Gesture in performance with traditional musical instruments and electronics: Use of embodied music cognition and multimodal motion capture to design gestural mapping strategies

Abstract

This paper describes the implementation of gestural mapping strategies for performance with a traditional musical instrument and electronics. The approach adopted is informed by embodied music cognition and functional categories of musical gestures. Within this framework, gestures are not seen as means of control subordinated to the resulting musical sounds but rather as significant elements contributing to the formation of musical meaning similarly to auditory features. Moreover, the ecological knowledge of the gestural repertoire of the instrument is taken into account as it defines the action-sound relationships between the instrument and the performer and contributes to form expectations in the listeners. Subsequently, mapping strategies from a case study of electric guitar performance will be illustrated describing what motivated the choice of a multimodal motion capture system and how different solutions have been adopted considering both gestural meaning formation and technical constraints.