In this paper, I propose that embodied cognition in music has two distinct levels: 1) the apparent corporeal articulation of music by performers and listeners, which reflects either a desire to make visible their emotional responses to...
moreIn this paper, I propose that embodied cognition in music has two distinct levels: 1) the apparent corporeal articulation of music by performers and listeners, which reflects either a desire to make visible their emotional responses to the music or rhythmic entrainment, and 2) the principal (though concealed) level of transient muscular reactions to the main coding aspects in music: the tonal relationships arranged in time. This paper argues that the apparent corporeal articulation with regard to the entrainment effect and dance (Leman & Maes, 2014) is more related to the multimodal integration that is characteristic of attending to such a multidisciplinary performing art as opera and ballet than to purely musical content. I also present empirical data on the perception of tonal distances (Korsakova-Kreyn & Dowling, 2014) and suggest an explanation of why listeners' intuitive navigation in tonal and temporal space lies at the heart of emotional responses to music, including corporeal articulation. In addition, the paper touches on the research into temporality in music, such as memory constraints in the perception of tonal structures (Tillmann & Bigand, 2004). The main emphasis of this paper is on the principal two dimensions of music: tonal relationships and time. Understanding the primacy of these dimensions is important for defining music cognition and music in general. The paper also identifies the need for collaboration among various subdisciplines in musicology and the cognitive sciences so as to further the development of the nascent field of embodied cognition in music. KEYWORDS: music perception, embodied cognition, emotional processing in music Expressive distinctions are easily encoded by the listeners through the verbal labels, but they are practically untranslatable by bodily mediation, when body expression is induced by the musical stimulus. Frances and Bruchon-Schweitzer (1983) The concept of embodied cognition is based on the understanding that our emotions, memory, speech, and imagination are inseparable from the experiences of our bodies. To say it differently, a mind is shaped by the motor and somatosensory experience of the body that houses that mind. Music, a very special form of communication between humans, illustrates two levels of embodied cognition. The first, " surface " level is the influence of visible bodily movement on music perception and cognition. The second, " deep " level deals with melodic morphology. Our minds read melodic information by comparing differences in the perceived tonal stability of melodic elements. The sense of stability is directly related to a physical sensation of perceived tension, which means that melodic morphology is based on a highly primitive principle of perception that involves changes in somatic tension (Radchenko et al., 2015)—changes that most likely include transient actions of the musculature in response to tonal and temporal patterns. This is why tonal music presents what is probably the most obvious and holistic example of embodied cognition. SPEECH AND EMBODIED COGNITION The theory of embodied cognition postulates that sensory information and motor activity are essential for understanding the surrounding world and for developing the abilities that are important for abstract reasoning (Foglia & Wilson, 2013). Because both memory and speech include sensorimotor representations, our imagination relies on previously experienced gestures and movements (Wellsby &
