Efthymiou, Litha and Taylor, Alan (2024) Enhancing Embodied Music Cognition Through Music Theatre, with Particular Reference to Solo by Michael Pinchbeck and Ollie Smith. In: Following the Score: The Ravel Trilogy. Intellect Discover. Intellect Books, UK, pp. 140-154. ISBN 9781789389333

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Abstract

It is widely accepted that the sense of understanding (cognition) music results from an embodied process. This view is supported by developments in modern neurological studies. Our concern in this chapter is to explore the implications of this view of music cognition in relation to forms of music theatre in which the audience is actively engaged. Our overall research question is, whether or not, and to what extent, the physical engagement of audiences in music theatre performances enhances their embodied cognition of the music. The first objective of our research is to define and examine the approaches used to achieve physical engagement by the audience in music theatre. The second objective, which we hope will be the subject of a further research project, is to assess the extent to which these approaches may enhance the embodied cognition of the music concerned.

We start with a discussion of the view that music cognition is an embodied, rather than a purely mental, process, focusing on recent scholarship on embodied music cognition and mimetic engagement in music, as well as theories from the field of neurology. We then analyse four examples of music theatre which attempt to engage their audiences in physical actions in a way which may enhance the process of cognition of the music. We focus in detail on Solo by Michael Pinchbeck and Ollie Smith and describe its relationship to Ravel’s Tzigane (1924), comparing the approaches used in this piece to those used in the other examples reviewed. We argue that Solo is the piece that most effectively elucidates aspects of the music (specifically, in this case, the phrase structure and folk-like character of Ravel’s Tzigane) and suggest that this is likely due to the high degree of immersion in the world of the drama and the nature of physical engagement it requires from its audience. In conducting a review of this type, we hope to shed new light on the importance of the body as a vehicle for music cognition.

Item Type:	Book Section
Keywords:	FILM, TV & RADIO, Individual actors & performers, Theatre direction & production PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / Direction & Production, PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / Playwriting, PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / Stagecraft & Scenography
Subjects:	Music
Depositing User:	Litha Efthymiou
Date Deposited:	28 Feb 2024 11:01
Last Modified:	14 Apr 2024 02:45
URI:	https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/11220

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