Embodied Music Cognition and Mediation

Digital media handles music as encoded physical energy, but humans consider music in terms of beliefs, intentions, interpretations, experiences, evaluations, and significations. In this book, drawing on work in computer science, psychology, brain science, and musicology, Marc Leman proposes an embodied cognition approach to music research that will help bridge this gap. Assuming that the body plays a central role in all musical activities, and basing his approach on a hypothesis about the relationship between musical experience (mind) and sound energy (matter), Leman proposes that the human body is a biologically designed mediator that transfers physical energy to a mental level--engaging experiences, values, and intentions--and, reversing the process, transfers mental representation into material form. He suggests that this idea of the body as mediator offers a promising framework for thinking about music mediation technology. Leman argues that, under certain conditions, the natural mediator (the body) can be extended with artificial technology-based mediators. He explores the necessary conditions and analyzes ways in which they can be studied. Leman outlines his theory of embodied music cognition, introducing a model that describes the relationship between a human subject and its environment, analyzing the coupling of action and perception, and exploring different degrees of the body's engagement with music. He then examines possible applications in two core areas: interaction with music instruments and music search and retrieval in a database or digital library. The embodied music cognition approach, Leman argues, can help us develop tools that integrate artistic expression and contemporary technology.

Marc Leman is Methusalem Research Professor in Systematic Musicology at Ghent University and the author of Embodied Music Cognition and Mediation Technology (MIT Press).

Preface	p. xi
Introduction	p. xiii
Musical Experience and Signification	p. 1
Experience and Description	p. 3
Behavioral Resonance, Awareness, and Description	p. 5
The Need for Description	p. 6
Description as Subjective Interpretation	p. 8
Signification Practice	p. 8
Hermeneutic Methodology	p. 9
Dealing with Intentionality	p. 10
Mediating Access to Music	p. 11
The Subjectivist Approach	p. 12
Dualism	p. 12
Relativism	p. 13
The Action-Based Approach	p. 14
Linguistic Description	p. 14
Propositional Basis	p. 15
Social Basis	p. 15
Referential Accuracy	p. 16
Nonlinguistic Description	p. 17
Moving Sonic Forms	p. 17
Corporeal Engagement	p. 17
Gestures and Description	p. 19
Social Basis and Flexibility	p. 20
Multimodality of Expression	p. 21
Technology-Mediated Access	p. 22
Dependencies	p. 23
Opportunities	p. 23
Content-Based and Experience-Based Technologies	p. 24
External Storage Systems	p. 24
Conclusion	p. 26
Paradigms of Music Research	p. 27
From Music Philosophy to Music Science	p. 27
The Cognitive Paradigm	p. 29
Pioneers	p. 29
Gestalt Psychology and Systematic Musicology	p. 30
Technology and Information Theory	p. 30
Phenomenology and New Media Technology	p. 31
Computational Modeling	p. 32
Symbol Systems for Music	p. 33
Methodological Solipsism	p. 33
Empirical Modeling	p. 35
Perception-Based Feature Extraction	p. 35
Semantic Description, Music, and Emotions	p. 41
Difference from Symbol-Based Modeling	p. 41
The Paradigm of Embodied Cognition	p. 43
A Tradition of Embodied Music Cognition	p. 43
Gesture Modeling	p. 45
Physics-Based Sound Modeling	p. 46
Motor Theory of Perception	p. 47
Cognitive Neuroscience Research	p. 48
Conclusion	p. 49
Ecological Conceptions	p. 51
Direct Perception and Inference	p. 52
The Action-Reaction Cycle	p. 53
Ratchet Effect	p. 54
Intentional Actions	p. 54
Nature and Culture in Interaction	p. 55
Natural and Cultural Constraints	p. 55
Explaining Cultural Constraints	p. 59
The Culturalist Explanation	p. 59
The Naturalist Explanation	p. 60
Why Both Naturalist and Culturalist Explanations Are Needed	p. 62
Simulating the Emergence of Cultural Constraints	p. 63
Stimulus-Source Relationships	p. 63
Inference from Stimulus-Based Cues	p. 66
Both Direct Perception and Inference?	p. 66
Culture as Resonance System	p. 68
Natural and Cultural Resonances	p. 69
Human Resonances	p. 71
Cultural Resonances	p. 72
Perspectives for a Technology of Music Mediation	p. 73
Conclusion	p. 76
Corporeal Articulations and Intentionality	p. 77
Descriptions	p. 77
First-Person and Third-Person Descriptions	p. 79
Correlating Interpretations with Measurements	p. 80
Second-Person Descriptions	p. 81
Correlating Articulations with Measurements	p. 82
Reducing Ontologies	p. 83
Corporeal Intentionality	p. 84
The Intentionality Engine	p. 85
Inner Space	p. 85
Outer Space	p. 87
Coupling Inner and Outer Spaces	p. 87
Evidence for Action/Perception Couplings	p. 89
Native Imitation	p. 90
Mirror Neurons	p. 90
Action-Oriented Ontology	p. 91
Social Origin	p. 92
Values and Drives	p. 92
Expressive Meaning Formation in Music	p. 93
Music, Movement, and Intentions	p. 95
Playing Music	p. 95
Dance and Response	p. 96
Pure Listening?	p. 97
Consequences for a Theory of Music Perception	p. 99
Consequences for a Technology of Music Mediation	p. 100
Conclusion	p. 102
Corporeal Articulations and Imitation	p. 103
Corporeal Articulations as Imitation	p. 103
True Imitation	p. 104
Imitation Is Innate	p. 104
Imitation Is Most Advanced in Humans	p. 105
Learning Through Imitation	p. 105
Imitation Is Pleasure	p. 106
Music and Imitation	p. 108
Imitation of Musical Skills	p. 108
Imitation of Musical Figures	p. 108
Imitation of Topics	p. 109
Imitation of Moving Sonic Forms (Corporeal Imitation)	p. 110
Imitation in Groups (Allelo-imitation)	p. 111
Degrees of Empathic Musical Involvement and Imitation	p. 111
Synchronization	p. 112
Tapping the Beat	p. 112
Inductive Resonance	p. 114
Embodied Attuning	p. 115
Probing Technique	p. 115
Vocal Attuning	p. 117
Graphical Attuning	p. 119
Empathy	p. 121
Phenomenology of Empathy	p. 122
Empathic Involvement	p. 122
Embodied Listening, Having Empathy with Music	p. 124
Distinctions Between Synchronization, Attuning, and Empathy	p. 127
Mimesis Theory and Expression	p. 128
Music Imitates, Music Expresses	p. 129
Capturing What Is Expressed in Music	p. 131
Consequences for Music Research	p. 132
Conclusion	p. 134
Interaction with Musical Instruments	p. 137
Multimodal Experience and Multimedia Technology	p. 138
Multimedia Micro-integration	p. 140
Approach	p. 141
The Communication of Intended Action	p. 142
Guqin Music	p. 143
Corporeal Articulations and Elementary Movements	p. 146
Elementary Movements	p. 146
Gesture and Action	p. 146
Monitoring Gestural Control in Guqin Music	p. 147
Segmentation of Gestural Control	p. 147
Sonogram of Guqin Music	p. 148
Gestural Control and Its Effect on Sound	p. 149
Monitoring the Listener's Movements	p. 154
Analysis of Listener Behavior	p. 156
A Model of Musical Communication	p. 160
Constraints of Interactive Communication	p. 162
Biomechanical Control and Haptic Feedback	p. 162
Constraints of Electronic Music Mediation	p. 163
Simulating Haptic Feedback	p. 164
Mediator Mappings	p. 164
Mediating Musical Sound	p. 165
Motivation	p. 168
Group Effects in Musical Communication	p. 171
Multimedia Environments	p. 173
Autonomous Social Agents	p. 174
Connection with Multimedia Technology	p. 175
Sensing	p. 175
Feature Extraction	p. 175
Classification	p. 175
Anticipation of Action	p. 176
A Platform for Musical Expressiveness	p. 176
Layered Conceptual Framework	p. 177
Sensory Level	p. 178
Gestural Level	p. 180
Semantic Level	p. 181
Conclusion	p. 182
Search for and Retrieval of Music	p. 185
Conceptual Architecture	p. 185
Musical Querying	p. 187
Querying Based on Audio Examples	p. 189
Corporeal-Based Querying	p. 189
Querying by Singing or Playing	p. 190
Querying by Graphical Navigation	p. 192
Querying by Gestures	p. 194
Symbolic/Linguistic Querying	p. 197
Intramusic Queries	p. 197
Queries Based on Structural Descriptions	p. 198
Queries Based on Synesthetic-Kinesthetic Descriptions	p. 204
Queries Based on Descriptions of Affects/Emotions	p. 208
The Transitivity Hypothesis	p. 212
Queries Based on Contextual Descriptions	p. 214
Mediation Technology	p. 215
A Scenario for Multimodal Querying	p. 215
A Model for Multimodal Query Processing	p. 216
Midlevel Description	p. 217
Illusion of Non-mediation	p. 218
Empirical Modeling	p. 219
Schema of the Empirical Modeling Paradigm	p. 221
Descriptions of Cultural Issues	p. 222
Examples of Search-and-Retrieval Systems	p. 224
Audio Identification Using Fingerprinting	p. 224
Query by Voice	p. 226
Midlevel Descriptions for Polyphonic Music	p. 229
Melody Extraction	p. 229
Drum Extraction	p. 229
User Profiling and Semantic Description	p. 231
Conclusion	p. 232
Conclusion	p. 235
Subjective Experiences of Music	p. 236
Musical Communication	p. 236
Technology	p. 237
Notes	p. 239
References	p. 251
Name Index	p. 279
Subject Index	p. 285
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Embodied Music Cognition and Mediation Technology

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