This paper introduces various ways that idiomatic gestures emerge in performance practice with new musical instruments. It demonstrates that idiomatic gestures can play an important role in the development of personalized performance practices that can be the basis for the development of style and expression. Three detailed examples – biocontrollers, accordion-inspired instruments, and a networked intelligent controller – illustrate how a complex suite of factors throughout the design, composition and performance processes can influence the development of idiomatic gestures. We argue that the explicit consideration of idiomatic gestures throughout the life cycle of new instruments can facilitate the emergence of style and give rise to performances that can develop rich layers of meaning.

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