LINA NAVICKAITĖ-MARTINELLI

CLASSIFYING PERFORMERS’ GESTURES: CORPOREAL EXPRESSION AND ITS FUNCTIONS

LINA NAVICKAITĖ-MARTINELLI

Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre lina.martinelli@lmta.lt

The present paper will attempt to outline and discuss several aspects of the corporeal identity of academic music performers, pianists more specifically, as significant carriers of the expressive meanings of the performance itself. The richness of potential significations that a musical performance is capable of communicating shall be emphasized here, and for that purpose two semiotic models shall be employed that contribute to the investigation of corporeal semiosis within the phenomenon of musical performance. Acknowledging the already-existing broad spectrum of discussions on a performer’s corporeal identity and communication, the author’s contribution to this discussion is proposing a combination of the Peircean icon-index-symbol classification of sign relations, and the model on the functions of language formulated by the Russian linguist Roman Jakobson. Having explained in general terms how these particular theories by Peirce and Jakobson work within the field of performers’ corporeality, the suggestion will be made to combine the two, for the purposes of encompassing the topic into a single model, thus encapsulating different forms of analysis of performers’ corporeality. The paper presents preliminary findings from the project “Perception of Expression in Musical Performance: Cross-Cultural Aspects and the Lithuanian Case,” No. S-MIP-19/49 / F16-503, funded by the Lithuanian Research Council.

Keywords: music performance, Charles Sanders Peirce, Roman Jakobson, performers’ corporeality, pianists’ gestural expression.

Lina Navickaitė-Martinelli is a professor and senior researcher at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, as well as chair of the Musicologists’ Section at the Lithuanian Composers’ Union. She has authored the books A Suite of Conversations: 32 Interviews and Essays on the Art of Music Performance (2010) and Piano Performance in a Semiotic Key: Society, Musical Canon and Novel Discourses (2014). In addition, she has presented keynote and guest lectures, edited academic collections, organized conferences, and published her research internationally. Her main research interest is the art of music performance, with a specific focus on its semiotic and sociological aspects as well as practice-led research. More information at linamartinelli.wordpress.com.