The purpose of this study was to examine student learning in an introductory conducting course in which score study was the primary foundational focus; gesture was viewed as part of a larger conducting process and a secondary learning goal to score study. Research has indicated a need for greater emphasis on score study in introductory conducting courses (Silvey, Springer, & Eubanks, 2016; Stewart, 2011). Student reflection is often used to guide students in understanding the relationship of their gesture to the sound of a live ensemble; however, within the studied course, reflection was expanded to focus on the score study process – developing score study skills, practice habits, and concepts. Researchers analyzed student reflections (N = 25) in order to understand student learning and identify potential improvements to the course. Student reflections were coded using a general inductive approach. In their reflections, students discussed evaluating, revising, refining, and integrating approaches; making connections between conducting and other coursework; analyzing the conducting process; and developing their own conducting philosophy. A model that captures the students’ collective learning process is described. Focusing on score study in this introductory conducting course resulted in substantial student learning about an array of conducting skills and concepts in relation to score study. Reflection assisted students in developing a score study process and a growth mindset, both of which support future learning. Findings provide a springboard for future research that examines how a comprehensive and integrated score study process occurring over time can best contribute to the learning of beginning conducting students.
{"title":"Leading with score study: changing priorities in undergraduate conducting curricula","authors":"Brian J. Kaufman, Nell Flanders","doi":"10.14439/mpr.10.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14439/mpr.10.2","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of this study was to examine student learning in an introductory conducting course in which score study was the primary foundational focus; gesture was viewed as part of a larger conducting process and a secondary learning goal to score study. Research has indicated a need for greater emphasis on score study in introductory conducting courses (Silvey, Springer, & Eubanks, 2016; Stewart, 2011). Student reflection is often used to guide students in understanding the relationship of their gesture to the sound of a live ensemble; however, within the studied course, reflection was expanded to focus on the score study process – developing score study skills, practice habits, and concepts. Researchers analyzed student reflections (N = 25) in order to understand student learning and identify potential improvements to the course. Student reflections were coded using a general inductive approach. In their reflections, students discussed evaluating, revising, refining, and integrating approaches; making connections between conducting and other coursework; analyzing the conducting process; and developing their own conducting philosophy. A model that captures the students’ collective learning process is described. Focusing on score study in this introductory conducting course resulted in substantial student learning about an array of conducting skills and concepts in relation to score study. Reflection assisted students in developing a score study process and a growth mindset, both of which support future learning. Findings provide a springboard for future research that examines how a comprehensive and integrated score study process occurring over time can best contribute to the learning of beginning conducting students.","PeriodicalId":105032,"journal":{"name":"Music Performance Research","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129230951","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Twentieth-century musicology frequently invoked the music of Beethoven to validate its work-centred, textualist and structuralist agenda. This article re-orients Beethoven’s music towards the performance studies paradigm, which places the music making body and material contexts of performing at the centre of its disciplinary epistemology, by weaving a novel discursive context around the composer’s unusual dynamics markings. Through a historical case study of the premiere of his Op. 70 No. 2 piano trio, I explore the connections between the performance experience of Beethoven’s dynamics and some of the philosophical and cultural discourses emerging in Europe during the early nineteenth century on the body and the self, and thereby construct novel meanings for his expressive performance practice. By bringing together interdisciplinary historical scholarship, phenomenological reflection, analytical thought and practice-based enquiry, I open up a neglected area of research that lies at the intersection of the performance experience of musical dynamics, sensory history and somatic musical archeology.
{"title":"Performing Beethoven’s musical dynamics","authors":"Mine Doğantan-Dack","doi":"10.14439/mpr.11.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14439/mpr.11.1","url":null,"abstract":"Twentieth-century musicology frequently invoked the music of Beethoven to validate its work-centred, textualist and structuralist agenda. This article re-orients Beethoven’s music towards the performance studies paradigm, which places the music making body and material contexts of performing at the centre of its disciplinary epistemology, by weaving a novel discursive context around the composer’s unusual dynamics markings. Through a historical case study of the premiere of his Op. 70 No. 2 piano trio, I explore the connections between the performance experience of Beethoven’s dynamics and some of the philosophical and cultural discourses emerging in Europe during the early nineteenth century on the body and the self, and thereby construct novel meanings for his expressive performance practice. By bringing together interdisciplinary historical scholarship, phenomenological reflection, analytical thought and practice-based enquiry, I open up a neglected area of research that lies at the intersection of the performance experience of musical dynamics, sensory history and somatic musical archeology.","PeriodicalId":105032,"journal":{"name":"Music Performance Research","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132847579","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article describes some of the collaborative processes that take place within adult amateur choirs, and demonstrates some associations between group dynamics, peer learning and the development of choral confidence. Three focus groups and 16 individual interviews provided 40 hours of verbal data. The research aims were: to explore the lived experience of amateur choral singers in relation to their confidence levels; to identify some of the factors affecting singers’ confidence in their vocal skills and choral performance ability; to use the data to extrapolate strategies designed for managing confidence issues amongst amateur choral singers. Data was collected during semi-structured interviews and focus groups with amateur singers. The superordinate themes, which emerged from the data, included collaboration and teamwork, reciprocal peer learning, and the contribution of unofficial team leaders to effective learning and performance. All of these factors were reported as increasing individual and collective confidence levels. The findings highlight the role of peer interactions and social learning in developing the confidence of choral singers, and suggest ways in which conductors might optimize these interactions to build confidence during choir rehearsals and performances.
{"title":"Collaborative learning and choral confidence: the role of peer interactions in building confident amateur choirs","authors":"Michael Bonshor","doi":"10.14439/mpr.10.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14439/mpr.10.4","url":null,"abstract":"This article describes some of the collaborative processes that take place within adult amateur choirs, and demonstrates some associations between group dynamics, peer learning and the development of choral confidence. Three focus groups and 16 individual interviews provided 40 hours of verbal data. The research aims were: to explore the lived experience of amateur choral singers in relation to their confidence levels; to identify some of the factors affecting singers’ confidence in their vocal skills and choral performance ability; to use the data to extrapolate strategies designed for managing confidence issues amongst amateur choral singers. Data was collected during semi-structured interviews and focus groups with amateur singers. The superordinate themes, which emerged from the data, included collaboration and teamwork, reciprocal peer learning, and the contribution of unofficial team leaders to effective learning and performance. All of these factors were reported as increasing individual and collective confidence levels. The findings highlight the role of peer interactions and social learning in developing the confidence of choral singers, and suggest ways in which conductors might optimize these interactions to build confidence during choir rehearsals and performances.","PeriodicalId":105032,"journal":{"name":"Music Performance Research","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127776819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The process of rehearsing and performing a choral piece involves numerous decisions by the conductor. One part of this decision-making is related to the sung text and includes aspects of diction that are not indicated by Western musical notation, for instance the exact instant of articulation of initial consonants. Although choices related to diction have consequences for elements such as clearness of enunciation, rhythmic precision, or intonation, only a few writings on choral conducting are explicit about them. This paper aims to discuss conductors’ choices concerning the instant of articulation of initial consonants in choral performances of works sung in German. It compares conductors’ theoretical suggestions with analyses of six recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach’s movement Trotz dem alten Drachen, BWV 227/5, and four recordings of Franz Schubert’s part-song An die Sonne, D439. Methods include analyses of writings on choral conducting, interviews with conductors, and analyses of recordings using the software programme Sonic Visualiser. Similarities are observed between the theoretical suggestions of conductors and the analysed recordings, however there are some striking differences, including conductors’ underestimations of the actual duration of consonants. Analyses of the recordings reveal that initial consonants are nearly always anticipated (i.e., articulated ahead of the beat to which they are assigned). Exceptions to this concern the plosive [kʰ] and the second consonant of a cluster on occasion. Analyses of recordings also point to the impact on timing anticipation due to the consonant’s surroundings and from the ability or otherwise for the sound of a consonant to be lengthened (i.e., its “lengthenability”). Evidence from the recordings is discussed in relation to conductors’ varying theoretical suggestions on the articulation of consonants, flagging up inconsistencies as well as considering practicalities, and providing insights for choral conductors into the nuances of consonant articulation with ramifications for conducting pedagogy and future research.
排练和表演合唱作品的过程涉及指挥的许多决定。这种决策的一部分与歌唱文本有关，包括西方音乐记谱法所没有表示的措辞方面，例如，初始辅音发音的准确时刻。尽管与措辞相关的选择对发音的清晰、节奏的精确或语调等因素有影响，但只有少数关于合唱指挥的著作明确地提到了这些因素。本文旨在探讨指挥家在合唱德语作品中对首辅音的发音时机的选择。它将指挥家的理论建议与约翰·塞巴斯蒂安·巴赫的六张唱片(BWV 227/5)和弗朗茨·舒伯特的四张唱片(D439)的部分曲《奏鸣曲》(An die Sonne)的分析进行了比较。方法包括分析有关合唱指挥的著作，采访指挥家，以及使用软件程序Sonic Visualiser分析录音。在指挥家的理论建议和分析的录音之间可以观察到相似之处，但是也有一些显著的差异，包括指挥家对辅音实际持续时间的低估。对录音的分析表明，最初的辅音几乎总是预先发出的(即在指定的节拍之前发出)。偶尔的爆破音[k k]和集群的第二个辅音是例外。对录音的分析还指出，由于辅音的周围环境和辅音的发音被拉长的能力(即其“可拉长性”)，对时间预期的影响。录音的证据讨论了指挥家对辅音发音的不同理论建议，标记不一致以及考虑实用性，并为合唱指挥家提供了对辅音发音细微差别的见解，这些细微差别对进行教学和未来的研究有影响。
{"title":"When are initial consonants articulated in choral performance? Cases studies of choral works sung in German","authors":"C. Hauck","doi":"10.14439/mpr.10.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14439/mpr.10.5","url":null,"abstract":"The process of rehearsing and performing a choral piece involves numerous decisions by the conductor. One part of this decision-making is related to the sung text and includes aspects of diction that are not indicated by Western musical notation, for instance the exact instant of articulation of initial consonants. Although choices related to diction have consequences for elements such as clearness of enunciation, rhythmic precision, or intonation, only a few writings on choral conducting are explicit about them. This paper aims to discuss conductors’ choices concerning the instant of articulation of initial consonants in choral performances of works sung in German. It compares conductors’ theoretical suggestions with analyses of six recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach’s movement Trotz dem alten Drachen, BWV 227/5, and four recordings of Franz Schubert’s part-song An die Sonne, D439. Methods include analyses of writings on choral conducting, interviews with conductors, and analyses of recordings using the software programme Sonic Visualiser. Similarities are observed between the theoretical suggestions of conductors and the analysed recordings, however there are some striking differences, including conductors’ underestimations of the actual duration of consonants. Analyses of the recordings reveal that initial consonants are nearly always anticipated (i.e., articulated ahead of the beat to which they are assigned). Exceptions to this concern the plosive [kʰ] and the second consonant of a cluster on occasion. Analyses of recordings also point to the impact on timing anticipation due to the consonant’s surroundings and from the ability or otherwise for the sound of a consonant to be lengthened (i.e., its “lengthenability”). Evidence from the recordings is discussed in relation to conductors’ varying theoretical suggestions on the articulation of consonants, flagging up inconsistencies as well as considering practicalities, and providing insights for choral conductors into the nuances of consonant articulation with ramifications for conducting pedagogy and future research.","PeriodicalId":105032,"journal":{"name":"Music Performance Research","volume":"40 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123379913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This special edition positions “conducting studies” in 2020 as a dynamic, multifaceted and multi-disciplinary research field. Shifting the focus of “conducting studies” beyond the longestablished paradigms of (auto)biography and standard technical manuals, it presents distinctive new scholarship drawn from the Oxford Conducting Institute’s (OCI) international conferences. The three OCI conferences to date have provided a melting pot for discussions between practising conductors, those engaged in practice as research, theorists, and musicologists. The range of topics and methodologies captured in the conference programmes (2016, 2018, 2019)1 provides a valuable representation of the ways in which research is developing. The diverse range of methodologies generated across themes and topics signals the potential for dialogue and strengthened links between practice and research: practitioner-researchers are featuring more strongly than ever before. Interdisciplinary tools and approaches are informing and shaping new understandings of an array of issues, including: gender; performance psychology; technologically informed and measured research on gesture, tempi, dynamics, articulation and diction; performance traditions; acoustics; audience response and so on. This special edition therefore shows that conducting studies in 2020 is both building on – and breaking away from – the structures that have determined its preoccupations and characteristics. Fascination with conductors – what they do, and how and why they do it – has occupied writers since the “baton” conductor took centre stage in the mid-nineteenth century.
{"title":"Positioning “conducting studies” in 2020 – where are we and where can we go?","authors":"","doi":"10.14439/mpr.10.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14439/mpr.10.1","url":null,"abstract":"This special edition positions “conducting studies” in 2020 as a dynamic, multifaceted and multi-disciplinary research field. Shifting the focus of “conducting studies” beyond the longestablished paradigms of (auto)biography and standard technical manuals, it presents distinctive new scholarship drawn from the Oxford Conducting Institute’s (OCI) international conferences. The three OCI conferences to date have provided a melting pot for discussions between practising conductors, those engaged in practice as research, theorists, and musicologists. The range of topics and methodologies captured in the conference programmes (2016, 2018, 2019)1 provides a valuable representation of the ways in which research is developing. The diverse range of methodologies generated across themes and topics signals the potential for dialogue and strengthened links between practice and research: practitioner-researchers are featuring more strongly than ever before. Interdisciplinary tools and approaches are informing and shaping new understandings of an array of issues, including: gender; performance psychology; technologically informed and measured research on gesture, tempi, dynamics, articulation and diction; performance traditions; acoustics; audience response and so on. This special edition therefore shows that conducting studies in 2020 is both building on – and breaking away from – the structures that have determined its preoccupations and characteristics. Fascination with conductors – what they do, and how and why they do it – has occupied writers since the “baton” conductor took centre stage in the mid-nineteenth century.","PeriodicalId":105032,"journal":{"name":"Music Performance Research","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126880154","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Conductors are typically presumed to possess the physical, interpretative control in choral performance. Questioning that presumption, this article explores how student conductors might be encouraged to engage physically with the musical sound – and sounding bodies – of a choir. It argues that singers’ vocal performance directly and fruitfully impacts on a conductor’s gestural leadership. Borrowing techniques from established physical/movement-based performance and theatre, it explores how conductors might act as the embodied nexus of the poietic and esthesic dimensions of interpretation (Nattiez, 1990), thus collaboratively constructing a performance. To frame the discussion, a conceptualisation of the overlap between body and voice is set out. This conceptualisation emerged during the development of vocal-physical performance projects (2015-16) and was subsequently developed into a broader philosophical orientation. Focusing on issues of embodiment and empathy, this orientation is enlisted to re-examine choral conducting training practices. The influence of these explorations on Daniel Galbreath’s choral conducting teaching is outlined. Additional action-research with theatre practitioner and teacher Gavin Thatcher is then detailed to demonstrate further developments and disruptions to Galbreath’s practice. As a result, a conducting training practice emerges from these practical enquiries that exploits performers’ mutual, direct physical contact via sound.
{"title":"Complicating leadership: choral conducting training through movement theatre practice","authors":"Daniel Galbreath, Gavin Thatcher","doi":"10.14439/mpr.10.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14439/mpr.10.3","url":null,"abstract":"Conductors are typically presumed to possess the physical, interpretative control in choral performance. Questioning that presumption, this article explores how student conductors might be encouraged to engage physically with the musical sound – and sounding bodies – of a choir. It argues that singers’ vocal performance directly and fruitfully impacts on a conductor’s gestural leadership. Borrowing techniques from established physical/movement-based performance and theatre, it explores how conductors might act as the embodied nexus of the poietic and esthesic dimensions of interpretation (Nattiez, 1990), thus collaboratively constructing a performance. To frame the discussion, a conceptualisation of the overlap between body and voice is set out. This conceptualisation emerged during the development of vocal-physical performance projects (2015-16) and was subsequently developed into a broader philosophical orientation. Focusing on issues of embodiment and empathy, this orientation is enlisted to re-examine choral conducting training practices. The influence of these explorations on Daniel Galbreath’s choral conducting teaching is outlined. Additional action-research with theatre practitioner and teacher Gavin Thatcher is then detailed to demonstrate further developments and disruptions to Galbreath’s practice. As a result, a conducting training practice emerges from these practical enquiries that exploits performers’ mutual, direct physical contact via sound.","PeriodicalId":105032,"journal":{"name":"Music Performance Research","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128002410","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper explores the complex relationship between improvised musical interaction and social experience in North Indian sitar and tabla duo performance. As a phenomenological analysis, the main goal of this research is to provide a rigorous and detailed description of the experiential patterns that commonly underlie joint music-making in this genre. This is approached by focusing especially on how positive — particularly peak — musical and social experiences feel. Qualitative data gathered through two case studies involving close collaboration with expert informants is presented and analysed in search for recurrent themes pertaining to these performers’ social experiences, particularly those experiences deemed most cohesive and enjoyable. The analysis is framed according to Høffding’s (2018) phenomenological categorization of musical absorption, and to McGuiness and Overy’s (2011) distinction between co-subjective and intersubjective states of shared subjectivity. Specifically, I consider the role of reflection and communication in promoting feelings of connectivity among performers, particularly during altered states of intense absorption. The outcome of this analysis consists of a phenomenological model of musical connectivity which provides a broad topography of the various kinds of social experiences underlying this genre. This model can also be used — with certain adjustments — to describe the topography of social experiences in any other kind of musical ensemble, thereby allowing for comparative analyses of musical connectivity across genres.
{"title":"'When we connect, there is only music': A phenomenological account of musical connectivity in sitar and tabla","authors":"Alejandro Cooper","doi":"10.14439/mpr.11.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14439/mpr.11.2","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores the complex relationship between improvised musical interaction and social experience in North Indian sitar and tabla duo performance. As a phenomenological analysis, the main goal of this research is to provide a rigorous and detailed description of the experiential patterns that commonly underlie joint music-making in this genre. This is approached by focusing especially on how positive — particularly peak — musical and social experiences feel. Qualitative data gathered through two case studies involving close collaboration with expert informants is presented and analysed in search for recurrent themes pertaining to these performers’ social experiences, particularly those experiences deemed most cohesive and enjoyable. The analysis is framed according to Høffding’s (2018) phenomenological categorization of musical absorption, and to McGuiness and Overy’s (2011) distinction between co-subjective and intersubjective states of shared subjectivity. Specifically, I consider the role of reflection and communication in promoting feelings of connectivity among performers, particularly during altered states of intense absorption. The outcome of this analysis consists of a phenomenological model of musical connectivity which provides a broad topography of the various kinds of social experiences underlying this genre. This model can also be used — with certain adjustments — to describe the topography of social experiences in any other kind of musical ensemble, thereby allowing for comparative analyses of musical connectivity across genres.","PeriodicalId":105032,"journal":{"name":"Music Performance Research","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134130199","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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