Non-obvious performer gestures in instrumental music

Abstract

This paper deals with the gestural language of instrumentalists playing wind instruments. It discusses the role of non-obvious performer gestures that may nevertheless influence the final sound produced by the acoustic instrument. These gestures have not commonly been considered in sound synthesis, although they are an integral part of the instrumentalist's full gestural language. The structure of this paper will be based on an analysis of these non-obvious gestures followed by some comments on how to best classify them according to existing research on gesture reviewed in the introduction; finally, the influence of these gestures on the sound produced by the instrument will be studied and measurement and simulation results presented.