Sensing Sound-Motion Objects in Music Performance
Rolf Inge Godøy · 2025
The focus of this chapter is on how fragments of music-related sound and body motion, called sound-motion objects , are linked to salient subjective sensations in music performance, such as sensations of effort, articulation, and flow. Studying such subjective sensations is inherently challenging because we need to somehow access the minds of performers and/or listeners, whether by means of self-report, or body motion observations that range from just watching and annotating performances to using technology-based methods, which in turn range from simple to highly complex (and invasive). Fortunately, we have in recent decades seen body motion research that attempts to overcome methodological and technological challenges, as well as research advocating body motion as fundamental for human thinking and feeling in general, and enabling a kind of “mind reading” by motion observation. Research supports the so-called motormimetic cognition , a framework suggesting that perception, thinking, and various subjective sensations in music-making and listening are closely linked with mental images of body motion—hence, the focus in this chapter on sensing sound-motion objects in music performance , in the experience of performers and listeners. intermittency, objects, sound, motion, multimodality, music performance