A brilliant architect designs a new home that will be functional and attractive. He adds many new features to the home that are not common to ordinary houses. He draws up a set of individual blueprints and finds a talented group of sub-contractors who are willing and anxious to do the work. The sub-contractors include concrete workers, framers, plumbers, heating-cooling specialists, electricians, drywallers, roofers, finish carpenters, painters and carpet layers. The architect gives each of the individual contractors their appropriate set of plans and tells them that he wants the house finished within thirty days. Trusting the individual contractors, he then leaves them to do their work.
Each contractor has his or her own set of plans, but there is no one who is prioritizing or coordinating their efforts. So the concrete man pours the foundation before the plumber can put in the sewage line. The electrician pulls wires before the framing has been completed and therefore cannot install the required lighting in each room. As the house nears completion, the carpet layer installs the carpet before the rooms have been painted, creating extra time and expense for the painters. Many of the new features envisioned by the architect are ignored or ruled out because sub-contractors didn't have sufficient time or understanding of how their work would ultimately impact the work of the other contractors.
Once the home has been completed, the architect is dismayed to discover that essential parts of the blueprints, including some of the unique new features, were totally ignored. Inspired artistic vision and detailed blueprints were not enough to guarantee success: the isolation of individual subcontractors, poor sequencing and coordination, and no oversight in the building process culminated in the construction of an inferior product.
Architects rarely participate in the day-to-day construction of their own creations. They trust their blueprints and artistic vision to those who supervise, coordinate and ultimately bring to life the physical embodiment of the "envisioned" edifice. Those who have this role are called general contractors or building supervisors. They are hired because of their experience and expertise in the building industry. Supervisors carefully study the architect's blueprints to learn the intent and vision of the architect with special attention given to the innovative features. They coordinate the work of the subcontractors and ensure completion of the project within the required framework of time, budget and quality standard specifications. They know the proper sequencing of each task is critical to the ultimate time schedule and quality of the job.
The architect designates building elements that can be weighed, measured, and quantified. These objective elements can be represented not only with blueprints, but also with artist renderings. Computer software can provide both interior and exterior views of each element of the construction. Each building element can be checked for accuracy in matching the architect's specifications. In short, the building can be realized (in a scaled-down version) prior to the actual creation of the edifice.
Unlike an architect, a composer works with artistic variables that are not easily measured, weighed, quantified or calibrated. In fact, a critical element of the creative process is the ability of the composer to imagine or hear the musical creation in his or her inner ear. Once the inner aural vision of the new creation becomes clear, the composer wrestles with the challenge of notating his/her vision through the symbolic limitations of our music notation systems. The story of the deaf Beethoven standing on the stage during the premiere of his 9th Symphony - inwardly still hearing the concluding measures of his symphony and being unaware that the orchestra had already concluded the piece - famously illustrates the concept and reality of the composer's inner aural vision. 1
In this metaphor, the conductor takes the role of the building supervisor and general contractor in the building of a musical creation. Like the architect, composers normally trust their musical scores to someone else who will supervise, coordinate, and ultimately bring to life their musical creations. They will choose a person who has had years of experience and is highly regarded as a consummate musician.
The conductor assumes responsibility to understand the inner aural vision of the composer. In the same manner that a general contractor studies blueprints, the conductor engages in a careful analysis of the musical score. To ignore any part of the score would be equivalent to leaving out an important element of the new building. Innovations are duly noted, studied and explored, because this is where true genius is made manifest. Score study results in a shared vision and synergy with the composer in terms of the intended design, shape, innovative elements, and comprehensive vision of the new work. True score study results in a clear inner aural vision of the work for the conductor. This vision must be strong enough and real enough that the conductor can mentally hear the finished work before any rehearsal has taken place. It is through this mental recreation of the score that the conductor exercises his own aural imagination and makes artistic decisions that are critical to the success of the actual musical creation. Kohut and Grant posit that, "a primary function of all conductors is to recreate in sound and silence the expressive qualities of the musical symbols and ideas created and notated by the composer."2 The clarity of the inner aural vision, derived from score study, guides the conductor to determine the size, shape and relative importance of each room in the context of the entire structure. All elements of the musical creation are the domain and responsibility of the conductor. This includes personal interpretive decisions, based upon score study, regarding the individual shaping of phrases, balance of orchestration, purpose for each section, form, and function. Through this process the conductor uses his/her aural imagination to determine timbral colorations and the illumination of musical shapes and textures as they weave into the fabric of the whole.
Metaphorically, the conductor's responsibilities also include the determination of rehearsal priorities for the construction of the new work. Eugene Corporon lists four musical elements in priority order. He speaks of, "Playing In Tone, In Time, In Tune and In Touch."3 To illustrate, he states it would be counterproductive to work on pitch if good tone was not first being produced. Nor would it be wise to work on pitch if good balance between the low and high elements of the ensemble was not established. Similarly, it may be counterproductive to work on phrasing if wrong notes and rhythms are still being played.
The conductor does not "perform" or create the work. He assists, inspires and guides his sub-contractors to collectively transform notation into the intended musical creation. The conductor must trust his sub-contractors, the individual musicians, to bring their own expertise and inspired musicianship to the building of the musical structure. The conductor who assumes that his sub-contractors cannot bring their individual expertise and vision to their work will become embroiled in micro-management and will not succeed in building a work of art. The sub-contractors were hired because of their individual expertise and building experience. Given the proper guidance and freedom, these artisans will bring a wealth of knowledge, skills and expertise to every facet of the construction process.
A gifted architect would not complain if the carpenter exceeded his/her expectations of craftsmanship, especially if it would enhance the physical creation of the whole. Likewise, the wise conductor encourages his/her musicians to bring the highest level of inspired musicianship and creativity to the construction of the musical edifice. This is the critical creative element that can potentially reveal even greater potential within each musical moment and illuminate each room of the musical edifice. The wise conductor guides this process so that the creative process stays true to the intent of the composer's vision for the piece. The level of expertise demonstrated by the performers is the key to the level of involvement that they can rightfully take in the construction process. Clearly, professional musicians have a great deal more to offer than young students who are just learning their craft. When working with inexperienced or novice musicians, the conductor will need to assume more responsibility for each step of the construction process.
However, even experienced musicians should not be expected to make all of the decisions. The opening metaphor clearly demonstrates that professional sub-contractors cannot succeed without thoughtful prioritization, coordination and guidance throughout the building project. Too often, conductors take the approach of allowing the sub-contractors (ie. individual musicians) to interpret and create the finished work of art. Due to the fact that it takes so much time to study and understand scores, the easiest approach is to allow the musicians, the musical subcontractors, to determine the priority and importance of their individual parts. The most aggressive musicians are anxious to play their parts so that they can be heard at all times. The weakest will hide technically challenging parts. It is natural for the first chair players to try to make their parts prominent at all times. Some of the musicians are convinced that their voices are always the most important voices, even when they are relegated by the composer to secondary roles. It is clear that allowing musicians to make all of these decisions could result in a musical creation that is based upon divergent individual priorities and may result in a musical creation that is far removed from the composer's original inner aural vision.
Unlike vocalists who can see the full score at all times, instrumentalists typically see only their own individual parts. They are faced with the challenge of assembling each note printed on their pages into the fabric of the whole. This is analogous to assembling a 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle without ever seeing the intended final picture. It may be argued that if the musical score is clear enough, and the individual parts are well written and expertly executed, then all pieces of the musical puzzle will fit together perfectly; however, this does not reflect common practice. Professional musicians know that individual technical perfection is not enough. They each strive to determine how their parts fit into the whole. They look to the conductor for guidance to help them determine how and when their parts take precedence or when their parts serve in a supporting role. They look towards the conductor for artistic guidance in revealing the composer's true intent for the realization of the musical creation. In short, they look to the conductor to reveal the entire musical picture to them so that they can better understand how their individual parts fit into the fabric of the whole.
How then does a conductor move past score study and the creation of a unique aural inner vision to the actual construction of the musical creation? Kohut and Grant suggest the approach of synthesis-analysis-synthesis. First, you read through the entire work so that the performers can see the big picture. Then comes the analysis, which suggests breaking the piece down into its constituent parts and rehearsing the details. After the details have been worked out, the entire piece should be reassembled. At the end of the rehearsal, the authors encourage conductors to play through the work once again without stopping.4 Eugene Corporon suggests a similar approach but labels the parts differently. He describes a macro-micro-macro approach, where the rehearsal sequence begins with the big picture (macro), moves into details (micro), and then back again to the big picture (macro).5 Corporon suggests that the micro or detail phase of the rehearsal will consist of multiple zooms from big to small. Rehearsing a section of the music may require multiple micro zooms into particular problem areas, and then the conductor should reassemble the small detailed work back into larger sections. When considering the prospect of multiple rehearsals, the conductor will try to first establish the big picture; then move towards micro rehearsals in the middle of the rehearsal sequence. Subsequent rehearsals will gradually build towards the rehearsal of increasingly larger sections until all of the sections are pulled together to form the entire structure.
The opening metaphor of this article suggests that prioritizing the musical elements in the construction of a musical house might prove to be a useful tool for conductors. The ideas of Corporon,6 Kohut and Grant,7 Donald Hunsberger and Roy Ernst,8 combined with personal experience, provide the inspiration for the following list. This list demonstrates how the elements of tone, time, tune and touch may be incorporated into rehearsal priorities. It illustrates, in outline form, how a conductor might utilize the macro-micro-macro approach to build sequenced rehearsal plans. Multiple zooms into separate musical elements are indicated. It also illustrates that the fundamentals of music, such as tone production, rhythmic accuracy, note accuracy and balance precede the higher level musical elements of tuning, phrasing, blend and ensemble awareness. The list is intended to guide the conductor as he/she considers areas of focus in a series of rehearsals that will lead to the construction of a musical creation (performance).
Priorities for the Construction of a 'Musical Creation'
Score Study
- Discovering the composer's inner aural vision.
- Program notes. What does the composer say about this piece of music?
- Where and when was this piece written? Determine the historical context.
- Does this piece have a text?
- Does the text illuminate the music?
- If the text is no longer part of the composition, did the text influence the musical creation?
- What are the stylistic characteristics of other music written by this composer?
- What is new?
- What is different?
- What is important?
- What is the form?
- How does the form affect the function and emotional content of the piece?
- Can you hear the music in your mind? Use your aural imagination.
- Have you made interpretive decisions in terms of phrasing, large scale development of climaxes and appropriate releases?
- What timbres are important?
- How can timbre or blend illuminate the composition?
- Use your aural imagination to hear the timbres and musical shapings of each phrase
- Physical set-up of the room
- Acoustic space
- Does it provide teacher access to the musicians (especially important at younger grade levels)?
- Can the musicians see and hear each other?
- Can the musicians communicate visually with the conductor?
- Does the set-up provide the best possible arrangement of instruments to provide the balance, tone colors, and staging indicated by the composer?
- Tone Fundamentals
- Good posture
- Good air intake and tonal support
- Good tone production
- Read through of the entire piece
(Macro rehearsal - trying to see the big picture from the beginning)- Complete read-through at correct tempo markings
- Rhythmic accuracy
- Note accuracy
- Listening & evaluating
- Time Fundamentals (macro rehearsal of whole piece or larger sections)
- Maintaining integrity of pulse
- Individual rhythmic accuracy
- Rhythmic accuracy within sections
- Ensemble precision
- Breaking down the music into smaller parts (micro rehearsal)
- Good tone production
- Note accuracy
- Individual rhythmic accuracy
- Integrity of pulse
- Vertical ensemble alignment of rhythmic elements
- Horizontal flow of music within the pulse
- Balance
- Articulation / style
- Focus on the bass line
- Low brass and low woodwinds
- Creating the tonal foundation
- Achieving note accuracy
- Achieving a pyramid balance by stressing foundation instruments and making certain that divisi sections are not top heavy as expounded by W. Francis McBeth.9
- Achieving good balance (vertical alignment of all musical elements)
- Vertical rehearsal (stopping time to rehearse vertical alignment and tuning of chords)
- Maintaining ensemble precision
- Illuminating balance issues on small then larger sections
- Listening & evaluating intonation through time (rather than 'stopped' vertical tuning)
- Emphasis on Tuning (micro)
- Pinpointing and resolving specific individual intonation problems
- Working on tuning within sections
- Tuning between sections
- Listening and correcting
- Re-assembly of smaller parts into bigger sections
(moving from micro towards macro)- Good tone production
- Rhythmic accuracy
- Note accuracy
- Articulation / style
- Horizontal flow, note accuracy and rhythmic stability
- Individual pitch / section pitch / ensemble pitch
- Form / identifying and rehearsing larger sections
- Illumination and clarification of musicians' roles in each section (micro)
- Spotlighting important dynamic changes
- Clarifying most important melodic voice at all times
- Balancing melody and counter-melody
- Defining and clarifying support and accompaniment roles
- Canonic figures / when is each voice prominent or subservient?
- Critical listening
- Who is important and when?
- Directed listening towards whom?
- Listening for balance and blend
- Timbre / tone colors
- Dynamic shaping
- Pitch discernment
- What should be highlighted?
- What is new?
- Spotlighting important new elements
- Balancing sections to illuminate the composers intent
- Why did the composer choose various combinations of instruments? (micro)
- Purity of independent tone colors
- Focus on blend of timbres
- Defining what timbre should take precedence when two or more different instrumental timbres are combined.
- Establishment of correct balance in large sections
- Re-assemble small parts into larger sections
- Illuminating individual sections of the overall form (ie., ABACA in a Rondo)
- Reassembling individual phrases into each section
- Clarifying how the sections relate to each other in terms of peaks, valleys, transitions, development, and high points as seen through the lens of the formal structure of the piece
- Reassembling sections into a complete piece
- Check and monitor all previous musical elements
- Focus on phrasing
- Question/answers / antecedent and consequent phrases
- Clarifying and unifying high points and low points within phrases
- Horizontal shaping of lines
- Note groupings
- Achieving transparency and clarity
- Clarifying transitions, development of climaxes and release points for the superstructure of the piece.
- Balance revisited
- Articulation revisited
- Musical roles revisited
- Listening and prioritizing elements of balance and timbre
- Collaboration of musical elements
- Focus on Touch through critical listening
- Timbre / Tone quality
- Balance
- Blend
- Tuning
- Style
- Direction / musical goals and releases
- Phrasing
- Practice transitions
- Spotlight areas of concern
- Tempo and style changes require run-through
- Run-through of entire piece (macro)
- Performance
No matter how inspired or brilliant in design, concept, creativity, or orchestration, a musical masterpiece may become a building riddled with flaws unless the conductor metaphorically assumes the responsibilities of an effective general contractor/supervisor. The goal of careful study and interpretation of the musical blueprints, the score, is to discover the intent, creativity and inner aural vision of the composer. When a synergy develops between the conductor's aural imagination and the vision of the composer, then the conductor will be able to form a complete inner aural image of the creative work. Once this vision has been achieved, the conductor's greatest challenge will be to communicate and reveal this image to the musicians. This can best be achieved by guiding the prioritization, coordination, and realization of musical elements and by encouraging the process of collaboration, creativity and discovery with everyone that is involved in the building process.
Endnotes
- Elliot Forbes, 1967, Thayer's Life of Beethoven. Princeton University Press, pps., 908-909.
- Daniel L. Kohut, Joe W. Grant, Learning to Conduct and Rehearse, Prentice-Hall, 1990, pg. 3.
- Larry Blocker, Ray Cramer, Eugene Corporon, Tim Lautzenheiser, Edward S. Lisk, Richard Miles. 1997. Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, GIA Publications, Inc. Chicago, pps. 13-14.
- Daniel L. Kohut, Joe W. Grant, Learning to Conduct and Rehearse, Prentice-Hall, 1990, pg. 108.
- Larry Blocker, Ray Cramer, Eugene Corporon, Tim Lautzenheiser, Edward S. Lisk, Richard Miles. Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, GIA Publications, Inc. Chicago, 1997, pps. 18-23.
- Ibid, pps. 11-26.
- Daniel L. Kohut, Joe W.Grant, Learning to Conduct and Rehearse, Prentice-Hall, 1990, pg. 108.
- Donald Hunsberger and Roy E. Ernst, The Art of Conducting, McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1983, pp. 51-53.
- W. Francis McBeth, 1972, Effective Performance of Band Music: Solutions to Specific Problems in the Performance of 20th Century Band Music, Southern Music Company, San Antonio.
- Larry Blocker, Ray Cramer, Eugene Corporon, Tim Lautzenheiser, Edward S. Lisk, Richard Miles. Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, GIA Publications, Inc. Chicago, 1997, pp. 21.