Pedagogy of Conducting
Designed by William Belan and Donald Brinegar
A pedagogy is the means by which excellence is transferred. As it was with the
classic Indian musical arts, the Sangeet, it was one thing for the gods to select Narada as
the purest mortal to receive the gift, it was another to design a plan for spreading the arts
beyond Narada. The gods chose a three-level plan of guru, humility, and discipline. The
most essential element was the need for a devoted teacher (guru), but one who delivered
the art with humility to students, who reciprocally received the art with humility. And
discipline by both master and disciple was essential for study and understanding of the
art’s complexity.
This pedagogy of conducting (POC) is based upon a hierarchy that places always,
with humility, music at the center of the study. The hierarchy unfolds in an irrefutable
manner, logically and efficiently, to guide one towards an effective understanding of
conducting.
Nested Hierarchy
A nested hierarchy is distinguished by its cause/effort relationship. Each stage of
the hierarchy holds a “junior” position to its emergent “senior” pairing. And, more
importantly, every “senior” position becomes the “junior” to its next developed “senior.”
Thus each stage of the hierarchy is “nested” within an unfolding evolution with
junior/senior relationship. The question arises whether it is essential that the hierarchy be
followed in a linear manner. Or, is this more a gestalt, where the whole as greater than
any individual part. Both are true but more importantly the pedagogy is not a religion; it
is a guiding tool.
Community
With the spirit of humility POC declares that the purpose of our study is to build
community, for it is through this exchange of knowledge with other people that the
mission is accomplished. At no point in the process are people taken out of the equation.
For once a conductor steps outside of one’s study, into the world, people are essential
from then on. POC identifies a hierarchy for this understanding.
Hierarchy of Community
Group of People
There must be at the core a group of people who wish to work as a community.
This is basic to the hierarchy and assumes that there are people who desire such a
community.
Define Goals: Type of Community
Each community is unique. In this case we are striving for a group of choral
conductors who wish to exchange information, ideas and repertoire, while
maintaining respect for each other.
Process
The process of community calls upon each participant to engage in an
interpersonal exchange of ideas and information, with disciplined mutual respect.
Each participant is involved in both a linear hierarchy as well as a gestalt, the whole
being either greater than individual parts or greater than the order in
which parts
unfold. (See “Hierarchy of Conducting,” and “Hierarchy of Vocal Function.”)
Mutual Respect
Central to any community is the safety one feels to perform, make mistakes,
achieve success, and comment openly within the environment of mutual respect.
This process is about gathering information from each other. And any competition
is about a level of contribution, as opposed to the protection of one’s ego.
Honest Assessment
Throughout our study we encourage the use of all means of technology and
feedback in order to collect information about progress. However, no recording of
sensory information has intrinsic value. One must engage in honest observation,
evaluation and the setting of future goals in order to progress.
Position for Growth and Change: Learn Together
All of the construction of an effective community exists to position oneself for
ongoing growth and change. Changing one’s self, mind and behaviors is about
understanding one’s personal paradigm. For within a paradigm are a set of
assumptions from which personal decisions evolve. By revisiting periodically
one’s paradigm we keep that which is accurate and replaces that which is
obsolete; this is growth and change.
Essence of Community
To paraphrase Tom Peters in Excellence NOW:
You take care of the people.
The people take care of the music.
The music takes care of the profession.
The profession takes care of the art.
The art takes care of the culture.
The culture takes care of the civilization.
The civilization takes care of the future.
(And at every step the only measure is EXCELLENCE)
Hierarchy of Conducting
Music
The most junior of all elements is the music itself. It is essential for conducting to
happen.
Study
To study the selected musical score is fundamental to both decoding notation and
to derive meaning from that notation. One’s study predicts the audiation that
follows. The manner of study is determined by the essentials present in the music,
through performance practice and compositional technique.
Audiation
Audition results from careful and appropriate study. According to Edwin Gordon,
the leading scholar on audiation, “Sound itself is not music. Sound becomes
music through audiation. Audiation occurs when musicians assimilate and
generalize in the mind sound of music they have just heard performed or have
comprehending in the mind familiar or unfamiliar music they may or may not
have heard but are reading in notation, composing, or improvising. Aural
perception happens when sound is heard the moment it is produced. Sound
becomes music and is audiated only after it is perceived aurally. Hearing is to
perceive. Listening is to audiate.
Informed Gesture
Through audition the conducting body takes on the shape and character of the
music. This process is comprised of receptors and processing centres producing
modalities such as touch (somatosensation), and body position (proprioception).
Somatic Sensory
The primary somatic sensory cortex, comprised of four distinct regions (fields),
known as Brodmann’s areas, are involved in processing tactile information.
Through activation of a physical “receptor,” and prompted by a musical idea, this
sensory receptor is triggered, generally in the spinal nerve. This signal passes
through the spine to an area in the brain that is attributed to a unique area on the
body, and this allows the stimuli to be felt at the correct location; thus the
relationship between a musical idea and a conducting gesture manifests. In fact,
there is a large area of the cortex devoted to sensation in the hands, a principal
conducting tool. But audiation must always precede sensory response in the
hierarchy and physical sequence of events.
Proprioception
Somatosensory information involved with proprioception and posture targets a
different part of the brain, the cerebellum.
Proprioception is:
1) the unconscious perception of movement and spatial orientation arising from
stimuli within the body itself. (The American Heritage Medical Dictionary);
2) the kinesthetic sense. The sense that deals with sensations of body position,
posture, balance, and motion. (Jonas: Mosby’s Dictionary of Complementary and
Alternative Medicine);
3) awareness of posture, balance or position due to the reception of stimuli,
produced within the organism, which stimulate receptors (called proprioceptors)
located within muscles, tendons, joints and the vestiular apparatus of the inner
ear. (Millodot: Dictionary of Optometry and Visual Science);
4) neurology: The subconscious sensation of body and limb movement and
position, obtained from non-visual sensory input from muscle spindles and
joint capsules. (McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine);
5) Latin proprius, meaning "one's own," and perception — is one of the human
senses. There are between nine and 21 in all, depending on which sense
researcher you ask. Rather than sensing external reality, proprioception is the
sense of the orientation of one's limbs in space. This is distinct from the sense of
balance, which derives from the fluids in the inner ear, and is called
equilibrioception. Proprioception is what police officers test when they pull
someone over and suspect drunkenness. Without proprioception, we'd need to
consciously watch our feet to make sure that we stay upright while walking.
Proprioception doesn't come from any specific organ, but from the nervous
system as a whole. Its input comes from sensory receptors distinct from tactile
receptors — nerves from inside the body rather than on the surface.
Proprioceptive ability can be trained, as can any motor activity.
6) utilitarian. Drivers would be unable to keep their eyes on the road while
driving, as they would need to pay attention to the position of their arms and legs
while working the pedals and steering wheel. And I would not be reading this
article, you would be unable to put food into your mouth without taking breaks to
judge the position and orientation of your hands.
(http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-proprioception.htm)
Synthesis of Expression
Every piece of music has a sound it wants, versus the sound we want to give it.
Our responsibility is to know the essentials to each musical essence, that is style.
Fundamentals of Conducting
Ictus
The ictus (point) is the gestural meter, where the hand marks the pulse. The ictus
falls into three categories, which define the visual intent: to, through, and from
(the ictus). The ictus, itself, holds no rhythmic representation.
Rebound
It is only through gestural rebound away from an ictus, in the space and time
perceived between one ictus and another that follows, that rhythmic time is
perceived.
The accentuation of the grouping of icti defines that metrics of music.
It is through the gestural control and speed of the rebound away from the ictus
that sub-division of time is perceived.
Rhythmic/ Kinesthetic Function
There are five principal rhythmic functions: crusis; anacrucis; suspension;
metacrucis; syncopation.
Crusis
The release of energy in the form of a downward gesture, generally onto
the ictus. The function can be likened to one’s feet hitting a trampoline
after jumping, or the bat striking the ball after swinging.
Anacrusis
The gathering of energy before cruces, mnemonically represented by the
word “ready.” The function can be likened to the upward jump on a
trampoline, or the backswing of the bat.
Suspension
A quiet transition between anacrusis and crusis, not perceived as a stop in
motion but rather a geometric point of change between the two functions.
Metacrusis
The dissipation of residual energy following crusis. The function can be
likened to the follow-through of the bat after striking the ball during a
swing. Hypothetically the energy level in metacrusis reaches zero, and
requires a new anacrusis to follow.
Syncopation
The shifting of accentuation within a metric rhythm, away from a regular
pulse and onto some alternative point in the time. The function can be
likened to hitting one’s head on the ceiling after jumping on a trampoline.
Hierarchy of Literature
Music
Music is essential for any hierarchy of literature to exist.
Geography
Geography is the first large-scale determinate of a hierarchy. All music
from exist at a geographic location, and from geography unfolds all
subsequent senior developments.
Time
All historic time exists within a geographic location. Musical periods have
been designed to designate these large-scale musical periods.
Individual Composer
Individual composers lived within defined dates of time.
Musical Occasion
New occasions needing musical compositions emerged throughout history.
Occasion Fulfilled
The completion of music for these occasions is pure cause and effect. The
junior element is the need while the senior element is another finished
composition.
Style (Grouping of Essentials)
History presents natural shifts from one set of compositional essentials for
another. The essentials common to a specific time form the essence of
style. One cannot organize the logic of these essentials until sufficient
examples are created, and until comparative shifts in these styles are
codified. This is the final station on the track.
See: Shrock, Dennis. Choral Repertoire. London: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Hierarchy of Vocal Function (A Pro Arte)
Designed by Donald Brinegar
“To prepare vocal muscles to go through their full range of motion they
must be fatigued.”
Attention (Audiation)
Audiation predicts posture.
Posture (Sensioception and Proprioception)
Can you hear posture? There is a primary relationship between posture and the
potential of a singer’s sound (or a conductor’s gesture).
Posture facilitates motion and inspires readiness to respond.
Respiration
Posture interacts with respiration. For singers, the in and out of breath facilitates
the sustaining of sound. With appogio, inhalation is in an ideal position for
establishing the ideal environment. Then, maintain that opening.
Inhalation utilizes the muscles of the ribs and back. Suspension provides the ideal
transition between in and out. Exhalation engages the muscles of the abdomen,
thorax, and back.
Breathing involves 36 muscles.
A balanced inhalation is likened to one that “fogs a mirror.”
Three styles of breathing: clavicular; pancostal (rib) breathing;
diaphragmatic/abdominal.
There is more upper-chest tension in young women than in men.
Onset
Three styles of onset: soft aspirate; hard glottal; flow phonation coordinated.
In flow phonation the “attack” (“onset” via Miller) requires a sense of what sound
we are about to create, also called the “coordinated attack or flow phonation.”
This results in a coordinated expiration exemplified by the “Bernoulli” effect.
Articulation
Breathing moves to onset; onset moves to articulation.
The vocal tract (the lips to the vocal chords is a pass filter. The vocal tract is
flexible. The shape and the quality of the tension in the articulators is key to the
efficiency of the pass filter in creating pure vowels and a smotth transition
between phonemes (legato).
Legato phrasing must be able to move from one phoneme (vowel) to another
without a change in color or resonance.
Resonation
The vocal tract is a closed-tube resonator. Air is vibrating not the physical
material.
The singer’s formant is a high partial of the vowel formants. The ability of the
singer to project their sound depends on the presence of the singer’s formant
(2400-3400 HZ) in every phoneme.
Vowel modification is real!!
Tuning is about resonance. Sing in agreement of timbre. It is difficult to sing in
tune; it is efficient to sing in timbre.
Technique and Efficiency
You should not hear the technique self-consciousness versus self-awareness).
The goal is to create the most refined and beautiful result in the least effort
necessary.
See: Miller, Richard. The Structure of Singing: System and Art in Vocal
Technique. New York: G. Schirmer Books, 1996.
See: Venard, William. Singing: The Mechanism and the Technic. New York: Carl
Fischer, 1967.
Supporting Topics
Tuning
See: Mathieu, W.A., Harmonic Experience: Tonal Harmony From Its
Natural origins To Its Modern Expression, 1997.
Fibonacci: Active and Passive Attention Curve
Golden Proportion
Chant and Chironomy
See: Fowells, Robert. Chant Made Simple. Paraclete Press, 2007.