An Expression of Emotion

I recently subscribed to a magazine journal titled Music Perception published by University of California Press. The other day I read through a very revealing lab report published in the journal titled "Perception of Expression in Conductors' Gestures: A Continuous Response Study."

The results of the experiment show that the eye has more say than the ear in perceiving level of performance expression. The more distance the conductor emphasizes between hands and the more aggressive the movement of his/her hands, the more musical expression of the orchestra is perceived.

A typical concert-goer probably takes for granted without thinking about it "oh yeah, stronger bodily movements = more expression in music." This leads into a conversation about the role of the conductor. Some pessimists speculate that in the future years of exponentially improving technology, there will be no more need for conductors. Every performer will have a computer chip placed in his/her ear that will keep tempo and remind him/her to get louder or quieter at given spots in the music.

While this may work for the orchestra, think about how the audience response would change given the experiment described above. Without being able to see a conductor really get into the music as he conducts the orchestra, the audience would likely perceive much less emotion in the performance because there wouldn't be the visual stimulus of the conductor. People would likely then become less interested in going to live performances which would be detrimental to the concert hall industry.

The results of this lab may also help to explain why people tend to have a stronger emotional response at a concert than if they are just listening to music on an iPod. If a person does have a strong emotional reaction to music they are listening to that isn't live, chances are they are connecting some sort of strong visual and/or physical action to what they are listening to.