Kumar Anita B, Morrison Steven J
Laboratory for Music Cognition, Culture and Learning, School of Music, University of Washington, Seattle WA, USA.
Front Psychol. 2016 Jul 8;7:1049. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01049. eCollection 2016.
Ensemble conductors are often described as embodying the music. Researchers have determined that expressive gestures affect viewers' perceptions of conducted ensemble performances. This effect may be due, in part, to conductor gesture delineating and amplifying specific expressive aspects of music performances. The purpose of the present study was to determine if conductor gesture affected observers' focus of attention to contrasting aspects of ensemble performances. Audio recordings of two different music excerpts featuring two-part counterpoint (an ostinato paired with a lyric melody, and long chord tones paired with rhythmic interjections) were paired with video of two conductors. Each conductor used gesture appropriate to one or the other musical element (e.g., connected and flowing or detached and crisp) for a total of sixteen videos. Musician participants evaluated 8 of the excerpts for Articulation, Rhythm, Style, and Phrasing using four 10-point differential scales anchored by descriptive terms (e.g., disconnected to connected, and angular to flowing.) Results indicated a relationship between gesture and listeners' evaluations of musical content. Listeners appear to be sensitive to the manner in which a conductor's gesture delineates musical lines, particularly as an indication of overall articulation and style. This effect was observed for the lyric melody and ostinato excerpt, but not for the chords and interjections excerpt. Therefore, this effect appears to be mitigated by the congruence of gesture to preconceptions of the importance of melodic over rhythmic material, of certain instrument timbres over others, and of length between onsets of active material. These results add to a body of literature that supports the importance of the visual component in the multimodal experience of music performance.
乐团指挥常常被描述为音乐的化身。研究人员已经确定，富有表现力的手势会影响观众对乐团指挥表演的认知。这种影响可能部分归因于指挥的手势勾勒并放大了音乐表演中特定的表现力方面。本研究的目的是确定指挥的手势是否会影响观察者对乐团表演中对比方面的注意力焦点。两段不同音乐选段的音频录音（一段是固定音型与抒情旋律的二声部对位，另一段是长和弦音与节奏插入音的二声部对位）与两位指挥的视频配对。每位指挥针对其中一种音乐元素使用了合适的手势（例如，连贯流畅的或断开清晰的），总共形成了16个视频。音乐家参与者使用四个由描述性术语锚定的10分差异量表，对其中8个选段的清晰度、节奏、风格和乐句划分进行了评估（例如，从断开到连贯，从生硬到流畅）。结果表明，手势与听众对音乐内容的评价之间存在关联。听众似乎对手势勾勒音乐线条的方式很敏感，尤其是作为整体清晰度和风格的一种指示。在抒情旋律和固定音型的选段中观察到了这种效果，但在和弦与插入音的选段中没有观察到。因此，这种效果似乎会因手势与旋律材料优于节奏材料、某些乐器音色优于其他音色以及活跃材料起始之间的时长等先入之见的一致性而减弱。这些结果补充了一系列支持视觉元素在音乐表演多模态体验中重要性的文献。
