Abstract
When expressivity (ignited by imagination) is incorporated into the learning process for both the conductor (teacher) and player (student), the qualities of movement, communication, instruction, and ensemble sound all change for the better, often with less work. Expressive conducting allows the conductor to feel more connected to the music and the players; it can also result in better ensemble sound. There are, however, inhibitors to expressive conducting that break down gestural communication, waste rehearsal time, inhibit creativity in performance, and influence ensemble sound for the worse. This article identifies seven misconceptions and offers practical solutions.
Directors at all levels can learn to communicate better with their ensembles by overcoming impediments to creative and fluid conducting. Not even the most assiduous rehearsing . . . can so stimulate the capacities of the players as the force of imagination of the conductor. It is not the transference of his personal will, but the mysterious act of creation that called the work itself into being takes place again in him, and transcending the narrow limits of reproduction, he becomes a new-creator, a self-creator.
If we believe, as Albert Einstein once said, that “imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand” 2 and we combine that with Weingartner’s quote, we can conclude that for a conductor, imagination is the spark that ignites everything from understanding and interpretation to gesture and expression. 3 Without imagination, these elements become uninspired, redundant, predictable, and monotonous. The role of the conductor is to effectively communicate to the ensemble what he or she imagines so as to connect with the ensemble and its sound, merging the actual sound with the imagined sound.
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Yet how many times has someone performed for a conductor who only reinforces what is already written on the page? How many times have conductors complained that the players just don’t watch? How do conductor-teachers do what is necessary while allowing room for imagination and creativity to foster expressivity in their conducting and thus expressivity in the musical performance? If conductors do not possess a command of their own technique, they must communicate these ideas when the ensemble is not performing. The gesture is not capable of communicating in the moment, and connection with the ensemble’s sound is ultimately lost. Gesture becomes more about reinforcing what is written on the page (time, meter, beat, articulation, dynamics) than about actively responding and constructing musical meaning by interacting with the musical material. 4
There are many reasons conductors lack gestural fluency, often beginning with the first conducting class. The majority of conducting textbooks begin with learning to beat time in a pattern. They do not begin with listening, feeling, flow, or expression. If those things are included in a textbook, they are often provided much later as the next layer a conductor needs to incorporate in his or her conducting. 5 What if instead, the conductor learned first how to feel and flow with the music and then learn how to show time, beat, and pattern within that feeling and flow? What is ultimately more important—flow or meter/beat? What do conductors typically show more? If conductors spend much of their time not demonstrating what is most important, how can they be expected to truly connect gesturally with the sound? How can they effectively communicate their ideas if much of their gesture is reinforcing something else?
After teaching at all levels of education (kindergarten through graduate school), observing and working with conductors at every level, and combining this experience with current research, I’ve found that most of the misconceptions conductors have about conducting and gesture are consistent (to varying degrees), no matter the level of instruction or amount of experience. A detailed analysis of the seven most common misconceptions that inhibit meaningful connection to ensemble sound can help conductors at any level of experience achieve immediate and positive results.
The Seven Misconceptions
Expression Is Showing Energy with a Lot of Movement
The term expression is sometimes defined as an indication of feeling, spirit, character, and so on, as on the face, in the voice, or in artistic execution. 6 Movement is a natural result of expression. 7 For example, if we feel surprised, we immediately have a physical response. We draw in breath, feel something intense in the core/torso, and perhaps jump backward. We open the muscles in the face—widening the eyes, opening the mouth, raising eyebrows. When we feel something in the core, our bodies and faces react. It is possible to do all these movements without being surprised; however, solely making a surprised face does not engage the torso. If the torso is engaged first (meaning that the emotion is felt internally), the face will express what is internally felt. Expression comes from within, and the external movements are the result. 8
The same is with conducting; however, because sound is an indirect consequence of the conductor’s movements, it is possible to get away with bad technique. Though even preliminary studies show that high quality of ensemble sound is influenced by quality of gesture, 9 conductors can often ignore the subtleties of sound and focus on “gripping” (tangible external feeling created through tension) the gesture/movement instead. It is precisely that train of thought that often gets in the way of true expression. By gripping the gestures, the body locks up, and the energy is directed inward toward the conductor. 10 By allowing the body to move freely, letting go of the grip, the energy flows out of the conductor’s core toward the ensemble, thus allowing the inward expression to flow out of the conductor and be interpreted by the ensemble.
There is a tremendous amount of freedom when a conductor lets go, but this flow of energy and emotion often puts the conductor in a vulnerable state. This requires trust of the ensemble—something that may not always be present depending on the level of player, but trust is essential for a great performance. 11 Often the lack of trust is not because the performers cannot achieve it but because the conductor does not believe they can do it on their own. If the conductor does not trust or allow the ensemble to take responsibility for the basics, expressivity becomes more work and more about what the arms do rather than what the core is feeling. That excess movement often blocks the core from expressing and emoting. Instead, the arms and hand should be enhancing what the core is expressing and emoting; they should be the means through which these feeling are directed toward the performers.
Researchers have found that even seventh-grade students relate to and perform according to particular nonverbal conducting gestures after just one lesson on conducting gesture. 12 Additionally, in order for conductors to let go, they must trust their own abilities. The brain is processing an incredible amount of information while conducting. There are several tasks that conductors must master so as to not have to invest as much mental and physical energy to complete the task of leading an ensemble. The gestures that affect sound quality and elicit a response from the players must be the gestures of most importance, but this will not happen until the other gestures are so ingrained in the conductor that they can be accomplished without expending a lot of mental energy. 13
Once conductors allow themselves to let go to express freely, the movement between the beats, not at the beat, becomes the focus. In order to conduct expressively, one does not have to stop beating time, but the beating of time becomes secondary to the expression and the quality of the movement adjusts to reflect how the conductor feels through the music.
Expression Is Hard Work
A conductor is aware of the many things going through the mind during the conducting process. This churning in the brain (stress) causes the body to mirror the mind and tense up. The body is hard-wired for this 14 ; however, tension communicates hard work, which is exactly the opposite of what the conductor want performers to experience. Conductors want players to make beautiful sound freely and possess technique that feels easy, not difficult. If the conductor is constantly portraying work to them, players will either subconsciously take on that greater effort into their own performing (as often the case with younger players) or learn to ignore the conductor (as professional players might do). 15 If the performers are ignoring the conductor, it becomes increasingly difficult to show anything subtle; thus, any change has to be magnified even more. A vicious circle ensues, and communication is broken down at the gestural level.
Tension results in the locking up of joints, which, as stated earlier, works counter to expression. Resistance, on the other hand, allows the joints to move but changes the quality of movement to communicate a different approach to the sound. To use a metaphor, when the brakes lock up, the car is no longer under the driver’s control. When the brakes function properly, the car is still in motion but slowing down because of the friction. Resistance is needed for properly functioning brakes. When a conductor wants something to slow down or feel heavy or weighted, resistance is key, not tension. Conversely, when a conductor wants something to quicken or feel light and free, any resistance is removed from the movement. Tension is not necessary for either.
Meter Is Paramount in Conducting
Meter is a huge challenge for any conductor. As mentioned, meter is one of the first elements taught in conducting textbooks; however, meter is just a means of organization. The problem with conducting is that meter is often the primary way conductors shape movement. 16 Choose one of the following:
When learning to conduct a score, the first thing a conductor should do is identify the tempo, meter, and pattern and move accordingly.
When learning to conduct a score, the first thing a conductor should do is identify how the music should feel and sound and move accordingly.
If a conductor spends time preparing the score by thinking primarily how the meter should be conducted, all movements will be locked into one place for each beat. There is no flexibility; speed, space, and weight are all subject to where the next beat is. In contrast, if the conductor spends time feeling the music, aurally absorbing the quality of sound, and moving in response (not conducting, but allowing the body to dance or move lyrically), the meter and beat can ride on top of that feeling. Speed, space, and weight are determined by how the music feels, and the meter is demonstrated in such a way as to not change that quality of movement and feeling. If the feeling and emotion of the music is secondary to the meter, meter will always win. If meter wins, expressivity loses.
Players already know the meter and in many cases can play without the conductor; therefore, much of what the conductor shows with regard to meter is superfluous. Conductors often say of their ensembles, “They never watch me.” That statement proves that even young players can count by themselves and stay together (for the most part). If this is the case, why do conductors focus so intently on the meter? It is because meter gives the conductor a lot to do. But this “doing” inhibits the feeling and emoting, which are the musical elements the players do not see on the page. But these last two elements are what players really need to see and experience. How will they learn to be expressive if the conductor leading them does not demonstrate it?
This does not mean that conductors should not show time. Movements must reflect time, but time is not just beat—it is also the flow between the beats. Movement should mirror how the music flows. Allow gestures to flow through the beats, not just to the next beat.
All Beats Are the Same
When meter is the primary focus, movement becomes more about traveling from one beat to another rather than showing specific nuance and phrase shapes. The body becomes trapped in a specific pattern of movement, which makes it harder to be specific about detail. When preparing a sound, the size, shape, quality, and flow should reflect the subsequent note. The same goes for preparing the silence (ending the note). Conductors need to take time to think about the quality of sound desired and match the movement to how that sound should move in the air. Feel the sound in the body first, and then move while maintaining that feeling. A beat should always reflect the feeling and mood of the music, no matter where it occurs in the measure.
Time is not communicated through rebound but by change of direction. An easy way to understand this is to pretend a 4/4 pattern is a racetrack. Racetracks have no sharp corners; everything is smooth. Changes of direction are created through curves, not angles. Conduct slowly so that the tip of the baton traces around this racetrack. It may be easier to draw this on a board, then trace. Pay close attention to every movement and change of direction. The movement should be entirely smooth with no “click” or “tick.” Ictus (the instant when the beat occurs) need not only be an angle; it can be a curve of many shapes and sizes too. Point is not what communicates time but rather how the conductor progresses from one beat to the next. How a conductor moves through time is what most communicates time most effectively. 17 When this style of conducting is demonstrated, players have no difficulty playing in time so long as the flow of the baton is consistent and change of direction (even a slight change) happens in time. Once conductors understand the importance of this statement and experience it both gesturally and sonically, they will experience a tremendous sense of freedom. Conducting through the beat allows them to be slightly ahead of the group (a good thing because the group is reading ahead of time already). It allows a conductor to really lead. It is often strange at first, but once mastered, changing the sound becomes much easier.
The area where conductors most often struggle showing smooth change in direction with good time is at the downbeat. This does not require the head, the body, or any such tension to reinforce the “down.” To pick up a pencil and place it on a table, one does not need to use the head and core to generate movement in the arm. No—all the person needs to do is to pick up the pencil up and place it down. If the person did this again but also used his or her head and core, it would be obvious that joints would lock up, and it actually becomes harder to set the object down. This generates more movement in the body because by locking up the joints, more of the body needs to move to compensate for the lack of movement where it was most efficient. If a person picks the pencil up again and sets it down several times, keeping some semblance of consistent time, he or she would experience how easy it can be when the movement is focused on just the pencil. The rest of the body is free, not bound up in the movement. If this can be done without locking up the body, the conductor can give a downbeat without tension and excess body movement, but it requires the conductor to trust the ensemble and follow through with his or her gesture. Now that the meter and beat are out in the arms and hands, the body has room to feel the music and move with the music as the emotions indicate. The conductor has given himself or herself room to feel and show expression.
Conductors Have to Demonstrate Everything All the Time
Conducting gesture and technique is like a graphic equalizer. Just as a sound engineer shifts the levels of timbre, voicing, volume, texture, and so on, conductors can use movement to do the same thing. This is problem solving on the podium at its finest. When the sound does not match what the conductor wants, he or she can shift body movement to ignite change in the sound, showing the players what needs to change in a way they understand, and they adjust accordingly. It’s beautiful and symbiotic. Of course, it’s not always perfect, and the performers will learn to read the conductor better over time, but if all movement results in tension and locking up and reinforces only meter and pulse, there is no room to convey anything else. Just as an actor who overacts pushes the audience away rather than drawing the audience in, a conductor who demonstrates too much pushes away the performers rather than drawing them in. 18 Showing too much blocks communication and connection with the ensemble. An effective conductor lessens the volume of these elements so as to raise the volume of what really needs to be said.
The left and right hands really do have different functions. Mirroring is easy but usually unnecessary. It doesn’t mean mirroring has absolutely no place, but it should be used sparingly. The left hand needs to learn to move in time without showing pulse. The right hand needs to learn how to show pulse on its own, with minimal work from the rest of the body. Beat and meter need to feel easy in the arm. If a conductor feels like he or she is working hard to show meter, simply put, he or she is working too hard. It should always feel easy in the right hand.
Meter should be taken with the phrase and movement in music. The meter doesn’t always need to be big when the music is loud. When showing a beat that is loud, one generally uses a big gesture, utilizing a lot of space with arm movement. But what if instead the conductor maintained the loud dynamic by standing with the presence of a “power pose”? If the presence of the body is grand and “loud,” the gesture need not be huge to compensate. The beat can actually be relatively small so long as the conductor’s presence is big and strong, like forte. As the body maintains this presence, it is also easier to maintain suspension in the body. If conducting a big pattern, suspension often drops, especially on downbeats. By maintaining this presence instead, the energy flows out of the conductor to the ensemble. Though the movement may be smaller, the overall presence is bigger and grander.
Conducting Is Showing
Two definitions to consider:
show: v. display or allow to be perceived. 19
flow: v. move along or out steadily and continuously in a current or stream; go from one place to another in a steady stream. 20
A conductor can show something without actually feeling the emotion. For example, if one were asked to demonstrate frustration, it would not be that difficult—the conductor has enough life experience to know what frustration looks like. However, is one frustrated simply because he or she shows it? Of course not. If one is actually frustrated, he or she doesn’t need to show it: The frustration flows out of the individual because that is what the person feels. All the gestures and movements communicate that feeling. The same is with music. Showing is superficial, on the surface; flowing is from within, letting the music (feeling) out in a steady stream. The beat rides on the current of the stream—it doesn’t interfere with the stream. If the music doesn’t flow, it sounds bound-up, heavy, burdened. The same is with movement: the more freedom in the movement, the more freedom in the sound.
A conductor can feel the music, but if something is locked up or unable to move (shoulder, elbow, wrist), the flow will stop where movement stops. One can compare this with martial arts. A joint is strongest when it has the capacity to move and support the greater movement. Keeping a joint supported while allowing flow of energy is the best defense against a “joint lock.” 21 Once that joint is locked, energy stops flowing, pain is created, and strength is taken away. 22 If a joint is fixed or locked (immobile) while conducting, the players will actually focus the fixed joint because that is where the energy stops flowing. If that locked joint is the elbow, they will pay attention to the elbow. If it is in the wrist, they will pay attention to the wrist. It doesn’t matter what is shown beyond the place that is fixed or locked—the players will not pay attention. It will cease to communicate. It keeps the energy and feeling of the conductor bound up inside, forcing the conductor to “show” rather than feel or emote. The energy gets trapped at the locked joint instead of flowing through the gesture to the ensemble.
The shoulder, elbow, and wrist all work together, sharing the load of the movement. When one joint doesn’t move enough, another will move too much. This is where fatigue sets in, joints break down, and the music gets overworked and burdened. If all joints allow for flow by being free to move as the mind dictates, a conductor will be able to show every style from legato and tenuto to staccato and marcato with ease. Notice in particular the wrist: Its movement is imperative for conducting either a light staccato or a smooth and easy legato.
Movement habits affect more than just conducting technique. Often they result from patterns practiced repeatedly off the podium. A conductor may already be experiencing limited range of motion, which certainly limits the capacity to express in conducting. If a conductor is experiencing pain or limited range of motion (posture issues, joint pain, strained tendons, etc.), he or she should see a physical therapist to begin to reverse this problem. This needs to be fixed off the podium before there can be success on the podium.
Batons Automatically Make Everything Clear
It takes practice to use the baton as a communication device. Just because a conductor holds a baton while conducting does not mean it is being used effectively. 23 A visual artist may have wonderful ideas, but if the person does not know how to use the paintbrush or chisel effectively, the resulting artwork will not convey what the creator had in mind. The baton is an extension of the arm; therefore, if the arm is not communicating properly, the baton will also not communicate. The energy must get to the tip of the baton in order to communicate.
Just as flow stops where a joint stops moving, so it is with the baton. If the shoulder, elbow, or wrist is locked, the baton will have nothing to say; it will be meaningless. The energy in the body needs to flow all the way through the tip of the baton. The only way that will happen is if everything is allowed to move. Start slowly and pay attention to the tip of the baton while you conduct (exercise on your own). Allow the tip to move like legato, tenuto, marcato, staccato, and so on. Notice that when the tip is moving as it should, there is a lot less movement in the arm as a whole. If all the joints move to support what is happening at the tip of the baton, they will all move but in a way that makes it less work with less movement from the entire arm. The tip of the baton should move more than the arm, not less. Flow allows this to happen.
A good baton technique exercise is to lay the forearm on a table or stand while the hand hangs over the edge. With the baton in hand, draw circles in both directions (start slowly). Make these circles as smooth as possible and vary the size as the wrist allows. The wrist may feel shaking. This just means the exercise should be done more often. Make sure that while drawing these circles in the air, the forearm feels soft (relaxed, available/flexible, not tense). Now draw vertical lines in the air like as if painting on the wall. The technique should be the same in terms of lack of tension. Vary the size of these lines in the same way as the circles. Lastly, draw horizontal lines. The range of motion is the least in this direction, but the availability of movement is still just as important. Simply make sure only the wrist is doing the movement and the fingers aren’t manipulating the baton to compensate for the lack of movement within this range.
Once everything feels comfortable, take away the table or stand and do the exercises freely. Expand these exercises as appropriate, experimenting with all the ways the baton can move. It is easy to see now that the baton has a lot of capacity to move and that capacity is enhanced when there is less work in the arms. If the arms follow the baton instead of leading the baton, the energy gets to the tip. The baton becomes a meaningful tool through which to communicate.
Free the Body/Unleash Creativity
Connecting with an ensemble via imaginative and expressive conducting often means letting go of bad habits, which takes awareness and time. If the body is bound up in beating time and pattern with excess tension, letting go of those things will make a conductor feel more vulnerable and feel like he or she is doing nothing. This is okay! Now there is room for imagination, creativity, and expressivity to take the lead.
If the body is available to move freely as the music compels, the conductor can make more creative musical choices and actually demonstrate those choices to the ensemble. There is room for a new manner of score study as well. It frees the conductor up to think about both the big picture and specific details. These are the details the ensemble needs because they aren’t written on the page. By having command over these specifics of gesture and movement, the conductor not only has the freedom to create the music as his or her own using gesture—the primary tool of any conductor—but also to “speak” the music and connect with the ensemble and its sound.