Some movements that musicians make are non-essential to their instrumental playing, yet express their intentions and interpretations of music’s structures. One such potential interpretation is the choice to emphasize short melodic groupings or to integrate these groupings into a phrase. This study aimed to characterize the nature of head motions associated with either interpretation by having cellists play two versions of a musical excerpt: 1) with short groupings specified, and 2) with long groupings specified. Cellists were filmed by two video cameras (front and right-side perspective) and the positions of their forehead and cheek were analyzed in their respective two-dimensional spaces. We hypothesized that the amount and frequency of movements would change according to the intended grouping. The results show that, overall, participants’ heads move more frequently when intending short groupings compared to long groupings. However, the extent of the change in motion varied across different sections of the excerpt. It appears that performers may invest more effort to emphasize the intended interpretation when a given local pitch structure more easily affords alternative interpretations. Our results illustrate that performers can embody melodic groupings based on intended interpretation.

中文翻译：

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表演者的动作反映了表达短旋律或长旋律分组的意图

音乐家所进行的某些动作对他们的乐器演奏不是必需的，但却表达了他们对音乐结构的意图和解释。这样一种潜在的解释是选择强调短旋律分组或将这些分组整合为一个短语的选择。这项研究旨在通过让大提琴手演奏两种音乐摘录形式来表征与两种解释相关的头部动作的性质：1）指定了短分组，以及2）指定了长分组。大提琴手是由两个摄像机（正面和右侧透视）拍摄的，并且在各自的二维空间中分析了他们的前额和脸颊位置。我们假设移动的数量和频率将根据预期的分组而变化。结果表明，总体而言，与长分组相比，短分组的参与者的头部移动频率更高。但是，运动变化的程度在摘录的不同部分有所不同。当给定的本地音高结构更容易提供替代解释时，似乎表演者可能会投入更多的精力来强调预期的解释。我们的结果表明，表演者可以根据预期的解释来体现旋律分组。