A New Way of Moving: Developing a Solo Drumset Practice Informed by Embodied Music Cognition

Abstract

This research examines how insights drawn from the field of Embodied Music Cognition can be repurposed to instigate creative development within the practice of an improvising drummer. Following a process- driven practice-led research model, I correlate academic research to aspects of pedagogical and professional practice, generating original theoretical insight and embodied knowledge in two primary areas: first, I arrive at an understanding of sticking cells as embodied knowledge encoded with specific rhythmic forms; second, I develop an original taxonomy for classifying types of individual and combined movement cycles as applied to the drumset. I combine these two as variable parameters within an original generative process entitled somatic parameter layering; which I use to furnish musical outputs that are found within a series of original recorded works, embedded throughout this dissertation. Through analysis of these works, I identify five strategic implementations of somatic parameter layering: Hide/Reveal, Modulation Obfuscation, Unison/Interlace, Fragmentation, and Expansion/Contraction. I then repurpose the parameters of sticking cells and movement cycles into an analytical model for investigating drumset activity, which is tested on an excerpt drawn from a live performance by American jazz drummer Bill Stewart, revealing his manipulation of movement as a parameter for both idea generation and development. The creative works of this research are situated within a historically emergent community of Australian improvising musicians, whom I refer to as Antripodean improvisers. I present an outline of the key artists working in the idiom and provide analysis of representative works to build a profile of the improvisational logic underpinning their shared practice. I explain how the professional requirements of interacting with these musicians have provided a primary motivation for undertaking the research project.