The Bodies of Angels

Abstract This chapter, written for an international conference on the body, focuses on the long-standing taboo against acknowledging the body in music performance, criticism, and pedagogy. The body is most obviously invoked in music associated with dance, though many musicians attempt to obscure that physicality when they play. But even music designed to suggest transcendence of the body relies on kinetic experience for communication. Drawing on examples such as Jean Mouton’s “Nesciens mater virgo virum,” Monteverdi’s “Duo seraphim,” Bach’s Cantata 140, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, it demonstrates how composers have sought to simulate weightlessness, though always by means of body-based metaphors.