Deepening Musical Performance Through Movement

Alexandra Pierce is Professor of Music and Movement, Emerita Research Professor at the University of Redlands, California. She is author (with Roger Pierce) of Expressive Movement: Posture and Action in Daily Life, Sports, and the Performing Arts.

• Introduction1. Vitalizing the Musical Elements, One by One2. Mobilizing Balance3. Melody Awakened: Seven Stages for Embodying Its Contour4. Resilience of Meter and Rhythm5. The Integration of Structural Levels 6. Shaping Phrase with Span and Climax7. Letting Gesture Through: Reverberation 8. The Movements of Juncture9. Characterizing10. Tone of Voice11. The Spirit of Play NotesBibliographyIndex

"This book is not only a wonderful resource for therapists, musicians and music teachers, but also . . . a well-researched academic work.Vol. 37.2 June 2009"—Carolyn Pike, University of North Texas"From this [book] . . . we receive these two gifts . . . a compostional repertoire distinct in imaginative focus and a pedagogy with wide application to music making and full of implications for research.Issue 10 Fall 2008"—David Lidov, The Open Space Magazine"Whether you teach private or group instrumental or vocal lessons, music theory, composition, music therapy or music appreciation, you will find a wealth of ideas to use with your students."—American Music Teacher"This book brings all aspects of music to life via kinesthetic understanding. . . . Pierce's extensive research is obvious, but though the book assumes considerable knowledge of the discipline, personal anecdotes and musical references render it relatively easy to digest."—Choice"Because of her varied and extensive experience as a movement specialist, theorist, performer, teacher, and composer, Pierce is an unusually effective and articulate advocate for an embodied musical understanding . . . While performers probably have readier access to this kind of connection with a piece of music, Pierce's impressive achievement is to provide an effective way for theorists, too, to develop and deepen their embodied connection with the music that they analyze."—MUSIC THEORY SPECTRUM"The book is wonderful . . . My hope is that the book will be a doorway for many more musicians and music lovers into an exploration of the world of movement as a tool for musical growth, both as performer and listener."—Music Theory Online"[This] book is expressively written and brimming with imaginative ideas. It is not a book to read while sitting still!"—Journal of the International Alliance of Women in Music"Under the impetus of early influences as diverse as the Alexander technique, Rolfing, Schenkerian analysis and Stanislavski's Method acting. . . pianist, composer and music educator Alexandra Pierce has crystallized in this book a finely etched, lifetime quest to articulate the connection between the elements of music and the art of interpretation, through the prism of 'movement response to the music'.May 2009"—American String Teacher