Performance A

Throughout my time as a conductor, I have been told repeatedly that the best way to practice conducting is to conduct in silence in front of a mirror. There are benefits to conducting in silence, such as internalising the music and getting a feel for the space around you. It forces you to answer questions honestly such as:

• Am I clearly showing the sound that I want?
• What feeling am I communicating in this gesture?
• Is that an annoying habit I keep repeating?

(McElheran, 2005)

However, what I have come to realise throughout the past year is you don't get to practice how you react to the relationship between what you want from the players and what you actually hear. And when you have challenging music that one either 'doesn't like' or finds challenging to play, it becomes a guessing game as to who made the mistake. 

Earlier on in my performance year, I performed The Hebrides by Mendelssohn. I felt confident in my gesturing and encouraged the players to perform to the best of their ability. There was a real sense of control and I felt at ease (possibly because I have played this piece as a violinist many times). However, it did make me curious as to why I felt more at ease to conduct this as opposed to other pieces like the Beethoven Quintet below.

It was only recently on a Peter Stark course that I had an epiphany on how my enthusiasm as a player and the desire to want to 'play' the music can detract from the accuracy of my beats when the music becomes challenging. 

In the first movement of Beethoven's String Quintet (a piece that I didn't choose), the music begins with traditional exposition material that has a natural momentum in 4 with a feeling of 2. The constant quavers help keep a steady motor movement until we reach bar 17. Now as a player, I have always struggled playing this passage because the phrasing is shifted by 1 triplet beat. For some reason, unknown to me at the time, it just didn't quite sit right with me. 

By contrast, from conducting the piece for the first time at 00:30, I was rushing through the beats as my musical intuition was wanting the phrasing to be balanced (like The Hebrides) rather than off-set. As a result of my unrhythmic beats, the players found it more challenging to play the triplets with confidence and we were in a predicament between who was right and who was wrong. Stark (2022) in this session commented that,

It's the players job to play the tricky phrasing - it's your job to keep a steady beat.

 (1:20-1:30)

This links up to a statement Keable has mentioned throughout tutorials that I should not get too involved with the music, but instead be encouraging and helpful. So even though there might be a passage that as a player I would feel uncomfortable to play - as a conductor, I need to zone out any pre-conceptions of the piece and be metronomic in my gestures at that point. Later on, Stark (2022) suggests,

It seems you are currently struggling with the relationship between what you hear in your ear and what you have in your head. You don't seem to 'like' this phrasing.

(5:00-5:40)

This links back to the points raised earlier about whether practicing in silence is useful. Although it is sometimes practically the only thing possible, what you can't replicate with silent practice is the live element of reacting to two different musical images. When I was practicing this excerpt before the course, it was easy to conduct 4 2 bar phrases in silence - however, responding to the off-beat triplet passage was a lot harder than expected with players in front of me. This, to me, was the main difference between conducting the two pieces where one was easier to match the two images live than the other.

There are various solutions to resolving the issue above (some are more useful than others):

1. Only stick to conducting repertoire that I am 'comfortable' listening to. 

This means that I don't need to worry about feeling uncomfortable and can project confidence to the musicians. The issue is that it can lead to a stifled set of repertoire and it won't allow me to fully immerse myself with the vast musical universe.

2. Use a range of strategies (outlined in the video) to help merge the two images together.

One strategy includes thinking about a passage that is similar in style (such as the recapitulation triplets) and imagine conducting said passage whilst the original passage is being played. This gives a stronger image to what is in my head, however it can only be done with a selection of pieces (usually ones with recapitulations).

The other strategy was to think of the triplet beats and character change a few bars before the change occurs. Stark describes this as 'overlapping' where the beating style changes to prepare the next phrase. This method falls down with amateur ensembles as changing the gesture too soon can lead to a premature change of character.

3. Have more experience in reacting to live feedback from the players.

In an ideal world, a conductor could pick up an orchestra any time of day to practice, but sadly this is not feasible. The alternative is to continue building up my experience through professional development courses. This has not only benefited my technique in conducting, but it has allowed me to network with other young conductors who have been an excellent source of feedback and well-being throughout my time as a conductor. The disadvantage is courses of this nature are expensive (Stark's course was £500 for 3 days).

Realistically, in order to develop my craft further, a mixture of Option 2 and Option 3 would be most appropriate. There is no point limiting what I can conduct as that defeats the objective on what the conductor does. Besides, I have never met a conductor who has turned down a performance because the piece doesn't sit right with them. 

Whilst both of the visualisations can be hugely effective, the 2nd option isn't a quick fix within the scope of the module and will take many years of experimentation and live performance to see which visualisations work in which scenarios. Again, this won't be a one size fits all approach but instead, a long-term development in my musical intuition. 

Finally, it has only been a recent development with my appointment with the Sheffield Youth Orchestra that I have found a solution to Option 3. Not only are the players coming to me to play, meaning less financial burden, but also youth orchestras bring players who are utterly honest in the way they respond to you as a conductor and their musical response (which is not always 100% accurate to the score). As amateurs, they rely on clear and inspiring rehearsals and there will be plenty of opportunities for me to develop my relationship between ear and head with the work I have with them in the future.

References:

Mcelheran, B. (2005). Conducting Technique: For Beginners and Professionals. New York, Usa: Oxford University Press.

Stark, P. (2022). Conducting Feedback in Video.