A RT I C L E 381

Qualitative insights into the use Psychology of Music

Psychology of Music
of expressive body movement in Copyright © 2007
Society for Education, Music
solo piano performance: a case and Psychology Research
vol 35(3): 381‒401 [0305-7356

study approach (200707) 35:3; 381‒401]

10.1177⁄0305735607072652
http://pom.sagepub.com

J A N E W. DAV I D S O N
UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD

A B S T R AC TThis article is a contribution to the psychology of performance,

investigating the role of body movements both globally and locally in expressive
musical performance. A case study of a single pianist is used to explore
qualitative similarities and differences within and across different performances
of a Beethoven bagatelle. Using observational analyses of the performance
movements, the results reveal that the performer uses particular movement
shapes that are specific and identifiable ‘expressive locations’ within the context
of a whole performance. These movement shapes cannot simply be categorized as
being either intention specific or musical structure specific, for there are
movement shapes common to locations across different performances and
different locations within a performance. These expressive movements have some
consistency over time, with the locations of the expression being common, but
the movements being used flexibly within and across manner and time. The
results are theorized in terms of how these movements may be produced.

KEYWORDS: bodily movement and gesture, solo performance

Introduction
The current article provides a study of bodily movement with the specific aim
of providing important information about the production of music perform-
ances. It focuses on a case study of an individual pianist and comprises two
investigations: the first to identify the physical movement vocabulary used by
the pianist; the second to investigate whether or not these movements are
used in repeated performances by the pianist. Following on from my previous
research, the current article thus provides both theoretical debate and
practical enquiry to produce a detailed description of how one pianist’s
performances are physically organized.

sempre :
382 Psychology of Music 35(3)

For centuries, it has been recognized that musical sound is dependent on

bodily movement in its production. However, it is relatively recently that this
relationship has been demonstrated empirically, the full implications being
pursued. Prior to examining these, however, it is important to establish what
kind of movement is contained in a music performance. At a fundamental
level, it appears that there are movements that are the fixed consequences of
the motor programming system. Indeed, motor plans are established over
time through repetition and enable the performance to become more
consistent and accurate. Welford (1968) showed that the execution time of
any physical activity from first attempt to high-level practice falls exponen-
tially until it reaches an incompressible minimum. This suggests that there is
a conservation of energy expenditure, with movements being reduced to only
those required to execute a task.
In music, Shaffer (1984), who studied timing variations in performance by
looking at the key presses made by pianists, noted that motor programming
effects produced inevitable timing variations away from the metrical pulse of
the musical performance. Therefore, the minimal physical requirements of
playing specific combinations of musical notes produced timing profile varia-
tions expressive only of the individual’s production of the notes. However,
Shaffer also illustrated that there were other timing profiles which were flexible
in note production in that they could be increased or diminished, though they
could never be totally removed. Shaffer regarded these as intentional variations
specifically intended to enhance the musical effect. Theoretical support for
Shaffer’s proposal was made by Todd (1985), who described a generative
model of expressive time, which linked expressive devices (e.g. rubato) to key
features of the compositional structure (e.g. cadences). Thus, two elements of
motor programming co-exist in music production: profiles directly related to
simple execution and profiles for musically enhancing effects.
Working using only sound recordings, Gabrielsson (1995) asked a range
of performers to play several well-known tunes, each with the six different
intentions of ‘sad’, ‘happy’, ‘solemn’, ‘angry’, ‘tender’ and ‘without expres-
sion’. He discovered that the overall speed, dynamics, articulation and vibrato
of performances were varied according to the intention. Furthermore,
Kendall and Carterette (1990) also examined intepretational variation by
asking performers to play the same pieces of music ‘without expression’, with
‘the appropriate expression’ and with ‘too much expression’. Examining the
dynamics and timing of the performances, they discovered that the three
different intentions had profiles specific to the intentions.
Therefore, in the work of Gabrielsson and Kendall and Carterette it can be
seen that completely different intentions affected the performances in
distinctive and expressive ways. Interestingly, the different intentions always
shared common points of emphasis or de-emphasis, however, which were
related to key compositional structures. So it appears that, at one level at
least, musical expression is related to the communication of information
 Davidson: Expressive body movement in solo piano performance 383

about the musical structure: for instance, that one is reaching a cadence
point, and this is signalled by the expressive device of slowing. Gabrielsson’s
and Kendall and Carterette’s findings also reveal, however, that performances
can be modified by the performer in often simultaneously different manners.
For instance, a rule-based knowledge of what makes a performance ‘musical’
will create one set of parameters on the production of the piece (like the
factors that signal musical structure), whilst mood states or other explicit
intentions (such as a desire to play very passionately, or to play in a slightly
detached manner to compensate for an overly resonant acoustic) will also
shape the performance. Clearly, the intentional factors along with the
inevitable production profiles of the motor programme will interact.
Although none of the work mentioned above focuses on performance
movement itself, a logical hypothesis is that the various types of performance
intention will be apparent in the body. Indeed, many pedagogic texts refer to
the essential interplay of musical features, expressive intention and the body.
For example, in the 19th century, Balliot, in his L’art du violon (1834, cf.
Stowell, 1985), suggested that different types of movements are necessary to
produce different musical tempi. He remarks that the adagio tempo requires
‘more ample movements’ than the allegro where notes are ‘tossed off ’,
whereas in presto there is ‘great physical abandon’.
So, several features may interact in the musician’s body movements – the
motoric elements of the physical execution of any piece of music, plus
physical manifestations of affective states, and intentional changes to the
music for particular musical effects. As well as conscious changes to mood
and the music, unconscious states may also become apparent though the
performer’s movements. For instance, a low-level personality anxiety may be
manifested in a nervous physical habit. Indeed, from the non-verbal commu-
nication literature, Cassell (1998) has researched many physical gestures –
such as an individual’s tendency to touch his or her own face during social
interactions – that are completely unconscious but reveal a lot of very
particular information about that person to others. (In the case of the face
touching, Cassell argues that such self-stimulation occurs to re-assure an
individual of his/her presence.)
The many potential contributing elements to the final body movement
pattern may be difficult to assess, as there is no way each relative influence
can be separated out. With this potential difficulty in mind, it is important to
note that Gabrielsson’s and Kendall and Carterette’s work draws on a
methodology that may be a useful tool in the investigation of body move-
ment. In both studies, the experimenters had an explicit knowledge of the
performer’s intentions, which meant that the specific effects of the intention
on the performance could be examined (differences could be identified and
measured). Additionally, this explicit knowledge was very useful, as it enabled
the researchers to link the performer’s expressive goals with the listener’s
perceptions.
384 Psychology of Music 35(3)

In a series of investigations, I have demonstrated that musicians’ move-

ments communicate much useful perceptual information. For example,
Davidson (1993, 1995), adopting Kendall and Carterette’s methodology,
showed empirically that performances of the same piece of music with three
different expressive intentions: (1) without expression, labelled as ‘deadpan’;
(2) with normal expression, labelled as ‘projected’; and (3) with exaggerated
expression, labelled as ‘exaggerated’ – could all be clearly detected from the
performers’ movements. Indeed, using both aural and visual information as
stimuli, it was found that non-musicians relied almost entirely on visual
information for their judgements of the performers’ intentions.
Focused on the performances of a single pianist, Davidson (1994) devel-
oped two studies to explore what sort of movement characteristics might guide
observer perceptions. The first study used two-dimensionsal (x- and y-axes)
movement-tracking techniques to quantify the movements, and showed that
there was a relationship between movement size and expression – the greater
the expressive intention, the larger the movement (thus, exaggerated
performances comprised larger movements than deadpan ones). This was
not a simple one-to-one relationship, however, as there were moments of
complete stillness in all three expressive intentions, and there were also
movement forms that were specific to a particular intention. In the second
study, observer judgements explored the extent to which different regions of
the body were informative of the performance intention. It was discovered
that the upper torso/head region was sufficient for the perceptual judgement
to be made, but the most accurate information for differentiating between the
three intentions was when the head/torso and hands were combined.
In more recent further studies (Davidson, 2002), I explored: (1) whether
the movement information about the expressive intentions of a pianist was
available to observers in a continuous stream, or whether it was limited to
particular moments within a performance; and (2) whether in the piano
performances the upper torso and hands contribute equally to the physical
manifestations of the performance intention. Several important results
emerged. From the first experiment, it became apparent that the largest
movements taken from the three differently intentioned performances were
generally perceived as the most expressive moments. Yet, even when
examining only the large movements, many of which were of similar sizes in
the different intentions, the three performances could be differentiated with
the exaggerated movements being rated as being the most expressive. Small
amplitude movements, whilst being perceived as the least expressive move-
ments, were not as easily differentiated across intention. Moreover, it became
far easier to detect performance intentions from the upper torso movements
than those of the hands. In summary, these findings suggest that information
is available in a variable manner throughout the performances and that a
number of factors may interact in the perception of a performance from its
bodily component.
 Davidson: Expressive body movement in solo piano performance 385

In the second study, it became increasingly apparent that even though,

generally, large movements were the most perceptually obvious examples of
high expression, not all large amplitude movements were detected as being
expressive. Conversely, there were many small amplitude movements or even
moments of stillness that contained expressive information. Here, quality as
opposed to size of movement seemed to become the most salient perceptual
cue. In all, the results of the studies (Davidson, 2002) suggested that there is
specific information about a performance intention available to the perceiver,
but it is perhaps limited to specific moments, and is therefore not continuous.
A significant link between the identifiable expressive movements and
musical structure was found. Therefore, it could be that it is only at these key
structural moments (a hand gesture at a cadence point, for instance) that
expressive intention can be found. In fact, some qualitative observer reports
taken from the studies suggested that certain structural features of the music
actually ‘permitted’ the body to reveal the expressive intention very clearly –
for example, rests where the hand is free to display movement qualities; or
rubato sections where there is more time available to show the movement
quality.
There was some further evidence in the second experiment that chal-
lenged this initial conclusion, however, since there was a certain amount of
continuously informative movement that appeared in an overall swaying
pattern present in both the projected and the exaggerated performances. The
study (Davidson, 2002) failed to address what caused the swinging motion in
these intentions. Furthermore, it was unclear how the swinging patterns of
the projected and exaggerated performances may have related to the
movement in the deadpan intention. However, anatomically, there are some
theoretically based hypotheses that can be made about how the male pianist
studied was using his body in both the continuous swinging and local ways.
Examining the global swinging movements first, it is apparent that the
pianist’s centre of gravity is located at his contact point with the piano stool,
so it may be that movements around this point (initiated in the hip region)
are the movements from which all information about expression is generated.
Indeed, it is to be recalled that as a single body part, the upper torso provided
the best indicator of expressive intention and the upper torso is the clearest
indicator of hip area activity as it traces the direction of any hip movements
exactly, and is the body part that reveals the swinging in projected and
exaggerated playing. If this is the case, why then is there a lack of swinging in
the deadpan performance? It might be that the potential for the swing is
always present in the body, but in the deadpan intention the activity itself is
just not ‘exteriorized’. Indeed, it is important to recall that movement
quantity and expression appear to be linked. Therefore, the very small
amplitude of the movements present in the deadpan intention may mean
that the swinging may not be visible, although the intention to swing may
always be present. The conclusion that emerges from this explanation is that
386 Psychology of Music 35(3)

amplitude is perhaps the single most important determinant of the three

expressive intentions studied.
I have argued a theoretical basis for my proposals based on ideas by
Cutting and Kozlowski (1977) who examined walking. Their studies showed
that any part of the movement cycle in locomotion provides similarly expres-
sive information (in their work the ‘expression’ was the walker’s identity). In
further studies, Kozlowski and Cutting (1977) and Cutting and Kozlowski
(1977) discovered that by viewing the walkers in a point-light display (retro-
flective tape attached to all the major body joints and the head), any single
body joint provided enough information to allow observers to determine the
walkers’ gender. Cutting et al. (1978) explained these results by demon-
strating that there is a point (referred to as ‘the centre of moment’) within the
walker’s body that acts as a reference around which movements in all parts in
the body have regular geometric relations. The point is located in the torso
and is different for men and women, its relative location being determined by
the relative widths of the hips and the shoulders. In other words, the body
contains a physical centre for expressive information.
Given the previous findings (Davidson, 1994, 2002) that expressive
information in piano playing is not equally distributed, apparently because
the body is not engaged to equal degrees in producing a performance, it is
likely that any centre of moment for pianistic movement expression would be
related to the sitting position. The hypothesis that ‘the centre of moment’
may be ‘in potential’ in the deadpan performance is explained more fully in
Cutting and Proffitt’s (1981) description of the centre of moment in which
different parts of the body tell similar expressive stories but at different levels:
that is, some areas are global indicators whilst others are specific to certain
parts of the body. Indeed, it could be that the relationship between the head
and hands is of this type: the upper torso being the more global indicator of
expression, and the hand being a more local indicator. This would account for
the fact that it is the coordination between body parts that provides the
clearest information about performance intention, and also explains why the
hands are sometimes an ambiguous source of expressive information, i.e. the
local information may require the larger more general context in order for a
highly accurate perception to be made.
At this point, it is important to recall that the musician is always
negotiating the musical score, and that there may be points at which it is
easier for the body to cope with specific musical passages than others. This, in
turn, will affect the presentation of the expressive intention, making some
areas clearer indicators of expressive intention than others. Additionally, key
musical structures may be the individual points around which expression of
the intention is more pronounced. The hypothesis here would be that if
structure and expression works in a generative manner, in note production
an individual will only be able to add to or take away from some variation to
the structure designated in the score; therefore, these structural moments
 Davidson: Expressive body movement in solo piano performance 387

would provide the most specific examples of expression. Again, this hypoth-
esis would help to explain the very local nature of some of the expressive
moments.
Of course, the issues so far presented are based in psychophysiology and
perceptual theory. Pedagogical techniques for the effective use of the body in
learning and performance are fairly widely adopted in instrumental tuition,
and also have a role to play in attempting to understand and facilitate how
the body negotiates the score and, indeed, how the body functions in different
circumstances (rehearsing, performing). Techniques such as those developed
by the actor F.M. Alexander (see Davidson and Correia, 2002 for a survey of
such techniques) have been applied to aid the body to achieve optimal levels
of performance precision and communication of musical ideas for the
minimum amount of physical disturbance. The benefits of these techniques
to assist in note production are obvious in that they have direct effects on
how the music will sound (see work by Pierce, 1994). But, the approaches
described focus on the performer and her/his tensions and intentions, and
pay little regard to the perceiver.
Gellrich (1991), on the other hand, concerns himself with the perceiver
and explores how specifically learned mimetic movements and gestures can
furnish a performance with expressive intention. He suggests that these
gestures can be achieved without negatively disturbing the production of the
performance. Gellrich specifically raises issues about how music that was
originally performed with gestural affect – particularly the repertoire of the
18th and 19th centuries – should be played. The relevance of Gellrich’s work
to the current article is not so much about the historical performance
practice, but, rather, the idea that the performer can add a level of movement
to the performance that is not of direct necessity to the production of the
musical whole, but assists the perceiver’s understanding of the performance.
In other words, there may be a ‘surface’ level of movement that can be
explicitly taught, but is not intrinsic to the intention of the performance,
although there will clearly be a congruence between the surface and intrinsic
elements as it will be the performer’s explicit intention to use these gestures to
make the performance intention clearer.
If the above is the case, it begs the question: can these surface movements
be freely added and taken away from the performances? If so, are the
expressive locations detected in Davidson (2002) representative of different
expressive ‘surface’ gestures? A fairly extensive literature on physical gesture
in spoken language (cf. Kendon, 1980) indicates that gestural repertoires
emerge that have specific meanings. Therefore, it could be that there are
specific gestures for musical performance – a gestural movement repertoire.
My previous work suggests that this may be the case in pop singing per-
formance (Davidson, 2001, 2006), but of course in singing, some of the
movements are direct illustrations of meanings from the lyrics. For the
current article, it seems that two potential gestural repertoires may exist in
388 Psychology of Music 35(3)

the performance of instrumental music: (1) gestures of emphasis for each

local musical structure; (2) a specific gestural repertoire associated with
particular moods or instructions given to the performer.
In light of the previous findings and existing theory, the following
questions emerge, which are to be addressed in the current article:

1. Can the concept of a ‘centre of moment’ usefully explain the global

swinging movements of a pianist?
2. Do the different parts of the body tell similar expressive ‘stories’, but at
different levels: that is, are some areas of the body global indicators
whilst others are specific indicators of expressive intention?
3. What role does the musical structure have in shaping the movement
profiles of the expression in the performances?
4. To what degree is there evidence of learned illustrative gestures in
performance that might be more comparable with the movements used
by singers?

In order to address the questions above in more detail, a logical empirical step
is to observe systematically the three different intentions performed by the
pianist previously studied (Davidson, 2002). The aim of these observations
is to code the specific forms of the movements used in each intention and
at each individual expressive location, and to examine the general forms of
the movements (particularly the swinging) in order to help to establish the
relationship between the particularly identifiable expressive moments and
the overall expression.
With few precedents in the music literature for research into recording
body movement, I turned to Guile (2000) and her work on how to use a form
of contemporary dance notation – Laban Notation – (see Laban, 1960,
1975) to explore potential observation and movement coding methods. Note
that Guile transferred the movement techniques into physical gestures for
sound production, so there are some useful parallels to be drawn in the
techniques. As a notation system was being developed and applied to physical
movement by Guile and indeed Laban, the authors made extensive repeated
observations prior to attempting to construct a notation. From their obser-
vations, they were able to group movements according to links between areas
of the body and the use of time, space and flow. Laban recorded these on a
movement stave so they could be read and eventually learned by others. The
method adopted in the current study was not so elaborate, since it was not
necessary to record these movements for choreographic purposes, only record
them. Therefore, whilst repeated observations were made, the notation
system devised aimed simply to capture the area of the body involved and the
overall style of the movement.
 Davidson: Expressive body movement in solo piano performance 389

Study 1
The current study was primarily concerned with establishing whether
locations in a piano performance that had already been judged as being of
specific perceptual salience contained movement forms that were: (1) specific
to a single expressive intention; (2) specific to a particular structural location
within the musical score, and therefore consistent across expressive inten-
tions; and (3) separate from, or embedded within, the swinging movements
detected in the projected and exaggerated performances of Davidson (2002).
In other words, were the concepts of an expressive movement vocabulary
and/or a centre of moments principle in operation?

OBSERVATION STIMULI
A male professional pianist with an international performing career provided
the performances for both studies described in this article. He played
Beethoven’s Bagatelle Op. 119, No. 11 in B major. This was a well-learned
piece selected from his repertoire and was played from memory. The pianist
sat at the keyboard in a right-side profile performing position with a video
camera set at a distance of 3 metres from him with the camera lens focused at
keyboard height so that his whole body was in full-frame camera shot.
The bagatelle performances were recorded with the three intentions
referred to in Kendall and Carterette’s work, although in the current article
these intentions are labelled ‘projected’, ‘deadpan’ and ‘exaggerated’. These
particular intentions were selected as they were regarded as three genuinely
performable intentions consistent with public performance and teaching
methods. In the ‘deadpan’ performance, the performer was asked to minimize
his expressive interpretation of the music, that is, to reduce dynamic, tem-
poral and timbral variations to produce a consistently unvaried performance.
In the ‘exaggerated’ performance, the pianist was asked to play the piece in
such a way that all aspects of the expressive features would be overstated,
that is, to over-emphasize dynamic, temporal and timbral variations in his
interpretation of the piece. In the ‘projected’ performance, the pianist was
asked to play as if in a recital, that is, to give his normal interpretation of the
score.
No specific instructions were given about how to achieve the differences
between the intentions since the instructions were viewed as a simple method
to get the performer to approach the same music differently. The pianist was
asked to confirm that he understood what was required of each performance
intention, and that the performances he produced were consistent with the
required intentions. No reference was made to physical movement, although
the pianist knew that a visual record of the performances was made.
It is important to note that intention is the independent variable here, and
objective measurements of the body movements of this pianist in these three
performances showed that he moved least and the movements were smallest
390 Psychology of Music 35(3)

in amplitude in the deadpan performances (Davidson, 2002), and that he

moved most and his movements were largest in amplitude in the exaggerated
performance. Therefore, there was evidence to suggest that each intention
was executed differently. In addition, using other performances and judges,
Davidson (1993, 1995) found that as a performance intention, deadpan was
consistently judged least expressive and exaggerated was most expressive.
But now the intention was to examine the constituent elements of the
movements.

OBSERVER
As an experienced performer and concert-goer, I acted as the observer for the
study. I drew on information I had amassed during the earlier study
(Davidson, 2002) in which the expressive locations of the Beethoven
bagatelle performances had been identified by with six judges. This infor-
mation included details such as: (1) there were specific start and finish
moments to the identified expressive locations; (2) these movements had
particular forms that were both similar and different across performances; (3)
there was an overall movement in the projected and exaggerated perform-
ances in which the specific locations appeared to be embedded.

APPARATUS AND PROCEDURE

A video position analyser (For-A-FM60) was used to track the bodily
movement. Initially, the analysis was undertaken by looking at the moments
six independent observers had identified (Davidson, 2002) to see if any
particularly distinctive movements could be identified. In order to do this, a
slow, systematic observation of the performances was undertaken. All
repeated body movements and particularly distinctive individual body
movements were recorded in terms of their duration and a verbal description
of the movement. Furthermore, the form of the continual swinging move-
ment alluded to by the observers (Davidson, 2002) was observed and its
profile traced to examine how it coincided with the specifically identifiable
movements. After the observations, my results were offered to an expert
‘validator’ to investigate the extent to which he agreed with the number of
gestures identified and the categorization criteria for each gesture (in line
with ideas on validity presented by Bakeman and Gottman, 1986, on
observational techniques), and a result of an agreement level of p < .001 was
achieved.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

After careful and repeated observation, it appeared that the movements made
by the performer at the expressive locations could be classified. Consistent
with other observations made in the initial study (Davidson, 2002), the
classified movements came from the upper torso/head region, and the left
hand alone. These body parts produced nine distinctive and repeated
 Davidson: Expressive body movement in solo piano performance 391

TA B L E 1 The expressive movement coding

Duration of the location = —

The head

Nod = ★
Reverse nod = ✩
Shake of the head = ❏
Forward swing* =
Backward swing* =
Wiggle of the back, shoulders or whole
upper torso = ✱

* Note that the forward and backward swing locations are the moments when an expressive
moment is located yet where there is no identifiable movement pattern other that the swinging
motion that has already been noted as the overall movement of the pianist.

The left hand

Wrist rotation = ●
Depressed wrist = ∇
Upward wrist movement = Δ
Raised, arched and held wrist = ▲
Raised forearm =
Flicked lift of hand away from the body
with fingers remaining in close
proximity to the keys =
Flicked lift of hand towards the body with
fingers remaining in close proximity to the keys =
Medium-high hand lift =
High hand lift =
Hand movement downwards (below the
keyboard height) =

movement shapes in the left hand and six distinctive types of upper torso/
head movement patterns.
The movement types identified are listed in Table 1. Figure 1 shows the
musical score of the Beethoven bagatelle and Figure 2 shows the movement
types according to the expressive moment locations within the music.
Considering first Table 1, it is important to note that movements belonging
to the same category were not always of the same amplitude or speed in each
intention or in each location, but always preserved the same overall form,
direction and style. Specific selection criteria were easily developed to charac-
terize each movement, however. In the case of the nod, for instance, it always
contains a forward and back movement that is led by the head, though it can
392 Psychology of Music 35(3)

Key:

F I G U R E 1 Score of Beethoven’s Bagatelle Op. 119, No. 11 in B major, which gives

indicative examples of expressive locations.

involve the entire upper torso. The definite head movement distinguishes it
from the forward and back swinging motion, which seems not to involve the
head so specifically. For the reverse nod, the same rules of characterization
apply, although in this head movement there is always a starting position
from a forward and downward head position that then moves backwards. For
the shake, there is a range of movement amplitudes, but it is restricted to a
head movement that can vary in speed. It is usually executed in the upright
sitting position, but can occur at any part of the swinging movement cycle. It
involves the head in a horizontal plane (side-to-side) movement. For the
wiggle, again there is a range of movement amplitudes, but the feature that
distinguishes it is that there is always a sideways movement of the torso –
either just the shoulder or the whole back – that is fast and part of either a
Exaggerated
Projected
Deadpan
Bar Number (subdivisions = main crotchet beats – 4
4 time)
F I G U R E 2 The movement shapes at the expressive locations for the head and hand of the pianist performing the Beethoven bagatelle in deadpan, projected
Davidson: Expressive body movement in solo piano performance

and exaggerated manners.

393
394 Psychology of Music 35(3)

forwards or a backwards movement. For the hand movements, the rotation

involves the wrist in a 360-degree movement around the fixed point of the
fingers. This can occur either directly above or below the keys, with the
fingers remaining in contact with the keys. For the upward wrist movement,
the fingers remain in contact with the keys and the wrist is raised over the
keys. The depressed wrist also includes finger contact with the keys, but in
this movement the wrist is dropped below key height. The raised, arched
and held wrist is self-explanatory, as are the remaining hand movements,
although it is worth pointing out that the hand movement downwards does
involve the hand leaving the keyboard.
It should be noted that every upper torso/head movement identified cor-
responded without exception to an expressive location made in the original
study (Davidson, 2002). The same, however, is not true for the hands: there
are a number of places in the three intentions where hand movements occur-
red that are of a similar type to the identified expressive movements but that
did not match up with any of the expressive locations from the previous study.
Figure 2 demonstrates that across the three performance intentions, a
variety of movements is used in each intention. It seems that each intention
does not have one specific type of movement associated with it. This suggests,
therefore, that movement shapes do not have one expressive function; rather
if movements are used in different intentions they can elicit different mes-
sages. Indeed, on those rare occasions when a common movement type is
used at the same point in the music across the three intentions (for example,
bar 11 with the shake motion notated), it is possible from observing the video
at these specific points that the essential form of the movement is the same
across the intentions, but that in the deadpan performance the motion is
more confined to the head region, whereas in the exaggerated performance,
there is a more liberal engagement of upper torso. Thus, one conclusion that
can be drawn from these examples is that the movement patterns are similar,
but that as the amplitudes increase, so the expressive message becomes
stronger. However, if the majority of the locations are examined across
intention, it is apparent that whilst the movements are of different shapes,
there are also common features. For instance, consider bar 5, where there is a
shake in deadpan and exaggerated performances and a swinging movement
and nod in projected intention. It could be that these differences are the
clearest evidence to explain why the intentions are perceived differently: cer-
tain movements may contain specific kinds of expression. However, if visual
comparisons are drawn, for example at bar 5 in each intention, although the
movement shapes are different, it is possible to see that these movements have
common features. For instance, the performer’s spine is erect and there is a
quality of control in all of the movements.
So far, this discussion of the similarities and differences between intentions
has focused on the upper torso/head, but a similar set of observations can be
made for the hand movements. In fact, the hands provide interesting
 Davidson: Expressive body movement in solo piano performance 395

examples since they demonstrate that expressive movements only occur at

points in the score where there is ‘space’ in the structure (rests and held
notes). Again, however, although the lifts occur at similar points in the music,
different types of hand movement are employed. For instance, across the
deadpan intention there is every kind of lift from flick lifts to high lifts. This
suggests that although the movement may be executable because of the rest
or held note in the music, the precise intention of the movement is different,
although it must be noted that across the same location in the three
intentions where different hand movements are found (for instance, bar 12
where there are raised wrists and medium lifts across intention), the speed of
these movements is similar.
As suggested in the introduction to this study, one feature of key
importance in the perception of expressivity may be the rocking forward and
backwards motion. Even the hand movements may be part of this swinging
movement, the lift being an arm extension of the swing. Indeed, it seems that
if the swing is not included, high levels of expression are not detected, since
only the deadpan intention contains no swinging motion and this is perceived
to be generally inexpressive. Therefore, although specific movements can be
characterized and notated at the expressive locations, it could be that they
need to have the impetus of the swinging movement for their expressivity to
be perceived. Indeed, this swinging impetus could be more important than
the specific and identifiable movement gesture. It is possible that the specific
movements detected at the expressive locations are movements that the
performer has developed as an expressive movement ‘vocabulary’ which, in
association with the technique of playing notes, can be applied to the music
in a non-specific way. That is, each movement can express a variety of ideas.
It is equally possible, of course, that these movements are specific to this
single performance and that in other performances different movements for
specific intentions may be used.
This study indicates that: (1) this performer uses a series of movements
confined to the expressive moment locations in the bagatelle; and (2) these
movements appear at both similar and different locations across intentions.
This suggests (despite the indications in the tracking study – Davidson, 2002
– that expressive locations often have tracking formations similar to non-
expressive moments) that there are in fact specific physical features contained
within an expressive moment that make it expressive. However, it is also
possible to see that these specific movements all derive from the overall
swinging motion the performer establishes in his performances. It appears
that in many instances, each movement type (for instance, the wiggle) can be
executed in a range of ways that give the potential for a range of expressivity
levels to be elicited. For instance, the same movements at the same locations
often differ in amplitude. However, in other cases, there are common locations
across intentions that are associated with different movements that nonethe-
less appear to share some common features.
396 Psychology of Music 35(3)

These findings support both the centre of motion principle and the notion
of an expressive gestural repertoire. But, there was no indication that the
pianist would always make the swaying action or use these movements
consistently over time, and at similar structural locations in the music. Hence
a second study was devised.

Study 2
METHOD
Stimuli and participants
The stimuli for observation were drawn from two projected performances of
the Beethoven bagatelle recorded on video six months after the performances
described in Study 1. Six months’ gap was a fairly arbitrary choice, although
the pianist had done a lot of performing in the interim, and had not looked at
the bagatelle score. This meant that he would be well practised in ‘projecting’
performances, but that his approach to the bagatelle was based on long-term
memory of it from the pervious recording sessions.
Given the same instructions as in Study 1, the pianist played the piece
in the same room, under the same video recording conditions, and was given
the same instructions about playing in a projected manner. I then analysed the
data in the same way as previously.

RESULTS
The most simple way to assess these results is to begin by considering the two
renditions in terms of their similarities and differences and then to continue
by drawing parallels between the two renditions and the performances of six
months earlier. Figure 3 illustrates the two projected manner performances
in terms of their movements and locations.
The single most striking feature about the two renditions is the fact that
the swinging movement reappears as the overall movement and that none
of the local movements that appear differ from those identified in the earlier
performances. For the head, there are 14 common expressive locations and
nine for the hands. Of the head movements, 10 are exactly the same move-
ment shapes, and of the common hand locations, six are the same movement
shapes. For example, in bar 4, both renditions include a nod and at bar 10
there are high hand lifts.
The common movement types and locations discovered in the two
performances certainly serve to re-affirm that there is a feature within the
music that motivates expression at these particular points. Since both these
performances were undertaken with exactly the same intention, it could be
that: (1) these particular movements are simply part of essential technical
movement needed to negotiate the notes; (2) all these movements are best
suited to convey the particular intention at that location; or (3) some
combination of these two factors.
Projected 2
Projected 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
Bar Length (subdivisions = main crotchet beats – 4
4 time)

FIGURE 3 Expressive locations and movements of the pianist for two projected manner performances of Beethoven’s Bagatelle Op. 119, No. 1 in B  major,
given six months after the initial performances.
Davidson: Expressive body movement in solo piano performance
397
398 Psychology of Music 35(3)

Whilst the examples at bars 4 and 10 could be interpreted to suggest that the
movement vocabulary is manner specific, the fact that there are five common
locations that are associated with different movements across renditions
suggests that there is similar information conveyed in the movements – the
conclusion that had been drawn in previous work and in the two studies above.
There are unique expressive locations in both these performances. It was
previously intimated that a unique location might indicate a difference
between the different interpretations. However, it is apparent from Figure 3
that of a total of 10 unique locations, eight either immediately precede or
follow locations common to both interpretations. For the hand, for instance,
there is a medium hand lift in bar 6 of the first performance, which follows a
hand flick that is common to both performances, and in bar 9 in the second
performance, there is a double raised wrist location that precedes a common
wrist depression and lift. One possible explanation for the close proximity of
these unique locations to the common locations is that the unique location is
simply an anticipation or continuation of the common location in such a way
that it looks like a separate moment. Considering the links to the musical
structure, it is evident that over bars 8–9, there is a harmonic, pitch and
dynamic build towards the huge cadence at the end of bar 8 and the
beginning of bar 9 that would link the musical intentions of the unique and
common location movements in that both locations are found in points in the
structure that are working towards exactly the same musical ends. The one
‘oddity’ to explain in these terms, however, becomes the raised hand at bar 6,
which is only perceived to be expressive in the second performance. It could
be that in the first performance the performer did not actually have mental or
physical space to use the space in the music – a held note – for his hand to
move in an expressive manner.
It now seems relevant to return to the performance of six months earlier
to see how much deviation within the expressive locations occurred (look at
Figures 2 and 3). Comparing Figures 2 and 3 it seems that the expressive
locations are comparable over time. However, there are few common move-
ments within the common locations. For instance, the projected performance
of Figure 2 contains only four locations with movements common to those in
Figure 3: a hand lift in bar 9, a shake and wiggle at bar 11, a shake at bar 16,
and a nod and a hand lift in the final bar. It could be that these are the
integral movements to the projected manner. However, this possibility is
brought into question when it is noted that there are both deadpan and
exaggerated manner performances in Figure 2 that are common to locations
in Figure 3: the nod in bar 1; a shake in bar 11; and a forwards surge at bar
17. This would seem to re-validate the previously discussed possibility that in
order for the different manners to be detected, there must be some qualitative
differences between the movements. So these results perhaps most strongly
indicate that it is the quality of the movements and not the specific
movements themselves that lead to the detection of a specific manner.
 Davidson: Expressive body movement in solo piano performance 399

From the results of this second study, therefore, it is possible to conclude

that the expressive movements used by the performer in the bagatelle
performances have some consistency over time. The locations of the types of
movement are common, but the movements used at these locations come
from a repertory for the performer that seems to be used flexibly within and
across manner and time.

General discussion of the studies undertaken

These studies, dealing with a professional pianist’s performances of
Beethoven’s Bagatelle Op. 119, No. 11, have revealed the following.

STUDY 1
● Specific movement shapes (in the head and hands only) are identifiable
for each identified ‘expressive location’ in each performance manner
(indeed the specific shapes for the head occur exclusively at the location
points), although there are some hand movements (notably the high
hand lift) that occur at moments other than those identified as being
expressive.
● These movement shapes cannot simply be categorized as being either
intention specific or musical structure specific; movement shapes
common to locations across intention and different locations within
intention share some features, but also differ.

STUDY 2
● Expressive movements used by the performer have some consistency
over time, with the locations of the expression being common, but the
movements being used flexibly within and across manner and time.

The specifically identifiable expressive locations and movements could be

particular indicators of specific features of the intention, and the evidence
that certain movements have a relationship with musical figures (hand lifts
tend to occur at rests and held notes) suggests that some of the specific
movements may be the best, or the only possible, movements to deal with the
expressive content of a particular location. Indeed, it must be recalled that
even when the performer tries to give an inexpressive performance, the
movement vocabulary persists. However, many of the movements occur at
many different points across the score and do not appear in the same order in
each intention, the only exception being the head nod, which may indeed
have a specific function. The overall suggestion, however, is that some move-
ments may be used in a fairly flexible way, and that these movements all seem
to be part of the continual swinging movement of this pianist.
The general trend of the results would favour Cutting and co-workers’
principle of a ‘centre for expression’, both qualitative (in this study) and
400 Psychology of Music 35(3)

quantitative elements (Davidson, 2002) indicating the all pervasive and

informativeness of the swinging movement. However, the flexible use of the
movements used as specific expressive location muddies any direct discussion
of an apparent relationship between movement shape and musical structure.
Within Cutting’s framework, of course, it could be that the specific gestures
are lower order indicators of the expression encapsulated within the overall
swinging. Additionally, Ellis and Beattie (1986) have pointed out that in
conversation we have several gestural possibilities and can use different
movements to underscore the same expressive content in conversation, so
this may also be the case in performance movement.
This article begins to address many important issues with regard to the
generation of, but most specifically the visual perception of, musical perform-
ances. However, a good deal of further investigation is necessary before firm
conclusions can be drawn. The depth of the current investigation sets a
precedent for systematic study to build detailed case-study profiles so that a
more general understanding can be generated.

AC K N OW L E D G E M E N T

I wish to express my gratitude to Robin Bowman for his long-term participation in and
support of this work. This article is dedicated to Bill Davidson, who generously proof-
read the figures, but who sadly did not live to see the completed research published.

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JA N E W. DAV I D S O N
holds a Chair in Music Performance Studies at the University of
Sheffield and is the current Callaway/Tunley Chair of Music at the University of
Western Australia. She has a background in music psychology, musicology, vocal
performance, and contemporary dance. She is a former editor of Psychology of Music
(1997–2001) and was also Vice-President of the European Society for the Cognitive
Sciences of Music (2003–06). She researches psychological approaches to perform-
ance, development of musical ability, opera and music theatre studies, vocal pedagogy
and movement. Jane also works as a professional stage director in opera and music
theatre, having collaborated with Andrew Lawrence-King, Opera North, and Drama
per Musica.
Address: Department of Music, University of Sheffield, S10 2TN. [email:
j.w.davidson@sheffield.ac.uk]