Abstract
The physical and gestural aspects of music performance have been a contentious topic throughout the course of music pedagogy. Renowned pedagogues of the past have had vastly differing views on the role and even the allowance of various gestures in a musician’s performance. Despite their contributions to the discourse, traditional approaches often overlook the evolutionary source of all musical behavior as a form of communication. This paper proposes a novel approach to teaching the physical and gestural aspects of musical performance, grounded in interdisciplinary research spanning the fields of pedagogy, musicology, anthropology, evolutionary biology, and neuroscience. By situating musical performance within an evolutionary anthropological perspective and drawing on Steven Brown’s "musilanguage" theory and Steve Mithen’s theories of a proto-communication system dating back to the Pliocene, this paper argues that a musician’s gestures should be informed not by showmanship or virtuosity, as often emphasized in the performance world, but by music’s shared evolutionary origin with language and gesture. Just as body language naturally reflects rhetorical intentions in speech, meaningful physical gestures should naturally accompany musical expression, consistent with the nature of each individual player. This interdisciplinary perspective bridges the fields of music pedagogy and evolutionary science, offering a holistic understanding that enhances both musical expression and teaching methodologies. The insights provided can help future music teachers approach these concerns at the instrument with greater pedagogical efficacy, fostering more effective and expressive performances where gestures authentically connect music with language and communication.
Author Information
Belinda X. Chen, Bilkent University, Türkiye
Paper Information
Conference: KCAH2024
Stream: Arts - Performing Arts Practices: Theater
This paper is part of the KCAH2024 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Chen B. (2025) The Harmonization of Gesture: An Evolutionary Anthropological Approach to Music Performance ISSN: 2759-7571 – The Korean Conference on Arts & Humanities 2024 Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 219-226) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2759-7571.2024.20
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2759-7571.2024.20
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