Choose Your Own Adventure: Vocal Jazz Improvisation, Conceptual Metaphor, and Cognitive Embodiment
Article
Article Title | Choose Your Own Adventure: Vocal Jazz Improvisation, Conceptual Metaphor, and Cognitive Embodiment |
---|---|
ERA Journal ID | 10074 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | Forbes, Melissa (Author) and Cantrell, Kate (Author) |
Journal Title | Musicae Scientiae: the journal of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music |
Journal Citation | 27 (2), pp. 332-347 |
Number of Pages | 16 |
Year | 2023 |
Place of Publication | United Kingdom |
ISSN | 1022-9299 |
1029-8649 | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1177/10298649211062730 |
Web Address (URL) | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10298649211062730 |
Abstract | Creativity in the form of musical improvisation has received growing attention from researchers informed by the literature on embodiment. To date, this research has focused on the embodied experiences of improvising instrumentalists rather than those of improvising singers. This article investigates the experience of embodiment during improvisation through a systematic analysis of the metaphorical language used by an artist-level jazz singer in her reflections on practice. Extensive interview data with the participant were analysed to identify and reconstruct metaphorical expressions into conceptual metaphors. In this process, the metaphor of IMPROVISATION IS AN ADVENTURE was identified as the overarching conceptual structure that the participant used to make sense of her experiences of improvisation. This metaphor and its mappings illuminate the cognitively embodied dimension of vocal jazz improvisation. These findings will be of interest to jazz singers and vocal jazz educators who are encouraged to explore more fully the role of the body-mind’s interactions with its environment in order to establish expertise in improvisational ways of knowing. This research illuminates the multi-dimensional nature of an expert singer’s experiences of improvisation and is presented as a provocation for future research to include singers as participants when investigating musical improvisation and cognitive embodiment. |
Keywords | jazz singing, artist-level performers, performers’ experiences, embodied cognition |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 360304. Music performance |
470499. Linguistics not elsewhere classified | |
Institution of Origin | University of Southern Queensland |
Byline Affiliations | University of Southern Queensland |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q6yx8/choose-your-own-adventure-vocal-jazz-improvisation-conceptual-metaphor-and-cognitive-embodiment
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License: CC BY-NC 4.0 | ||
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