Musicians’ body motion plays a fundamental role in ensemble playing, by supporting sound production, communication, and expressivity. This research investigates how Western classical musicians’ head motion during ensemble performances relates to a piece’s phrase structure and musicians’ empathic perspective taking (EPT) profile. Twenty-four advanced piano and singing students took part in the study, and their EPT score was pre-assessed using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. High and low EPT duos were formed, and musicians were paired with a co-performer from the same and the other EPT group. Musicians rehearsed Fauré’s Automne and Schumann’s Die Kartenlegerin, and performed the pieces one time before and three times after rehearsal. Motion capture data of the musicians’ front head, audio, and MIDI recordings of the performances were collected and analysed. Similarity in musicians’ head motion and tendency to lead/lag their co-performer were computed by extracting, respectively, power and phase difference of the cross-wavelet transforms of the velocity curves of each paired marker. Results demonstrate that the power of interperformer coordination corresponds to the piece’s phrase levels and that singer’s EPT can impact the leader-follower relationships between musicians, depending on piece and take number. In the Fauré piece, the higher the singer’s EPT score, the higher the tendency for the singer to lead and pianist to follow in take 3, and the lower the tendency for the singer to lead and pianist to follow in take 2. These results contribute to a further understanding of the mechanisms underpinning social interactions, by revealing the complexity of the association between empathy and body motion in ensembles in promoting and diffusing leadership between musicians.

The surge in oil prices in the early 2000s has been raising questions concerning its implications for global imbalances, and fueled discussions about policy adjustments. Currently, oil prices are on the rise again, to levels unseen since mid-2015, while the USD is on the slide. Oil price fluctuations have usually been associated with USD depreciation and appreciation, alluding to fundamental reasons and speculative activity on USD-denominated assets. However, this presumed link has been loose in terms of correlation, and it may well be misleading due to the recent rise in US shale oil production. Assuming the link is in terms of volatility spillovers rather than in terms of co-movements of returns, we investigate the joint volatility characteristics of USD to euro exchange rates and of the benchmark crude West Texas Intermediate prices. We apply a bivariate GARCH model which allows for asymmetry in the spirit of the GJR-GARCH, enabling us to analyze the pattern of bi-directional volatility spillovers. We find evidence for asymmetry in news impact on volatility for daily and as well as for weekly returns, and for a regime change.