Capturing the Contemporary Conductor

Dr Richard Polfreman and Dr Benjamin Oliver, together with
Dr Cheryl Metcalf from Health Sciences, have been awarded a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Small Research Grant to undertake a pilot project entitled ‘Capturing the Contemporary Conductor’. 

This pilot study will use motion capture technology to help in the development of tools for the modelling and analysis of contemporary conducting gesture, both for conductor performance studies and real-time gesture control in electroacoustic music performance. The team will develop a protocol for the use of high-end, high-resolution marker-based motion capture systems (such as those used for computer generated graphics in cinema) to record precise 3D representations of conducting gestures. This high-quality data will be able to demonstrate even subtle differences between performances, musical contexts and conductors. 

The project brings together expertise in the fields of conducting, music technology and biomechanics and will provide new information to help analyse the complex relationship between the conductor and instrumentalists, as well as training data for gesture recognition systems.