Meaningful musical performance: A bodily experience

Abstract

Drawing on an interview in which a self-report of a rehearsal and a performance is given, the current paper explores the elements that constitute a performance and assesses what makes it meaningful to the performer and the audience. Both psychological and philosophical approaches are taken so that concepts are examined as fully as possible. It is argued that the performer does not simply construct an interpretation from a formal musical knowledge base and the refinement of motor skills. Rather, the rehearsal period is shaped out of expressive intentions that emerge primarily from metaphorical projections linking physical experience and meaning production. Thus, a rational and fundamental connection is made so that abstract musical material is given a grounded meaning based in bodily experience. The importance of the body in the construction of mental states is explored, highlighting the interface between mind and body as it reflects and creates simultaneously who we are moment by moment. After the rehearsal process, the performance situation is explored. Here, it is noted that whilst there is a high degree of automaticity in the mechanical production of the music, in the interaction with the audience, the performer can achieve a state of unselfconsciousness and be at the peak of her/his abilities: a genuine form of spontaneous creativity. Here, again, it is the stock of human traits and experiences grounded in corporeality that are named as the source of creativity. For the audience, it is explained that they draw on metaphorical transference so that the music they experience is apprehended and related to movement and experiences in the body. Thus, it is argued that the musical meaning generated by both performer and audience is highly individualised, and so multiple. Finally, the concept of an authentic performance is explored, and it is concluded that historical and social factors which interplay in the meaning production process should be regarded as means to stimulate imagination, and so creativity. The implications for music education are obvious: we need to aim for a bodily-based theory and practice to develop fully the potential of our students.

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