Focal impulses and expressive performance

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of a theory of motor organization in the performance of music, the theory of focal impulses, and it draws out implications for use in modeling expressive performance. According to the theory of focal impulses, motor organization is chunked by means of the placement of focal impulses, usually on the beats at some chosen main beat level. Focal impulses are bodily motions that often involve larger and more proximal effector segments and that, by recruiting stable resonance frequencies of the body, create a motional context that facilitates the production of the hierarchically-subordinate motions that follow. Several issues are discussed: the sonic traces of focal impulses; focal impulses that are inflected to suggest motion either with or against the pull of gravity; the different character of accents aligned with focal impulses vs. not; and the effects of choosing a metrical interpretation when multiple interpretations are possible. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.