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Comparative Phenomenology of Singing and Dance as Involving Artistic “Instruments” Incorporated Into the Body of Their Performer

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Phenomenology of Space and Time

Part of the book series: Analecta Husserliana ((ANHU,volume 116))

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Abstract

This essay provides a basis for reflecting upon the sensible body when it becomes a “body-case” (Vitale 2009c), as in the specific instance of its incorporation into the body of the performer (interpreter), understood as transformed thereby and so making of him both a creator of art and, at the same time, an artistic product. This is how the body can become both the physical and the psychic “locus” (Winnicott 1971) of a training procedure (carried out across a more and more meticulous regulation of gestures aimed at the accomplishment of an aesthetic composition). But our investigation also deals with the “body-case” when it has the double value of engendering the artistic work, even while interpreting it. This is why the body is subject to the double constraint of being both the body of the transmission and the transmission of the body, in such incorporated arts as dance and singing (Vitale 2007c, 2012b). This incorporation entails a whole series of dynamics such as the need for an “other than self”, indispensable to enabling the self to get a distance from itself with a view to adopting a proper perspective vis-à-vis the instrument that it both incarnates and seeks to improve.

We will start out with our research on the art of singing – on the voice as instrument (see the Instrument-voix in Vitale 2007b, c, 2008a), the only musical instrument incorporated in the “body-case” of its performer – to then go on to extend the investigation to the art of dance across parallels concerned with what is specific to incorporated instruments, and this by analysing their phenomenological dynamics. We will also take into consideration other arts that are not located within the body of their interpreter, with a view to analysing how the relation between perception, gesture and memory impacts back on the artist’s sensible experience.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Valéry, Paul (1912/1974). Art et Esthétique, in Cahiers, vol. II, Judith Robinson (Ed.), Paris, Gallimard, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, p. 932. Own Translation.

  2. 2.

    Mallarmé, Stéphane (1887/2003). Crayonné au théâtre, in Œuvres complètes, vol. II, Paris, Gallimard, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Bertrand Marchal (Ed.), p. 171. Own translation.

  3. 3.

    David, Catherine (2006). La beauté du geste, Arles, Actes Sud, p. 21. Own translation.

  4. 4.

    Duncan, Isadora (2003). La danse de l’avenir, Paris, Ed. Complexe, pp. 73–74. Own translation.

  5. 5.

    Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (1945). Phénoménologie de la perception, Gallimard, Paris, p. 107. Own translation.

  6. 6.

    Vitale, Alessia R. (2007b). “Gestes et mémoires dans l’apprentissage du chant”, in Temps, geste et musicalité, M. Imberty & M. Gratier (Eds.), Paris, L’Harmattan, p. 115. Own translation.

  7. 7.

    Faure, Sylvia (2000). Apprendre par corps, Paris, La Dispute, p. 9. Own translation.

  8. 8.

    Duncan, Isadora (2003). La danse de l’avenir, op. cit., p. 44. Own translation.

  9. 9.

    Imberty, Michel (2005). La musique creuse le temps, Paris, L’Harmattan, p. 90. Own translation.

  10. 10.

    Duncan, Isadora (2003). La danse de l’avenir, op.cit., p. 68. Own translation.

  11. 11.

    Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (1964b). Le visible et l’invisible, text established by Claude Lefort, Paris, Gallimard, p. 118. Own translation.

  12. 12.

    Dufrenne, Mikel (1991). L’œil et l’oreille, Paris, Ed. J.-M. Place, p. 122. Own translation.

  13. 13.

    Valéry, Paul (1936/1957). Œuvres, vol. I, Jean Hytier (Ed.). Paris, Gallimard, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, p. 1396. Own translation.

  14. 14.

    Denis, Michel (2000). “Image mentale” in Grand Dictionnaire de la Psychologie, (Ed.) Bloch Henriette et al. ii, Paris, Larousse, p. 451. Own translation.

  15. 15.

    David, Catherine (2006). La beauté du geste, op.cit., p. 18. Own translation.

  16. 16.

    Valéry, Paul (1939/1973). Ego scriptor, in Cahiers, vol. I, Judith Robinson (Ed.). Paris, Gallimard, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, p. 293. Own translation.

  17. 17.

    Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (1964a). Le visible et l’invisible, op.cit., p. 194. Own translation.

  18. 18.

    Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (1964a). Le visible et l’invisible, op.cit., p. 194. Own translation.

  19. 19.

    Pietragalla, Marie-Claude (1999). La légende de la danse, Flammarion, Paris, p. 90. Own translation.

  20. 20.

    Pascal, Blaise (1678/2000). Pensées (28/575), in Œuvres complètes, vol. II, Paris, Gallimard, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Michel Le Guern (Ed.), p. 782. Own translation.

  21. 21.

    Duncan, Isadora (2003). La danse de l’avenir, op. cit., p. 57–58.

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  1. Université de la Sorbonne, Paris IV, France

    Alessia Rita Vitale

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  1. Alessia Rita Vitale
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Correspondence to Alessia Rita Vitale .

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  1. The World Phenomenology Institute, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA

    Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka

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Vitale, A.R. (2014). Comparative Phenomenology of Singing and Dance as Involving Artistic “Instruments” Incorporated Into the Body of Their Performer. In: Tymieniecka, AT. (eds) Phenomenology of Space and Time. Analecta Husserliana, vol 116. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02015-0_14

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