Ideas for Indicating “Even Effort Phrasing” and “Any Effort Phrasing”

Ideas for Indicating “Even Effort Phrasing” and “Any Effort Phrasing”
Submitted by Charlotte Wile - May 9, 2002

In Peggy Hackney’s and my October 6, 2000 discussions in the Phrasing thread, the signs shown here in Ex. 1 were used to show Even Effort Phrasing. I would like to suggest that the sign be drawn instead with two straight sides and “equal signs,” as in Ex. 2. This way it would not resemble an addition bracket. Also, it would fit in better with the other Phrasing indications.

Also, I think we need to develop a better way to depict “any Effort Phrasing.” Using a vertical curved bow, as in the sequences at the end of Peggy’s discussion, could be confusing because the bow already has other uses (e.g., as a linking bow and to show “part leading”). Perhaps the indication for “any Effort Phrasing” could be derived from the signs for three main phrasing types (Increase, Decrease, and Even) and the sign for “any, ” as in Ex. 3.

Response to Charlotte Wile's "Specific and General Indications for the Amount of Energy in Effort Phrasing", part 3

Response to Charlotte Wile's "Specific and General Indications for the Amount of Energy in Effort Phrasing", part 3
Response to Iris Garland's December 11, 2000 posting
Submitted by Charlotte Wile - December 11, 2000

As I understand it, Effort Phrasing indications, such as those Peggy Hackney and I have been discussing in this thread, are written vertically in structured Labanotation and Motif Description. They are written horizontally in the system of notation sometimes called "Effort-Shape Phrase Writing," or "Horizontal Phrase Writing." This system of notating is used in the LMA community and may not be familiar to some Labanotators. For further information about it, see:

Cecile Dell, A Primer for Movement Description. pp. 96-107.

Valerie Preston-Dunlop, A Handbook for Modern Dance, pp. 103-104.

Martha Davis, "Laban Analysis of Nonverbal Communication," in Nonverbal Communication: Readings with Commentary, ed. Shirley Weitz; Marion North. Personality Assessment Through Movement.

For a method of notating Effort phrasing in Labanotation (using indications that are somewhat different from those Peggy and I discussed), see:

Vera Maletic, "Dynamics of Dance," ICKL proceedings, 1987, pp. 82-102.
------ "Dynamics of Phrasing in Movement and Dance," ICKL proceedings, 1983, pp. 110-126.
-----"Issues in Phrasing and Effort Annotations of a Humphrey Score," ICKL proceedings, 1989, pp. 105-126.
------- "Qualitative Annotations of Labanotation Scores," ICKL proceedings, 1991, pp. 73-103.
Following are some Motif Description sequences that contain the symbols Peggy and I discussed in our postings. 

Response to Charlotte Wile's "Specific and General Indications for the Amount of Energy in Effort Phrasing", part 2

Response to Charlotte Wile's "Specific and General Indications for the Amount of Energy in Effort Phrasing", part 2
Submitted by Iris Garland - December 11, 2000

I have been trying to follow the theory discussion on Phrasing between you and Peggy Hackney.

I notice that your write the phrasing symbols in the vertical dimension, as though you would write a phrase from bottom to top, as in regular Labanotation. Peggy writes the symbols in the horizontal dimension. Is this a matter of preference, or am I misinterpreting you intention? It would be useful if both of you would actually write some model phrases as part of your examples, rather than just the isolated symbols.

Specific and General Indications for the Amount of Energy in Effort Phrasing

Specific and General Indications for the Amount of Energy in Effort Phrasing
Submitted by Charlotte Wile - November 14, 2000

The emphasis signs discussed in Peggy Hackney's and  the Oct. 6 postings specify an amount of energy: marked, as in 1a below, or slight (to moderate), as in 1b. As far as I know, there is no established way to show the amount of energy is unspecified, i.e., open to interpretation.

Conversely, the signs for Even, Increase, and Decrease Phrase-types always leave the amount of energy open to interpretation. For instance, the consistent energy in 1c could be slight, moderate, or marked. Similarly, 1d could indicate phrasing in which there is slight energy that builds to moderate energy, slight energy that builds to marked energy, or moderate energy that builds to marked energy.

Thus, the emphasis signs only make a specific statement, and the signs for phrase-types only make a general statement. I would like to find a way to indicate both emphases and phrase-types either specifically or generally.

Perhaps color could be used; e.g., green for slight energy, blue for moderate energy, red for marked energy, and black for unspecified energy, as in the following examples:

2a) Even Phrasing that has unspecified energy.
2b) Even Phrasing that has slight energy.
2c) Even Phrasing that has moderate energy.
2d) Increase Phrasing that has unspecified energy and ends with a marked emphasis.
2e) Decrease Phrasing that begins with an unspecified emphasis and has unspecified energy that decreases to slight energy.
2f) Increase-Even Phrasing that has slight energy that builds to marked energy, followed by marked energy that is maintained.
2g) Increase-Increase-Decrease Phrasing that has slight energy that builds to moderate energy, followed by slight energy that builds to marked energy, followed by marked energy that decreases to slight energy.

Response to Charlotte Wile's "Specific and General Indications for the Amount of Energy in Effort Phrasing", part 1

Response to Charlotte Wile's "Specific and General Indications for the Amount of Energy in Effort Phrasing", part 1
Submitted by Peggy Hackney - November 14, 2000

I agree that the sign you propose for Even Phrasing (the one with the "equal" sign, your 1b) is good as a specific Phrasing symbol. The Addition Bow with an Effort in it, such as Direct Bound, also works for me, because if I am adding the Effort at the same intensity throughout, it will produce Even Phrasing.
 
I also like the terms "slight to moderate emphasis" and "marked emphasis" (what you present in 2a and 2b).
 
I agree that your patterns of phrasing in 3 a,b,c,d, and e are types we don't usually consider. I will start playing with those and see what specific examples my students and I can discover.
In relation to your point #4--I feel the Increase and Decrease signs can be used for other than Effort specifically when they do not have the closed end to the Increase or Decrease sign. This would then leave the closed-end sign to be for Effort Phrasing.
 
I do use the letter "K" inside a circle to indicate Kinesphere, and I don't feel that it is confusing, because the sign for "folding over the right side of the body" is not contained in a circle. If anyone else has a better sign for Kinesphere, I would definitely like to see it--particularly if it can also be used with the space measurement symbols to show size of Kinesphere (small, medium, large).

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?

Phrasing Musings

Phrasing Musings
Submitted by Peggy Hackney - October 6, 2000

Over the past several years in the Integrated Movement Studies Cert. Programs, we have been dealing with Phrasing in the following ways: (mostly this sequence is in relation to Effort Phrasing)

A) We generally begin with the general sense that movement happens in phrases, i.e., perceivable units of movement which are in some sense meaningful. They begin and end, while containing a through line. We play the "Begin-End" game (Bob Dunn is with me in my thoughts always as we play this game.) We get a sense for personal preference in terms of phrase length (how long are the phrases?) and begin to sense how we distinguish phrase boundaries (how many phrases?). In later observation blow-by-blow analysis my sense is that we will never get inter-observer reliability unless we agree on the number of phrases, so this could probably use more discussion. We use the bow shown in 1a.

B) We generally next start to notice if there is an emphasis in the phrasing, or if the phrasing is non-emphatic.

(My memory is that we decided to call it "Phrase Emphasis" in 1980 at the Hampshire College LIMS conference. We decided to call it Beginning Emphasis, Middle Emphasis, and End Emphasis, rather than the former Impulse, Swing, Impact. We use the bow in 2a with either the indication in 2b or in 2c. Ann Hutchinson Guest (in Your Move) says these marks refer to the quantity of energy used. 2b equals a strong accent; 2c equals a slight accent. "These are brief moments that immediately die away." IMS generally feels that these marks are associated with some aspect of Weight and Time Effort (2d). We also briefly considered (in 1998) using the dot in 2e,f,g for emphasis of a general kind (as Marian North does with her specific Effort constellations, as in 2h), but at that point in 1998 we decided to stay with the marks in 2b and c even though they were a bit more specific at this stage in phrase learning.

C) I generally then teach, through sounding, the general idea of Increasing and Decreasing energy within a phrase -- or remaining relatively constant.

D) We then teach the Increase-Decrease Phrase-type bows --and we do teach all of the Phrase-types that Vera Maletic suggested in her paper entitled "The Identification of Phrasing Types in Movement and Dance" (1983). We decided, however, to use the line to close the symbol (as suggested by Charlotte Wile in her Motif manuscript); i.e., we use 3a and 3b rather than 3c and 3d because we feel they are clearer as Phrase-Type bows. We then use 3c when we want to put a specific effort constellation that is increasing, as in 3e.

In teaching these generalized symbols (3f,g,h etc.), we notice that students feel an increase or decrease in more than just Effort. For instance, they might tend to use those symbols when the Kinesphere size is increasing or decreasing, or when the level of the movement is changing, or when more of the body is involved. Let's discuss this!

In relation to Effort, however, we feel an emphasis is created by an increase in energy due to:
a. Loading, as in 3i.
b. Intensity, as in 3j.
c. Change of Effort (often reversal of Effort within the same Factor, as in 3k).

E) We then do further explorations of accenting and move on to much more detailed blow by blow Effort Phrasing. We often don't have enough time to do this kind of detailed work and I would love to do more of it with colleagues.

Phrasing Notes

Phrasing Notes
Submitted by Jimmyle Listenbee - October 6, 2000

Copyright ©2000 by Jimmyle Listenbee

The concept of "phrasing" refers to how a given sequence of events is meaningfully organized in time through its internal relative dynamics.

Meaning/breath/intent

Poetic, syntactical, functional

Identifying events

Mode of expression, e.g., Sound, Action

Describing events

Parameters of each mode
Tone	Movement
Timbre	Action (motif)
Amplitude	Effort
Pitch	Shape
Duration	Space
Envelope	Body (neuro-muscular)

Describing a phrase

Sequence

Order of events along a timeline

Elements of a phrase

Beginning, Middle, End

Framing elements. Stillness/Silence. Cadences and resolutions

Defining relative dynamics

Effort loading, effort contrast, effort intensity (clarity), condensing effort.

Spatial dynamics such as size & complexity of kinesphere, spatial contrast, relationship to external spatial elements including other movers and the performing area.

The role of new or unexpected events in dynamic perception; disaffinities, incongruities, surprises

Gross Dynamic Contour

5 typical contours: arch, impactive, impulsive, even, Gunther

Rhythmic elements

Repetition, variation, gradation

Simultaneous Layered Relationships of Phrases

Macro-phrases concurrently organized through multiple levels of branching micro-phrases:

(e.g., envelope, event, motif, phrase, passage, through-line.)

Concurrent experience of different points in separate phrases of various lengths.

(Starting a training group while grading exams)

Multiple purposes concurrently organizing a single sequence of events:

(Poetic, syntactical, functional)