In what way does mimicry, regarding embodiment, play a role in the musical generic characteristics of a band?
The body plays a huge role in the musical action of musicians. Often, it’s the job of these musicians to embody the music, but also to take on a certain role for the audience and college musicians. Because of this a certain groups identity arises, which creates an understanding and clear image of a certain groups identity linked to a certain music genre. A way to understand this music embodiment is through the term embodiment, or so say; in terms of physical schemes. These schemes are motorical patterns, which we have earned and put into operation with our automatic systems. They require no mental effort. Our musical cognition put the body into motion to make music. ‘Body image’ is of a great importance for this, as it considers our body in relation to its surroundings. Members of a band need to have a constant awareness of their surroundings, the audience in particular, and how their body is used to bring over the message of the music.[1]
A role is taken on regularly, as a result of which the term mimicry of Roger Caillois, from “Playing Games with Music (and Vice Versa) Ludo-musicological Perspectives on Guitar Hero and Rock Band” in Taking It to the Bridge: Music as Performance (2013) written by Roger Moseley, comes to the fore. Mimicry is defined as a playful activity, in which simulation, imitation or ‘make believe’ gets involved. On the other side, mimesis can also be seen as a physical impulse or representation, instead of imitation, due to the natural nature separated from physical schemes of rational thinking. The impulse of making music, comes from the inner impulse of following and recreating natures processes.
Because of this, the expressiveness of music could follow from its internal field of force. Precisely because music is mainly about expression and identification, it’s able to be systematized. When mimicry, then, can be seen as a physical representation of these inner processes of nature, which involves a social impulse to identify, procedures of identification, adaption, imitation and fun arise. Music as a result oscillates within its own internal constructions and mimical moments. However, because feeling can not be represented, dynamical aspects of music change to become a version of the mimical pulsation. Or so to say; a deeper movement of mimesis that refers to an active and dynamic pulsation to present the movement of nature and feelings in music as a purely tonal moving form. Adding to that, playing the music can be seen as a mimicry of the work, idea or image of the music.[2]
Eventually, this knowledge about mimesis and mimicry lead towards the question: in what way does mimicry, regarding embodiment, play a role with the musical generic characteristics of a band? To get to the answer to this question I visited a repetition of the band Skapiche?! from Gouda. This band specializes in the genre ska, characterized by a brass-dominated instrumentation, syncopated rhythms, up-tempo timing and an emphasis on the downbeat, with an accent on the late third wave of ‘punkrock-ska’. Thanks to the conventional expanded instrumentation of the genre, it seemed to me, to be an appropriate repetition to research different forms of musical generic embodiment per instrument and form a conclusion about the role of mimicry.[3]
The ability to play a musical instrument or sing, for example, can be conceptualised as a body technique, or perhaps rather as a set of interlocking body techniques […] which are more or less important in different music worlds. Learning to play a musical instrument is an embodied process [of] […] mastering a set of transferable skills and principles. Moreover, these techniques, and variations across them, are distributed in a way which betrays their social basis. Different societies, across both space and time, have invented different musical instruments and techniques for playing them.[4]
This quote of Nick Crossley states that musical embodiment can also be seen an physical techniques of skills and principles that are characterizing for their social base. When we continue this statement to a band formation, each instrumentalist would have generated its own set of physical techniques. Combined with their body image, they mime their generic idea of a musician. A combination of all these mimicries of ideas about musicians then form a generic performance of a ska band. These generic ska-characteristics contain a hybrid character due to the many influences of musical genres through time. From the Jamaican mento combined with Latin melodic structures, Jamaican soundsystems, North-American jazz and R&B and British influences, the genre ska emerged. After which ska got influenced by other popular musical genres. The element that detaches ska from other genres were the experiments of the afterbeat; which pushed the syncope into a new direction. This element is to be connected with the simultaneously arisen Electrical Dance Music genre Drum ‘n’ Bass. Because of this, the hybrid character is emphasized even more as a result of which the energetic drums fall into place. The sound-systems could, in its turn, be connected to the D&B genre.[5]
Drums and bass as a steady, but energetic foundation.
The fundament of ska is a simple walking bass combined with up-tempo breakbeat drums. This ‘simple’ walking bas created a situation of having an introverted player of bass. His melody line was expressed by nodding his head along with each and every note he played, evenly with his ticking foot. Next to that, his walking bas contained a rising chromatic line accentuated on the 1st, 5th, 9th and 13th beat of the measure. This accentuation was embodied by slowly rocking his upper body, while reversing this movement on the same accents. The drummer was, in contrast to the bas, energetic and dejected in his body. This connects to the character of a high tempo. The drum contained a breakbeat, but the Dance Hall character of ska combined with D&B, both characterized by a syncopated rhythm, got emphasized due to the many accelerations. The embodiment of the drummer was, besides the mimicry of the drum movements, mainly to be found in the headbanging movement on the beat and the head slightly turning around on the drum ruffles. These movements are also to be found on the dance floor of EDM raves.
Despite the widely separated exuberance of the bass player and drummer, the rhythmical embodiment was evenly expressed due to its fundamental role. The bass player stood closely to the drummer, so they could check each others tempo, by occasionally glancing at each other, and correcting where necessary. Both players were mainly focused on their own calmness and consistency. The bass player mainly focused on repetition and listening to himself and others, which resulted in him only performing subtle and unconscious embodiment. The drummer, on the other hand, not only used the standardized break beat, but pulled all the stops, which caused his body to move in an equal tempo as the beat including a return to the basics then and now.
The key of melody.
The keyboardist situated himself behind his two keyboards; which activated a scheme of dance movements. The fundament of his movements consisted of banging his head and upper body to the front on the syncope of the beat, alternated with bouncing the knees, while moving the weight of his body from left to right. His lefthand moved upwards, on the same tempo, in a choppy way away from the keys, while his right hand virtuosi played the melody. His sidewards embodiment was based on the melody, which resulted in him going along with the tempo of the consecutive notes with an alternating look from one hand to the other, and vice versa. The tension build up during a motive that got repeated four times in a fast pace, while ‘headbanging’ each repetition. His right shoulder accentuated to the back, when pushing the longer notes of the higher dominant, while slightly bending the knees at the same duration of the note. While rounding off his solo, he descended the scale to the low register while descending his movements as well. His head wasn’t completely lifted anymore. Or so to say; the peace, physically and musically, returned.
These movements could be characterized by connecting different improvisation techniques to his movements. He used techniques stemming from jazz and rhythm & blues that formed the Jamaican ska, like the syncopated lefthand and exuberant virtuosity partly through the use of chromatic notes. You also notice a careless way of life in the order of the notes, that fly from one side of the scale to the other. These characteristics are embodied by illustrating the syncope in his entire body. The sideways movement seem, just like with the bas player, based on the loops that are being made. When one ends, he moves back to his starting point, which causes his movements, just like the virtuosic notes, to be thrown back and forth. The highest dominant is, added to that, the highest tone of his solo and functions as an activation for his body to imply a bodily technique to assist the maintaining the tone. It might be just so, that he feels the duration of the note within his body. I conclude from this, that the movements of his hands, and thus the tones, activate certain schemes that make him move.[6]
No strings attached.
The electrical guitar embodies a sound that establishes himself as punk-rock due to the short and raw riffs which flood in spontaneity by the sudden start and stop. They could be identified as ‘power chords’ on the beat. In general, these power chords are heard way slower in succession than when heard in the genre punk-rock, due to the similarity in tempo next to the walking bass. His foot stampeded the ground on beat. And, because of him sitting, this enlargement of tapping along with your feet, seemed to be an expression of the musical embodied energy. Besides, he shook his head on the beat of the drum and inclined to turn his head when changing chords. But mostly, he moved his head when striking the neck of his guitar. This could, feelings wise, be compared to the movement of his pols when changing the grip of the snare combined with the smooth gliding movements of the hands. When the chords are continued or hit more often, he put tension on his arm by raising his shoulders. This tension, could represent the tension in the music. Notable, is the sound that’s altered with the help of synthesizers, which made the hybrid character of ska hearable. And thus, the electric guitar took on the sound of surfrock by the use of the synthesizer and a reverbed rolling guitar riff, consisting of the distance in seconds, thirds and quarters.[7]
Put the B in Brass.
The section of brass consisted of a trombone and two saxophones. They both contained a fairly equal embodiment of the music; probably caused by the necessary supporting techniques of breathing for aerophones. The brass section didn’t tap their feet, which is quit remarkable, but shifted their bodyweight from one foot to the other; causing their feet to, sometimes, lift the ground lightly. This could be from the front to the back, but also sideways. On top of that, they also agreed to a certain movement; of bending the knees in turns and kicking their foot to the front. This movement was inserted schematically, based on the structures of musical sentences, like the kicking of the feet at the end of a musical sentence or cadence. Moving the weight became, just as with the bassist, based on the walking bass; the embodiment of the walking bass almost became an imitation of walking on the spot. It could also be seen as a manifestation of swing dancing in a static form.
A joint embodiment of the brass is a moment on which a high tone was continued for four seconds after which it descended step by step. With this, they focus up, after which they jerkily, note per note, make a downward movement. Within this downward movement, a sideways, zig-zagging orientation got implemented with the jump of each note; which was strongly emphasized by the trombonist. The trombonist also gained a, mostly, downward focus, in which the hips gain a more backward position, but moving upwards when notes are continued for a longer time or form into trillers. When a blue note was played, the trombonist tended to tilt their head, and with that the trombone itself, sideways and half oblique to the ground. The saxophonists contain more movement in their upper bodies, in which the movements, overall, gain a more backwards focus at the end of their breath. At the repetition of notes or motives, usually, all brass repeat the movement.
Sing, what you wanna sing!
The singer got the most freedom, considering her movement, as she ‘only’ plays her voice. Her technique to play is mainly focussed on staying relaxed in her vocal chords, which is most easily achieved by putting her mind someone else than on the singing. Because of this, her embodiment relates more to other instruments, like alternately putting the knees up on the beat of the drum. When the brass started playing, she also tended to imitate their movement of the legs and regularly jump in the air out of enthusiasm of playing together with the band. At the moment she started singing herself, she mainly copied the movement of the pianist by rhythmically throwing her upper body to the front. Her sound is rough, with many shouts, long and bent notes; which imitate the genre punkrock ska in a very well manner. The dancing of the singer shows us, that the genre was created to dance on. The wide variety of the instruments lets you choose which instrument sparks your fire. And what the singer shows, is how to embody the complexity of the music. In which multiple different elements are combined into a new creation, differing from the elements if showcased separately. As these elements mainly consist of different rhythms crossing each other, you can easily swift between dance moves.[8]
The embodiment of her voice is to be found in the movement of her arms. These arm movements are similar to schemata of speech, as found in the movement of rappers. When her volume got raised, her arms got raised in an upward orientation. When her voice contained a lower volume, her arms would gather a downward pushing movement. When singing long notes, her arms would linger as well, after being thrown up, at the same length as the note did. When a note lingered in the middle of a sentence, her arms seemed to be maintained at the hight of her waist. This could be an embodiment of supporting her breath, which is held, at the same time and height, to keep the pitch. The pitch got embodied by means of her hands, which she let go along with the music by moving her pols. During short staccato shouts, like ‘Hé! Hé! Hé!’, she jumps along on the cue of her own voice. She only stopped dancing, to breathe in at the beginning of her song. Probably to find a moment of rest, while having her body act like an instrument. This way, her vocal chords are able to temporarily relax which avoids serious injuries. When putting more power behind her voice, she would also put more power in her muscles, by bending her upper body to the front and pointing her elbows towards her diaphragm.
tutti.
Besides the individual movements, every band member kept track of the rhythm by ticking with° their feet. This supports each individual member with staying constant, while being coherent to the total sound. Through coherence in sound and movement, the body image of the collective in strengthened. The musical communication also creates the possibility to improve, as it is easier to point out and correct the rhythm this way. Another shared embodiment is jumping on moments the music increases in intensity; in instrumentation, tempo or volume. For example; the trombonist took a jump when she was assisted by the saxophonists, piano and electric guitar during the repetition of the musical sentence. Silences, however, also play a huge role in the embodiment of music. Breaks in the music that were agreed on, were complemented by a break in the sound, but also by a break in movements. The moments that musicians had to focus more on playing the notes, they would also stagnate the movements onto a small physical rhythmic pulse. Even turning the back to the other members of the band, to get their focus back, was used to gain their flow back.
Considering mimicry: they were barely ‘playing a role’. Moments that they did do this were a result from the enthusiasm from member to member. They imitated each other’s way of playing instruments. For example, they bend down and put their instruments together during a brass crescendo to meme the movement of ‘opening up’. Even the singer silently participated in this. Another example is the brass section playing air guitar or having the keys, guitar and brass players, regularly, imitating (or just silently singing along with) the singer.
For this reason, mimicry doesn’t play a prominent role regarding the embodiment of generic musical characteristics. Mimicry helps the musicians to relax, by playfully imitating each other, and was used as a form of motivation and group encouragement through the containing enthusiasm. This positive pulse worked on the musical field of force and flow; which make the up-tempo character of ska infectious. A characteristic of flow, a term by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, is the merging of action and awareness. This merge could be considered as a manifestation of the musical consciousness, which causes the inner energy to be transferred into musical embodiment; activating physical techniques of playing and dancelike movements.
Eventually, mimicry doesn’t directly relate, but indirectly by the means of embodiment of the characteristic movement of this musical world. By means of the underlaying interaction, in which the element of play mimicry gets involved, a physical pulse of joy emerged from the internal musical field of force. Embodiment, when put into the context of mimesis, could be seen as following the musical movements of this hybrid genre, formed on the basis of the musical structure. These namely consist of the moving rhythm and orientation of one instrument to the other. Each instrumentalist is able to, to his own longing, adapt an identifiable musical stream of influence and embody this; which creates the possibility to generally identify the history of ska. When mimesis is seen as an expression of inner and natural processes, it becomes to be the base of the embodiment for identification, adaption and imitation of the musical structure and pulse of movement. Mimicry, then, expresses the underlaying fun of the musical structure, movement and mimesis through flow and musical play.[9]
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[1] Marc Leman en Rolf Inge Godøy, “Why Study Musical Gestures?” in Musical Gestures: Sound, Movement and Meaning (New York: Routledge, 2010), 8, 9.
[2] Max Paddison, “Mimesis and the Aesthetics of Musical Expression,” Music Analysis 29, no. 1/3 Special Issue on Music and Emotion (Maart, Oktober, 2010): 127, 129, 130, 133, 138.
[3] Kwinten Crauwels, ‘Ska’, in Jamaican (music)/Reggae (België: Musicmap, 2016) http://musicmap.info/# ; Kwinten Crauwels, ‘Ska revival (2-tone), Ska Punk & Skacore’, in Jamaican (music)/Reggae (België: Musicmap, 2016) http://musicmap.info/# ; Joseph Heatchcott, “Urban Spaces and Working-Class Expressions across the Black Atlantic: Tracing the Routes of Ska,” Radical History Review, no. 87 (Herfst 2003): 184, 185.
[4] Nick Crossley, “Music Worlds and Body Techniques: On the Embodiment of Musicking,” Cultural Sociology, no. 9 (2015): 479.
[5] Joseph Heatchcott, “Urban Spaces and Working-Class Expressions across the Black Atlantic: Tracing the Routes of Ska,” Radical History Review, no. 87 (Herfst 2003): 185, 190, 191; Kwinten Crauwels, ‘Old Skool Jungle & Old Skool Drum ‘N’ Bass’, in Drum ‘N’ Bass (D’N’D)/Jungle (België: Musicmap, 2016) http://musicmap.info/#.
[6] Joseph Heatchcott, “Urban Spaces and Working-Class Expressions across the Black Atlantic: Tracing the Routes of Ska,” Radical History Review, no. 87 (Herfst 2003): 191, 195.
[7] Kwinten Crauwels, ‘Surf Rock/Instrumental’, in Rock ‘n’ Roll (R’N’R) (België: Musicmap, 2016) http://musicmap.info/#.
[8] Clinton Hutton en Garth White, “The Social and Aesthetic Roots and Identity of Ska,” Caribbean Quarterly 53, no. 4. Pioneering Icons of Jamaican Popular Music (December 2007): 86, 87.
[9] Max Paddison, “Mimesis and the Aesthetics of Musical Expression,” Music Analysis 29, no. 1/3 Special Issue on Music and Emotion (Maart, Oktober, 2010): 141.
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Used Literature.
Crauwels, Kwinten. Jamaican (music)/Reggae (België: Musicmap, 2016). http://musicmap.info/#.
> Rock ‘n’ Roll (R’N’R) (België: Musicmap, 2016). http://musicmap.info/#
> Drum ‘N’ Bass (D’N’D)/Jungle (België: Musicmap, 2016). http://musicmap.info/#.
Crossley, Nick. “Music Worlds and Body Techniques: On the Embodiment of Musicking.” Cultural Sociology, no. 9 (2015): 471-492.
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. “Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention.” HarperPerennial, New York 39 (1997): 1-16. http://vedpuriswar.org/Book_Review/Leadership_Managerial_Effectiveness/Creativity.pdf
Heathcott, Joseph. “Urban Spaces and Working-Class Expressions across the Black Atlantic: Tracing the Routes of Ska.” Radical History Review, no. 87 (Herfst 2003): 183-206.
Hutton, Clinton en Garth White. “The Social and Aesthetic Roots and Identity of Ska.” Caribbean Quarterly 53, no. 4. Pioneering Icons of Jamaican Popular Music (December 2007): 81-95.
Leman, Marc en Rolf Inge Godøy. “Why Study Musical Gestures?” In Musical Gestures: Sound, Movement and Meaning, 3-11. New York: Routledge University Press, 2010.
Moseley, Roger. “Playing Games with Music (and Vice Versa) Ludomusicological Perspectives on Guitar Hero and Rock Band.” In Taking It to the Bridge: Music as Performance, editing door
Nicholas Cook en Richard Pettengil, 279-318. Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2013.
Paddison, Max. , “Mimesis and the Aesthetics of Musical Expression.” Music Analysis 29, no. 1/3 Special Issue on Music and Emotion (Maart, Oktober 2010): 126-148.