Fashion and Harp - The impact of the harpist soloist's outfit on the musical perception of the audience

The visual aspect of a soloist’s performance has been extensively shown to greatly impact the musical perception of the audience. Today's implicit standards in appearance, especially in female artists and interprets, are thankfully questioned gradually. For professional female harpists, the heritage of decades of injunctions (regarding the “femininity” of their instrument, as well as their looks) endures. The new generations of harpists navigate this history and many create a different narrative. Within this research, an experiment was conducted to find out how the harpist’s clothing choices impact their comfort, as well as the musical perception and judgment of their audience. The same audio recording was applied to four different videos, each of these showcasing a distinct concert outfit. The results show a general tendency of the participants to have a better perception of the traditional looks, even though a younger population tends to value innovation and modern visual codes. The researcher hopes to open discussion among music students and professionals on our inherited aesthetic codes, as well as to inspire a personal exploration of our choice of clothes. keywords: Aesthetics, Aesthetics & Cultural Discourse, Audience, Audiences, Beyond Discipline, Extra-musical, Female, Female experiences, Harp, Modern musician, Music aesthetics, Musical and artistic development, Musical identity, Music in Public Space, Music Perception, Perception, SoloistVisual art, Visual aspects, Visuals, Aesthetics and Culture Discourse, Audience Reponse, Modern Musician, music aesthetics, Visual art, Fashion, Clothing, Soloist