Chris Froh and two UC Davis percussion students recently travelled to the Stanford University School of Medicine for a special lecture-demonstration on Thierry de Mey’s percussion trio, Table Music. The setting was a clinical anatomy seminar (“Anatomy in Society”) taught by Professor Bruce Fogel (Stanford).

Seminar participants were each given several gestures from Table Music to analyze using the lab’s custom-designed electronic resources as well as pro-sections from their cadaver collection. Each group then created a short piece based on their assigned or invented gestures and presented their findings to the rest of the seminar. The session concluded with Froh delivering a lecture on notational devices and the musical context of Table Music and a complete performance of the piece by music major Ian Marci, chamber music participant Danny Zagunis, and Lecturer Chris Froh. 

Dr. Fogel’s extremely creative approach toward teaching anatomical function through the lens of various perspectives from the performing arts provided a fantastic opportunity for communities that would not otherwise likely meet to interact and share ideas. The session was a great success and plans are already underway for a continued collaboration between the UC Davis Department of Music and Stanford School of Medicine for future iterations of the seminar as well as other anatomy events at the school.