THE EXPRESSIVE MOVEMENTS OF FLUTISTS:  CATEGORIES AND FUNCTIONS

by Ronda Mader and Richard Ashley, Northwestern University

 

As a flutist and bassist, we have been observing the expressive movements made by flutists for a number of years. The movements are usually made without conscious effort and seem to fit into one of three categories: technical movements, coordinating movements, and expressive movements.

Technical movements are the movements that are required by the technique of playing the flute.  These include body movements such as breathing, finger movement, and raising the flute to the face.  These movements are very similar in all flutists, and become increasingly automatic with expertise.

Coordinating movements are movements made for the purpose of keeping ensemble players together.  These include beating movements to help flutists synchronize with other ensemble members, and conducting movements intended to give direction to other ensemble members.  Coordinating movements are most often made consciously, but may sometimes be made unconsciously.

Expressive movements are movements that are largely unconscious, but are beyond the necessary technical movements.  These include contour movements that mimic the contour of the musical line, flowing movements that convey continuous musical lines, appoggiatura movements that express harmonic tension and release, and concluding movements that signal the end of passages.

In order to gain a better understanding of the movements made by flutists while they perform, we asked two questions, which generated the following studies.  First, how do the movements of a single flutist change over the course of rehearsals?  And second, do different flutists move similarly when performing the same piece?

 

THE FIRST STUDY:  How the Movements of a Single Flutist

Change Over the Course of Rehearsals

 

            This study was conducted to determine whether the movements of a single flutist change over the course of rehearsals.  The subjects in this study were a doctoral flutist, a violist with A.B.D., and an undergraduate harpist.  The Debussy Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp was chosen for the study based on its inherent difficulties with ensemble coordination.  The ensemble's final five rehearsals and the performance of the "Pastorale" movement were recorded with a video camera.  Two passages from the "Pastorale" were selected for analysis. The video clips of the selected musical passages were edited together in chronological order to facilitate comparison of movements over the course of rehearsals. 

            Diagrams of the movements were created by tracing the path of the end of the flute onto acetate in a frame by frame forwarding of the video clips.  These diagrams do not represent changes in velocity, or a comparative scale of movement, but are provided for the reader as a quick comparison of the general shape of the movements.

 

THE FIRST EXCERPT:

Debussy Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp

"Pastorale", Measures 1-2

 

View Quicktime movie "Debussy 1" to see the flutist's

performances of the first excerpt.

 

                                          

Rehearsal 3/10/01 A                   Rehearsal 3/10/01 B            Rehearsal 3/10/01 C

                                                         

 Rehearsal 3/26/01                     Rehearsal 4/9/01 A                 Rehearsal 4/9/01 B

                                                             

 Rehearsal 4/19/01 A                     Rehearsal 4/19/01 B            Dress Rehearsal 4/20/01

                                                                            

                                                      Performance 4/22/01

 

 

Figure 1.  Movement diagrams for the first excerpt.

 

            In the rehearsals on March 10th and March 26th, the flutist created a horizontal see-saw motion.  This motion was caused by the flutist twisting the torso to the right to make eye contact with the harpist for ensemble coordination, and then turning back to the score. The flutist's unconscious expressive movement in this passage was a flowing movement, which was disrupted by the twisting of the torso.

            After a coaching on April 2nd which addressed ensemble coordination in this excerpt, the flutist no longer needed to establish eye contact with the harpist, and the see-saw motion of the flute fell away.  In the next two rehearsals, the flutist began beating movements on the first or second beat of the first measure, before beginning to play the flute.  These coordinating beating movements were unconscious movements intended to help the flute player synchronize with the harp player.

            The magnitude of the flutist's opening beating movements diminished in the dress rehearsal and performance.  By that point the ensemble was quite comfortable performing the piece, and beating movements were no longer necessary.  However, the flowing expressive movements of the flutist continued through the dress rehearsal and performance.

 

THE SECOND EXCERPT:

Debussy Sonata For Flute, Viola and Harp

"Pastorale", Measures 64-65

 

View Quicktime movie "Debussy 2" to see the flutist's

performances of the second excerpt.

 

                                                                                             

Rehearsal 3/10/01 A                     Rehearsal 3/10/01 B                    Rehearsal 3/10/01 C

                                                                                                   

Rehearsal 3/10/01 D                    Rehearsal 3/10/01 E                      Rehearsal 3/26/01

                                                                                                                                 

Rehearsal 4/9/01 A                        Rehearsal 4/9/01 B                        Rehearsal 4/9/01 C

                                                                                                        

Rehearsal 4/9/01 D                        Rehearsal 4/9/01 E                       Rehearsal 4/19/01

                                                                                  

                         Dress Rehearsal 4/20/01                   Performance 4/22/01

 

 

Figure 2.  Movement diagrams for the second excerpt.

 

            In all of the rehearsals and the performance of this excerpt, the flutist made nearly identical expressive contour movements.  In the early rehearsals she tapped her foot and made beating movements.  These coordinating movements diminished over the course of rehearsals and were not present in the performance. 

 

RESULTS OF THE FIRST STUDY

            After analyzing the clips of two excerpts chosen from the "Pastorale" movement of Debussy's Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp, two important patterns emerged.  First, coordinating movements, such as beating movements, foot tapping, and torso twisting, diminished or completely disappeared over the course of rehearsals. These findings suggest that as ensemble members become familiar with playing a particular piece, the synchronization of the piece becomes internalized and requires fewer outward coordinating movements.  Second, expressive movements, such as flowing movements, and contour movements, are present in similar or nearly identical form over the course of rehearsals.  This suggests that the expressive movements of flutists are generated much in the way that the gestures that accompany speech are generated.  The expressive movements were made unconsciously, and seemed to be an integral part of the performer's interpretation of a particular passage.

 

THE SECOND STUDY:  Comparison of Movements Made by Different Flutists in the Same Structural Locations of a Piece

 

            This study was conducted to compare the movements made by different flutists while performing the same musical excerpts. The first movement of Mozart's Flute Concerto in D Major was chosen for this study because all of the flutists in the Northwestern University flute studio had recently studied it.  Six undergraduate flutists, two graduate flutists, and one professional flutist volunteered to participate in this study.

The flutists were instructed to wear recital dress for a video taping of their performance.  Each flutist was paid $10 and given a video tape of their performance for participating in the study. No specific instructions were given to the flutists about tempo or the manner of performance.  After a brief viewing of the video tapes, four excerpts were chosen for closer study.

 

THE FIRST EXCERPT:

Mozart Flute Concerto in D Major

"Allegro aperto", measure 32

 

View QuickTime movie "Mozart 1" to see the flutists'

performances of the first excerpt.

 

            All of the flutists made contour movements which mimicked the contour of the ascending scale passage in this excerpt.  Combinations of four different body movements were used to create the contour movements:  knee bends (6 flutists), lowering and raising the arms (6 flutists), flexing the torso (7 flutists), and foot movement (2 flutists).

 

THE SECOND EXCERPT:

Mozart Flute Concerto in D Major

"Allegro aperto", measures 78-79

 

 

View QuickTime movie "Mozart 2" to see the flutists'

performances of the second excerpt.

 

            All of the flutists made conducting movements in this passage.  The conducting movements for this excerpt were generated by a combination of arm and neck movements (8 flutists), torso flexion (3 flutists), bending the knees (3 flutists), or moving the feet (2 flutists).

 

THE THIRD EXCERPT:

Mozart Flute Concerto in D Major

 "Allegro aperto", measures 84-85

 

View QuickTime movie "Mozart 3" to see the flutists'

performances of the third excerpt.

 

            In this excerpt eight of the nine flutists made observable appoggiatura movements which were generated by a combination of neck and arm movements (eight flutists), and bending the knees (three flutists).

 

THE FOURTH EXCERPT:

Mozart Flute Concerto in D Major

 "Allegro aperto", measures 96-97

 

View QuickTime movie "Mozart 4" to see the flutists'

performances of the fourth excerpt.

 

            All of the flutists generated a concluding movement in this excerpt.  The concluding movements were generated by a combination of neck and arm movements (seven flutists), bending the knees (six flutists), moving the feet (one flutist), and flexing the torso (one flutist).

 

RESULTS OF THE SECOND STUDY

 

            The remarkable similarity in the movements made by the flutists suggests that their unconscious movements were not only generated simultaneously with the production of the music, but fit within a natural repertoire of acceptable movements for flutists. Although different flutists make very similar movements at particular structural locations in a piece of music, they do not generate movements with the same parts of the body, proposing that the repertoire of movements is not tied to the technique of playing the instrument, but perhaps learned.