm to Find Performance Phrases
Kathy
Arm-Arcing to Find Span and Climax
Stepping and Stretching Spontaneously
Amy
A Chain of Processes: "Daphne am Bach"
Meter
Middleground Rhythmic Vitality
Span
Synthesis
7. Letting Gesture Through: Reverberation
Juncture and Reverberation
Reverberation as Expression
Sophie
Reabsorbing
Cutting off Reverberation
Nathan and Melissa
Embodying Reverberation
Joints
Joint Awareness
Joints and Touch
Joint Dance
Spinal Flexibility and Tone Quality
Spinal Flexibility and Melody
Jonathan and Valerie
8. The Movements of Juncture
9. Characterizing
Musical Character
Adrian, Part 1
Movement for Characterizing
Adrian, Part 2
Jennifer
10. Tone of Voice
Notation and Tone of Voice
Musical Empathy
Arousing Tone of Voice
Descriptive Word
Vocal Inflection and Facial Response
Full-bodied Gestural Response
Touch
Adjectives and Adverbs
Quick Starts
Gargoyles
Aldo
Leah
Characterizing Movement versus Tone of Voice
Tone of Voice and Structural Levels
11. The Spirit of Play
Practicing Play
Recollecting
Imitating
Parody
Games to Invite Play
Fluent Continuity of Melody
Ping and Lilt in Hypermeter
Span of Phrase
Articulation of Phrases and Contrast of Phrase and Juncture)
Characterizing
Ensemble and Showmanship
In a Nutshell
Aldo and Marta
Notes
Bibliography
Index |
|
