Movement and metaphor: Towards an embodied theory of music cognition and hermeneutics

Theories of music cognition and hermeneutics are out of step with scholarsh ip in other fields because they continue to separate the cognitive roles of mind and body. Through an examination of the spatiomotor patterns used in performance, the prevalence of physical metaphor in written and verbal musi cal discourse and the connections between music and structured movement suc h as dance, this paper proposes an 'embodied' approach to the study of musi cal knowing and meaning. Such an approach is not only in keeping with curre nt research and theories in the fields of philosophy, anthropology, and eth nomusicology, it provides a paradigm that is applicable cross-culturally an d includes the processes of both listeners and performers.