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Embodiment in musical knowing: how body movement facilitates learning within Dalcroze Eurhythmics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2004

Marja-Leena Juntunen
Affiliation:
mljuntun@cc.oulu.fi

Abstract

This paper examines how body movement within the frames of Dalcroze Eurhythmics can facilitate musical knowing. Merleau-Ponty's philosophical ideas seem to correspond with the specific empirical findings of Jaques-Dalcroze. Hence, our viewpoint is based on Merleau-Ponty's notions of ‘knowing the world through the body’ as well as of gesture, habit and reversibility. We argue, along with Merleau-Ponty, that the body is our primary mode of knowing. Furthermore, we suggest that body movement represents pre-reflective knowing and can be understood as physical metaphor in the process of musical understanding from the concrete doing/musicing to the abstract and (or) conceptual.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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