Locomotion-Encoded Musical Movements (LEMMS): A Proposed Use for Four Categories of Vertebrate Locomotion in Music Medicine Application and Research

Abstract

This article advances a descriptive model of the relationship between music played percussively and fundamental locomotor movement patterns that originate in the vertebrate phylum, including human motor development. The model incorporates four categories of developmental movement patterns, borrowed from classificatory schemes well established in the fields of movement education, training, and analysis. The model posits correspondences between these movement patterns and the movements used in playing percussion music, resulting in a system of Locomotion-Encoded Musical Movements (LEMMS) and an array of musical artifacts termed Locomotion-Encoded Musical Patterns (LEMPS). Examples of LEMMS and LEMPS illustrate the utility of the model in specifying inherent relationships between music and movement. Results and discussion center on the LEMMS scheme’s unique characterization of affective and formal aspects of music, its significance to current models of the body in music performance and cognition, and its potential value in music medicine. Keywords neurologic music therapy, music improvisation, music medicine, rhythmicity, locomotion, movement patterns