Abstract
Performers’ body movement influences the quality of music performance and audiences’ music perception, but its effects has not been well examined from cross-gender and cross-cultural perspectives. The current project aims to examine the effects of body movement on the evaluation of violin performance among both expert and non-expert audiences from cross-cultural and cross-gender perspectives. It consists of two studies. The first study investigated body movement patterns in expressive violin performance. Violinists’ body movement patterns during their performance were captured and recorded using a Motion Capture system (OptiTrack), and quantitatively assessed. Three typical body movements were determined and visualized. The second study (ongoing) then aims to examine the effects of the three body movements on the evaluation of violin performance by audiences from diverse backgrounds. A five-factor mixed experimental design is employed in this study, with body movement, tempo, audience’s gender, audience’s expertise, and audience’s cultural backgrounds (Asian or Western) as independent variables. Participants watch and evaluate a series of visual-audio music excerpts. A set of audience perception measures are collected to assess the effects of the independent variables. The data will be analysed through repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVAs). Preliminary results from 55 Asian audiences showed that body movement and audience expertise significantly influenced audiences’ perception of violin performance. The expected findings from this study will develop a theoretical framework for body movement in violin performance for players and educators. These findings will contribute to the body of knowledge in music psychology, enhancing our understanding of how cultural backgrounds and gender play roles in audiences’ perception of music performance.
This work is a part of my PhD project and jointly supported by Hong Kong Baptist University and the University of Oslo, and supervised by Dr Roberto Alonso Trillo and Dr Laura Bishop.
Bio
Mingfu QIN is a PhD candidate at the Academy of Music, Hong Kong Baptist University. She received a B.A. in Musicology from Jinan University in Guangzhou and an M.A. in Music Education from Herzen State Pedagogical University, Russia. Her research interests include body movement in music performance, violin performance, music education, and music perception. Her current project focuses on the effects of violin performers’ body movement on audiences’ musical perceptions from cross-cultural and cross-gender perspectives. Before her Ph.D. studies, she was a lecturer in music at Hunan Vocational College for Nationalities in China. She was also a violin performer in Hunan Symphony Orchestra and an instructor in the Student Orchestra of a high school. She is an award-winning music educator and researcher. These awards include the Teaching Competition Award (2018, 2019, 2020), the Outstanding Teacher Award in Hunan (2019), the Excellent Article Award in Yueyang (2021), and the Research Achievement Award in HKBU (2023). Her research work has been published in top tier journals in music education, including the International Journal of Music Education and the European Journal of Teacher Education.