- Martin Clayton shares a common interest, finds the connection of sound with gesturing sensible and suggests to work with the material they have in their database at Open University, London.
Formalization of gestures according to some treatise is not evident and probably not possible, but more qualitative analysis in both domains (gesturing and auditory) may reveal interesting points in the hypothesis about embodiment in the oral training of classical indian singing.
- Matt Rahaim sent me his recent PhD and a paper on 'Gesture, Melody and the Paramparic Body in Hindustani Vocal Music' and was very supportive of the idea in some aspects.
- Suvarnalata Rao did not agree with the hypothesis, instead argued that some discussion is available about how to retain you body/facial expressions from being excessive, which is regarded as a negative attribute.
- Discussions with Barbara Mazzarino on the aspects of 'fluidity' and 'smoothness' in the physical gestural domain. Unfortunately, it was not possible to find demonstration patches for this.
Hi Stella,
ΑπάντησηΔιαγραφήSuvarnalata Rao is absolutely correct about a general critical antipathy to gesture in the course of singing, particularly in 20th century music literature, but also in Indo-Persian treatises, and to a lesser extent in Sanskrit treatises.
The fact of these explicit verbal proscriptions against moving the body while singing, however, doesn't invalidate your basic idea that these is an implicit connection between gesture and vocalization. Especially since the former are performed by scholars and the latter is performed by musicians. I think that there is something that singers understand about melody here that critics don't. Look at chapter 2 in my thesis for more on this, and don't be discouraged.
Good Luck!
Matt Rahaim