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Arts & Communication Composition based on singing gestures

conveying emotions will be strengthening the reliance on processes layer, and facts layer. The processes and facts
spatial information. Therefore, after becoming familiar layers are both initiated from the most basic gestures layer.
with the codes of this positive information, the singer will Therefore, analyzing the composition of the gestures layer
sing faster and faster, or the voice will become louder and may restructure the facts layer to help composers create
louder, to express this emotion. This process of emotional from a new direction: first gestures layer, later facts layer.
continuation is the emotional gesture. Figure 3 shows Figure 5 shows a hand gesture by a pianist as a typical
three gestures starting from the same skeleton, displaying representative of musical gestures.
the emotional “logic.” In this gestural display, we see three The process layer serves as a factory that produces facts
gestures showing an accelerated performance in time, and connects them to gestures. In a popular understanding,
representing the emotional speed-up of the musician’s
moods. For reasons of space, we omit a formal explanation it is the process of recording how gestures generate output
of this logic. (Figure 6).
4. The connection between gestures and 5. Gestures applied to composition by free
music ontology singing
According to the classical ontological landscape of music, Typically, traditional music as a fact is subject to extensive
we can interpret the ontology of music as a four-dimensional research and analysis. Composers have very mature music
hypercube. Its layer of facts consists of three dimensions: theory systems to help them create music. In recent years,
realities, communication, and semiotics. Each dimension with the topic of music gesture gaining popularity, scholars
has the following three “values.” First of all, the three values have conducted numerous analyses on the gestures and
of realities include: (1) physical reality, that is, acoustic processes produced by musicians when performing
phenomena; (2) mental reality, that is, music theory musical facts. All embodied gestures made by singers have
thinking such as musical structure; and (3) psychological also been integrated in these analyses. However, if the
reality, that is, emotions and feelings. Secondly, the value gestures layer forms an independent system and acts on
covered by communication was proposed by Jean Molino the facts layer, we wonder whether it will affect the known
and Paul Valéry: (1) the creative instance (composer) of music theory system of the facts layer.
the work; (2) the nature of the created material and the A critical example is discussed in the following: the
actual value of the output, also called neutral level by famous jazz singer Jeanne Lee has created a large number
Molino; and (3) the value evaluated based on the aesthetics of improvised free jazz works. A video of her performance
of different audiences. The three levels of value included is accessible on YouTube (https://youtu.be/QDfXOrlrCJw).
in semiotics are (1) expressive surface of signs; (2) deep The creative ideas of these works hardly follow traditional
meaning, that is, the content hidden behind; and (3) the jazz theory but at a greater extent reflect the singer’s own
method of transitioning from the surface to the content, feelings about the sound. As mentioned earlier, under the
that is, the process of generating content. The fact layer is guidance of positive emotions, the singer’s musical gesture
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displayed as a classical three-dimensional cube (Figure 4). will be produced faster and faster when expressing the same
According to the description of Mazzola and Cherlin, information. For example, in this video, it can be observed
2
the hypercube of the music ontology is composed of the that the musical material created by Lee occurs from 12 to
th
dimension of embodiment, comprising the gestures layer, 28 s, and it proceeds at a tentatively slow speed. Starting
th

Figure 3. Three emotional gestures with the same skeleton (cheerful emotions). Image created Yuwen Sun

Volume 2 Issue 4 (2024) 4 doi: 10.36922/ac.2625