From the vocal gesture to the writing of music

2009

In the present study I will analyse the multifaceted functions of the external vocal gestures of the chironomical type and their influence on the first trace-forms of music writing : neumes. I will also outline the impact of vocal gestures within the dynamics of the learning process in singing and in the transitional process from oral musical culture to music writing. My aim is to extend the study of vocal gestures towards the exegesis of the writing of music. From an ontological and epistemological standpoint I will draw hypotheses concerning the processes leading from an audiooral musical memory culture to an oral-visual musical memory culture all the while maintaining the former in our W…