Gesture

[Essyne]

N/S what this goes under - so misc. is as good as any.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

So, my ballet instructor is writing a paper for the Royal
Academy and she has to talk about the gesture included in a
piece, but -  we're n/s if it's physical or musical gesture. Can you enlighten me on "musical gesture"? Her paper is based on ballet education - teaching
her students musicality, if such a thing can be done  . Someone told me that
I should watch Gould - that it's a little extreme, but gets the point across. So I guess
my question is whether or not "gesture" is the physical manifestation of the piece - just
making your movements personify the music, essentially. . . ?

I apologize for the lack of coherency - rehearsals on very little sleep will do that to a person  .

Thanks,

Essyne

[keypeg]

Essyne, I did a quick google and  lot of things come up under the title "musical gesture".  Maybe those essays can spurn on more ideas and allow you to formulate different things and different questions.  The idea is fascinating but I don't have time to read anything.

[Essyne]

ah - the old google trick. 

lol, thanks - 

[Bob]

I think there are sections of music that create a feeling of "movement" or arriving somewhere.  Something is happing... and happened...   And then moves on to something else.

Maybe that's what your ballet teacher meant.  A moment in music.  It goes somewhere.  Physical things can follow along with that motion.

[Essyne]

i found some interesting lectures from the uni of toronto :

http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/epc/srb/cyber/hat1.html

I like this quote :

"Gesture [ . . . ] is a holistic concept, synthesizing what theorists would analyze separably as melody, harmony, rhythm and meter, tempo and rubato, articulation, dynamics, and phrasing into an indivisible whole. All of these various musical elements overlap in various ways in Western notational systems. The continuity that they may suggest is at best analogous to the twisted strands of a cable. For performance, these overlapping strands must be further melded into a smooth, and at some level undivided, continuity. That melding is achieved most efficiently by means of an apparently natural, human gesture. Performers strive to create a shaping and shading of each phrase that is more than the sum of the motivic and harmonic units of which they are composed."

Maybe that's what your ballet teacher meant.

I was chatting (yet again  ) today about this subject and I think that it's fascinating how dancers aren't very flexible (musically speaking, thal). One would think that they would strive to learn EVERYTHING about their craft, not just the part that they like about it. Every other accomplished musician must plow through the monotony of certain aspects of their craft; consequently, they emerge knowing it back and front. If your craft is based on MUSIC, then you should KNOW music, in my oh-so-humble-opinion. It's like a horse breeder not knowing the difference between a Hanoverian and a Polish Arabian*** . . . . If you have to shape music and personify it/"breeding" a beautiful product, well - it would help a bit to know the difference between the quality of 3/4 and 6/8 time.

~Ess~

***And oh what a difference it is . . . . my Hanoverian mare is an incredible mover ((Point for Germany)), but, alas, my Arabs aren't that good @ dressage (good Training Levels, but will never be Grand Prix  ) <--- lol, sorry, thought I'd just throw that in there  .