Moving to Become Better: The Embodied Performance of Musical Groove
(2011)
author(s): Vincent Meelberg
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
Starting from the knowledge that the perception, experience and creation of music is always a bodily activity, the exposition explores the influential and intrusive power of musical ‘groove’. Whereas the concept of groove has been extensively discussed both as a general phenomenon and from the perspective of the listener, the exposition looks at the ways in which groove can specifically affect and influence the performers during a musical performance. Interested in testing whether groove can constitute an infringement of the performers’ bodily autonomy, and thereby influence their interaction, the exposition introduces the composition Moving to Become Better, a piece of practice-based research designed to explore the connections between the mutual influences of groove and the performance of musicians.