Response to Peggy Hackney's "Phrasing Musings"

Response to Peggy Hackney's "Phrasing Musings"
Submitted by Charlotte Wile - October 6, 2000

Thank you so much Peggy for your informative comments. Here are a few thoughts about some of the issues you discuss.

1. In the chart at the end of your posting, Even Phrasing is indicated with the angular bracket shown in my example 1a below. That is the symbol that Vera Maletic uses in her ICKL papers on Effort Phrasing. However, since that sign looks like an addition bow, it can be misinterpreted when there are other symbols in the notation besides phrasing indications. To avoid this confusion, I created a new Even Phrasing indication that contains "equal" signs to show that the energy in the phrasing remains constant. (Ex. 1b)

2. I think the idea of having a blank accent sign equal a "slight accent" and a black accent sign equal a "strong accent" should be expanded to include the possibility of a moderate emphasis. Also, instead of saying "strong," which implies a particular Effort quality, maybe we could use the term "marked." The meaning of the accent (emphasis) sign would then be as follows: 

3. I like your idea of using the terms "beginning emphasis," "middle emphasis," and "end emphasis." It eliminates the associations implied by terms such as "Impact," "Swing"; and "Impulse," e.g., Increase-Decrease Effort Phrasing with a middle emphasis does not have to be done with a "swinging" action. Also, using your terms opens up the possibility of identifying many phrasing patterns that we don't usually consider, a few of which are shown below.

4. I have also found my students in the LIMS Cert. program sometimes want to use Effort Phrasing indications to notate other types of increasing and decreasing, as in your examples of an increase in body part involvement or an increase of kinesphere size. I feel there should be separate indications for various types of "increasing" and "decreasing," since this offers more opportunities for mixing and matching the phrasing of different movement components. For instance, both the body part involvement and Effort energy could increase, but it is also possible for the Effort to increase while the body part involvement remains the same.

I am in favor of having basic phrasing indications just stand for Effort Phrasing. In order to specify another type of increasing or decreasing, the appropriate pre-sign(s) could be added. For example, 4a below would indicate an increase in Effort energy; increasing body part involvement could be indicated by adding the signs for "any number" and "any body part", as in 4b. (The sign for "any number" is my invention -- see my April 10 posting in the Axial Movement thread.)

The example you give of the Kinesphere increasing or decreasing brings up another issue. To specify such Kinesphere "phrasing" using the idea I describe above, a pre-sign for "Kinesphere" would be needed. As far as I know, such an indication has not been established. At LIMS the letter "K" inside a circle is sometimes used, however I don't think that indication works because the "K" looks like the sign for folding over the right side of the body. Does anyone have a good idea for a Kinesphere sign?