Gesture–vocal coupling in Karnatak music performance: A neuro–bodily distributed aesthetic entanglement. Issue 1 (21st June 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pearson, Lara; Pouw, Wim
• Is Part Of: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Volume 1515:Issue 1(2022)
• Page Start: 219
• Page End: 236
• Publication Date: 2022-06-21
• Subjects: cross‐modal correspondences -- gesture–speech physics -- gesture–vocal coupling -- South Indian music -- vocal music; Medical sciences -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals; 610
• DOI: 10.1111/nyas.14806
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0077-8923

Abstract

Abstract: In many musical styles, vocalists manually gesture while they sing. Coupling between gesture kinematics and vocalization has been examined in speech contexts, but it is an open question how these couple in music making. We examine this in a corpus of South Indian, Karnatak vocal music that includes motion‐capture data. Through peak magnitude analysis (linear mixed regression) and continuous time‐series analyses (generalized additive modeling), we assessed whether vocal trajectories around peaks in vertical velocity, speed, or acceleration were coupling with changes in vocal acoustics (namely, F0 and amplitude). Kinematic coupling was stronger for F0 change versus amplitude, pointing to F0's musical significance. Acceleration was the most predictive for F0 change and had the most reliable magnitude coupling, showing a one‐third power relation. That acceleration, rather than other kinematics, is maximally predictive for vocalization is interesting because acceleration entails force transfers onto the body. As a theoretical contribution, we argue that gesturing in musical contexts should be understood in relation to the physical connections between gesturing and vocal production that are brought into harmony with the vocalists' (enculturated) performance goals. Gesture–vocal coupling should, therefore, be viewed as a neuro–bodily distributed aesthetic entanglement. Abstract : In many musical styles vocalists manually gesture while they sing. Coupling between gesture kinematics and vocalization has been examined in speech contexts, but it is an open question how these couple in music‐making. We examine this in a corpus of South Indian, Karnatak vocal music that includes motion‐capture data. Alongside this empirical study, we make a theoretical proposal that the physical connection between sound‐producing and movement‐producing systems should be taken into account alongside cognitive and cultural considerations, to better understand multimodality in human expressivity.