Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of singers’ physical movement on observers’ perception of musical quality at varying levels of physical expressivity during a choral performance. In addition, the relationship between observers’ levels of formal music training and their perception of musical quality was of interest. All observers (N = 164) viewed and rated a set of three video scenarios of a choral performance. Each scenario was designed to represent three levels of physical movement: minimal (minimal body and facial movement), moderate (moderate head and facial movement), and high level (full body and facial movement). Results indicated that differing levels of singers’ physical movement and facial expressions were strongly related to observers’ perception of the musical quality. However, when analyzing this effect by observers’ formal musical background, no significant relationship was found between ratings of the musical quality and physical movement among musically trained observers across all three conditions, suggesting that musically trained observers may be less influenced by their visual perception when evaluating a music performance.
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