In 8th grade I bought a book about conducting because I knew I wanted to go into the field of music making in some way. Looking back, the only thing I can recall from reading that book is that I learned conducting is much more thought-out and practiced than I imagined, and creating musical expression takes practice itself. In my very first orchestra concert in junior high school, my aunt turned to me and asked if the person on the podium was actually doing anything with their hands. Since I don’t come from a musical family, musical expression was never a very natural thing to me. I didn’t understand how music making worked, I didn’t listen to music, especially classical music, on a daily basis growing up. Reading this book with a fresh perspective after completing a semester of conducting has opened a new meaning to me of the significance of musicality in conducting. I will be summarizing Lyrical Conducting: A New Dimension in Expressive Musicianship by Edward S. Lisk and talking about what I took away from this book and how I plan to implement these new ideas into my future self as a conductor.
It often feels like it is easier to take the analytical route rather than the expressive route when we lack in confidence within our own expressions. I have struggled with this as a violinist as well. I can practice hours on technical etudes and scales, but when it comes to performing a concerto expressively and musically, I struggle determining where even to start and it feels very unnatural to me. I didn’t realize that this roadblock I experience as a violinist has likely been affecting my performance as a conductor as well. In class, I have been taking notes on the fundamentals and mechanics of conducting, ensuring I give the appropriate number of prep beats, conduct in the correct pattern, show dynamic changes in the previous measure, etc. but I don’t think much about the gestures of my body and facial expressions providing the expressive meaning that I am hoping to provoke from my ensemble. This book talks about making musical decisions based on the natural laws of musical expression and how to determine interpretation beyond the notation.
Lisk opens this discussion in his book by referring to certain masters of conducting (Leonard Bernstein, Gustavo Dudamel, Arturo Toscanini). He talks about how they are totally immersed with the flow of their music being created by the orchestra, rather than being hyper focused on pattern-oriented motions or cueing. They also conduct in such a spontaneous fashion, which gives the impression that they are making it up musically as they go along. In order to reach this stage of conducting, there must be an approach or method implemented to connect these musical sounds with your mind and body. In the later chapters, he gives method examples on how to learn this.
A way to practice experiencing beautiful sounds beyond the boundaries of musical notation is to work with exercises that do not have any time signatures or bar lines. The students are to simply count the passage in the “felt” tempo given by the conductor. This helps with determining musical interpretation without the boundaries of musical notation. You could also practice closing your eyes during this exercise which encourages the use of imagery. You then inhale deeply before beginning the exercise so the students can hear the tempo without the visual preparatory beat. It is also important to understand the silence between the beats, the space between the conductor and the musicians, and what goes on internally within the conductor's mind. There should be musical decisions occurring between the spaces of silence. The energy of musical thought is going to pass through the space between the conductor and the musicians. The conductor must communicate these musical ideas with freedom and unrestricted body language. The use of facial expressions help convey the intent and meaning. It is easy for the conductor to be overwhelmed with the musical notation, making musical decisions, and the sound of the ensemble. If your mind is hyper focused on the analytics, you will not be able to fulfill the musical purpose. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi spoke about separating yourself from what you were doing with your body and says, “Flow requires a highly disciplined mental activity. It does not happen without the application of skilled performance. Any lapse in concentration will erase it.”
In the chapter about making musical decisions, Lisk talks about using a speaking exercise to connect the expression between words and music. He begins by asking individuals to read a short statement. There is no right or wrong way to do this. Next, another individual reads the statement. As they go on, people make the emotional connection with the words and the readings become more dramatic and expressive. He also gives a visual example in the chapter where he asks the reader to perform this exercise by reading a statement. After that he gives the same statement but with dynamics written in. It is interesting how much more challenging it felt to adhere to the words and the dynamic markings while still somehow feeling my own musical flow. The final test of this exercise is to practice expressing the first line of words with your hands. The goal is to project the flow of musical thought through your body.
When talking about creating meaning in music, Lisk explains that differences between conductors is how each perceives music. This perception dictates their performance, conducting, and literature selection. Some conductors can be so obsessed with following exactly what the score says that they don't allow themselves the power to express what the music actually means. The ensemble can naturally sense the feeling that the conductor has within their soul, and that energy is given to the players. The author refers to the energy of musical thinking as “artistic thought”. He uses four statements when teaching musical artistry:
1. “Music is sound moving in and out of silence”
2. “Don't play square notes”
3. “Notes remain trivial until their animated with feeling and spirit, we can never exhaust the multiplicity of nuances and subtleties which make the charm of music”
4. “If you can't say it, you can't play it”
In the first statement, he talks about how music can become a “paint by number” exercise if there is fear about going outside the boundaries of notation. Secondly, square notes lack life and personality. Every note must have meaning and inflection. Thirdly, this adds on from square notes about making music with personality and character. And lastly, conductors should practice speaking their music for phrasing, expression, and rhythmic articulation. He finishes with the Chinese proverb, “how can a caged man teach you to fly?”, because if the conductor doesn't demonstrate spontaneity and artistic expression, the ensemble won't be able to either.
After taking my first conducting class and with more musical experience as a string player, this book means a lot more to me because of my struggles projecting artistic expression and solely focusing on the analytics of music. As I go into my final conducting exams in this class and enter my second conducting class next semester, I want to use these exercises the author provides when practicing my excerpts and pieces. I plan on being a music educator in a public school setting and teaching private students, so it is important that I talk about the nature of conducting with my students for when they join their own ensembles. This book made me realize that it is important to talk about and teach artistic expression, and not just expect that everyone can do it without discussing it. Everyone has this artistic expression inside of them, but it takes work to bring it out.
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