We need to develop a taxonomy of the superfluous motions that accompany the performance of music. Pianists, trumpeters, violinists, flautists, and so forth all have their individual frillishes. For starters, I've observed:

• pigeons — heads bobbing with the melody
• jellyfish — hands drifting in the sea between passages
• stallions — tossing their wild manes to the beat
• rabbits — trembling tense in the spotlight
• peacocks — flashing proud plumage at the audience

Quite a menagerie. And then there are those mysterians who twitch to the asynchronous tapping of an inner rhythm section, apparently without connection to the piece that they're playing ...

(see also BuechnerMagic (27 Oct 2000), SevenManes (9 Feb 2001), PianoRecital (22 Apr 2002), ...)

TopicHumor - TopicArt - 2003-04-30

(correlates: WebbWiggins, WutheringHeights, ForUs, ...)