THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MUSIC AND MOVEMENT

Abstract

We have studied both the results of the scientific research on humans’ motor reaction to music and the form in which the close connection between music and movement manifested throughout history - in dance, in the syncretism of the arts in the classical Greek culture, in various folk genres. First we discussed about beat perception and entrainment (the exclusively human ability of synchronizing movement with an external rhythm) after which we presented various forms of music and movement being closely connected. Regarding music and dance we presented the human need to move induced by an external rhythm, after which we discussed the syncretism of the arts in the classical Greek culture showing that music and movement did not exist separately but as one phenomenon called mousike. Finally, studying folk genres we found that the music and movement tandem existed in almost every main aspect of human life: labour (work songs), parenthood (lullaby) and childhood (singing games).

Keywords

• music, movement, entrainment, dance, mousike, work song, lullaby, singing game.