Instrumental Gesture - Definition/Typology

Definition: Claude Cadoz proposes a definition of instrumental gestures as follows:

"Instrumental gesture will be considered as a communication modality specific to the gestural channel, complementary to free gestures, and characterised by the following:

• It is applied to a material object and there is physical interaction with the object;
• Within this interaction, specific physical phenomena are produced whose forms and dynamical evolution can be controlled by the one applying the gesture;
• These phenomena can convey communicational messages (information)". [4]

He considers this transfer of information as a specificity of instrumental gestures, when compared to other ergotic gestures.

In a previous article [10], Cadoz reminds that "not all gestures have the same function on an instrumental object": therefore, he proposes an instrumental gesture typology according to their function, in order to subsequently determine the classes of gestural transducers.

• Exciter gestures - the ones that convey the energy that will be found in the sonic result;
• Modulation gestures - the ones that modify the properties of the instrument but which energy does not participate directly in the sonic result. These can be divided in two groups
• Parametric modulation gestures - the ones that change continually a parameter;
• Structural modulation gestures - the ones that modify the structure of the object;
• Selection gestures - the ones that perform a choice among different but equivalent structures to be used during a performance. There's neither energy transfer (in the sense of exciter gestures) nor an object modification (as in the case of structural modulation gestures).

• Case example 1: The clarinet and the WX7 MIDI wind controller.

Wed Feb 10 10:07:20 MET 1999