Similarly to Hatten, Mazzola recognized the fact that gestures can become semiotic units, but they have pre-semiotic nature in the sense that they can exist without being part of a semiotic triangle. Therefore, gestures are again embodied experiences. Mazzola does not define gesture "in terms of spatial structure (a single note, a melodic line, a chord)", but as an "action taken by a musician which provokes a corresponding re-action, the 'response' of the fellow musician" (in the context of traditional jazz and free jazz improvisation). (ii) Mazzola's work defines gestures as a "category of diagrams of curves in topological spaces". While gestures can be semiotic units, there is also an inherited pre-semiotic/pre-linguistic part. Gestures are not schema-based but emergent. Therefore, gestures are embodied experiences. (i) According to Hatten, (musical) gesture is something biologically and culturally grounded in communicative and affective human movement. In my own studies, I had the chance to study three of such contexts: (i) Hatten's work on musical meaning in the context of common practice period music, (ii) Mazzola's work on free jazz as a unique sort of collaborative behavior, and (iii) Smalley's work on providing a framework to be able to describe what listener's perceive in electroacoustic music. In the domain of music studies, the meanings of the word "gesture" and the concept "musical gesture" are quite contextual.
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