Mind, body, and soul: The effects of bodily movement on listeners’ perceptions of choral performances

The purpose of this study was to examine what effect performer’s bodily movement may have on listeners’ (N = 103) perceptions of a choral ensemble performance. A 34-voice choir was audio/video recorded performing two different musical excerpts. Each excerpt was recorded twice, once with movement and once without movement, for a total of four audio/video recordings. Additionally, the audio from each of these recordings was isolated and used as a separate stimuli. Participants were presented each stimuli (movement/non-movement, audio only/audio + video), and asked to rate each for expressivity and style. The factor of audio/video was not found to have consistently significant differences in rating. However, there was a consistent interaction effect between these two stimuli, suggesting that both the visual and auditory differences when using movement conversely effected the listeners’ perception. College major did not prove to be a consistent indicator, but membership in a choral ensemble significantly impacted ratings. Implications may include a greater effect of movement when viewed by the listener than simply what can be perceived in the aural stimuli alone. Suggestions for further research include additional study between choral and instrumental music.