Linking embodied coordination dynamics and subjective experiences in musical interactions: a renewed methodological paradigm

Embodied music cognition provides a valuable and comprehensive research paradigm within systematic musicology to describe and explain musical sense-making. The basic claim underlying musical embodiment is that subjective meaning, in its broadest sense, is actively constructed within humans’ bodily interaction with music. As such, the empirical study of bodily coordination may provide insights into the subjective aspects of musical experiences. In the present paper, we advocate for a dynamical systems approach to human music interaction, focusing on the time-varying principles, and the relational aspects of the musical interaction process. We propose a model that integrates these focus points, to investigate the link between embodied coordination dynamics, subjective experience and sense-making. We then discuss possible quantitative and qualitative techniques that allow to operationalise the model into concrete empirical music research. Finally, we conclude by presenting some illustrative research cases conducted at IPEM, Ghent University institute for systematic musicology.