The Effects of Body Movement on Perceptions of Violin Performance among Musically Trained and Untrained Audiences

Body movement has long been considered essential in music performance, especially in violin performance. This study aimed to examine the effects of violinists’ body movement on perceptions of solo violin performance among Chinese audiences, considering differences in gender and musical background. A three-factor mixed experimental design was employed, with both musically trained and untrained audiences (equally distributed by gender) viewing and assessing a series of audio-visual solo violin performance recordings. These recordings featured three types of body movements: restricted, upper-body, and full-body movement. Data on audience perceptions of each performance recording were collected. Results showed that body movement and audiences’ gender had significant effects on perceived technical proficiency, perceived musicality, and interest in solo violin performance, while audiences’ musical background yielded a significant effect only on perceived technical proficiency. Audiences’ musical background significantly interacted with body movement and audiences’ gender. Musically trained audiences showed less favourable perceptions of restricted movement compared with their untrained counterparts, while both groups had similar perceptions of other body movements. Among women, musically trained audiences gave lower ratings than their untrained counterparts, whereas no such difference was observed among men. These findings enhance our understanding of the important role of body movement in audience evaluations of solo violin performance. They provide implications for violin performers and educators to better use and adjust body movement to improve musical expression and elicit favourable perceptions from audiences.