Analysis Of The Language Of Conducting

The language of conducting is a complex one, and to the casual observer can appear almost mystical; moving your hands and sound emerging. If we think of language as using words to express our ideas and our emotions, conducting as a language uses gesture to turn ideas into music. Gestures come from the entire body, however focus shall be made on the technique of the hands and arms. The best position of the hands and arms can be described as a rounded extension of the arms with bent elbows. To achieve the correct position, the arms should be extended such that they are perpendicular to the ground with palms down and a shoulder width apart, elbows slightly bent. The primary conducting gesture is a combination of the elbow and shoulder hinges. Allowing the plane to drop low causes conductors to use their elbows as their primary hinge; the arms collapsed towards the conductor such that the pattern is produced by the elbow movement alone. To first analyze the shape or accuracy of a beat pattern created, one must understand how it is being perceived. While discussing and teaching technique to her students, Sian Edwards, current Head of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, London and previous Music Director of English National Opera (ENO), spoke about a useful exercise for viewing one’s beating pattern – by holding a piece of chalk, as you would a baton, and gently tracing the shape of one’s beat pattern onto a wall or blackboard – similar to Scherchen and Rudoph’s idea of ‘pattern drawing’ discussed previously. The immediate result was that less experienced conducting students had a less consistent and at times randomly shaped pattern than compared to the more experienced participants in the class who had a more repetitive pattern.

This method of tracing a beat proved extremely useful in self-analyzing, and critiquing a pattern. By taking this idea and co-ordinating it with light exposure, it became possible to capture the image and pattern produced by conducting in front of a camera, and incorporating light exposure with slow shutter speed to create a gestural control. Stroboscopic photography for depicting the changing features of subjects in motion is a technique that was enabled and popularized by Harold "Doc" Edgerton. He applied this technique to numerous situations where a still camera, in a single shot, did not capture enough information about a subject in motion and where a motion picture camera record was unsuitable for being reproduced on the printed page. To document these motions, a DSLR camera was sourced and the mode changed to manual mode, where the settings could then be adjusted. Depending on the amount of time and number of patterns the participant wants recorded, the shutter speed can be changed anywhere from eight seconds to sixteen. The aperture is then adjusted. The aperture stop of a photographic lens can be adjusted to control the amount of light reaching the film or image sensor, which will then be used to track the line of conducting. In combination with variation of shutter speed, the aperture size will regulate the film's or image sensor's degree of exposure to light, and in this case will record the motion of light. It is recommended to have this size anywhere between F11 and F22. The ISO is the last setting that should be adjusted. The ISO, in digital photography, measures the sensitivity of the image sensor, whereby the lower the number which is set, the less sensitive the camera is to light and the finer the grain. This will be set to 100.It was discovered that a MagLight torch is similar in weight and width to a baton to hold and use, so this shall be the source of light production, and also stimulates the actual feeling of using a baton. Using these settings, the participant should stand in front of the camera and perform a basic beat pattern. The image produced should show the pattern created by the participant and any discrepancies or inaccuracies in their ictus and beat placement. To further record and view these patterns created, they were enhanced and analyzed using OriginLab, being placed on graphs to further compare the continued use of this method.

OriginLab is a proprietary computer program for interactive scientific graphing and data analysis. The software is used to graph data, and perform nonlinear curve fitting and parameter calculation, making it ideal, for tracking the lines and shapes created in conducting. The software can track the image created, by following the lines of light from the image and picking precise points along these lines where there is a slight fluctuation or movement/slope of any kind. By compiling these points, one can ascertain a graph to analyze and plot the data to work on progression of technique. For each of the sessions, the ‘ictus’ point is placed as close as possible to (0,0) on the graph, for simplicity of tracking the movements of the baton when the image has been digitized. The image occasionally needs to be rotated by slight degrees if the image is not aligned correctly, which can be done under the ‘image sub-menu’. Next Cartesian lines and background ‘noise’ are removed from the image to focus on the product of lines of light. The axis and the image are then set so that there is a reference for calculating the x and y co-ordinates. By clicking the edit axis button, it allows new separate lines to be aligned to known values on the axis. For example y=1 can be set to 0 or 0.5. For greater precision in aligning the lines of light with the axis, the zoom-panning tool needs to be used to achieve this. The curves are then digitized using the five methods of digitization; manually picking points, auto-tracing lines by points, auto-picking points by the use of grids, auto-tracing the area, and boundary-limited area auto-trace. Multiple methods can be used to digitize curves, and this method results in a more accurately placed curve. Large areas can be digitized at a time by auto-tracing an area, and then these lines manually ‘tidied up’ using the manual delete mode. There are a number of different columns on the ‘data tab’, one in particular which will be discussed is the ‘group column’. All lines with the same group number share the same axis settings, and so, if the axis settings are later modified, the values of the created lines in the corresponding group will update accordingly. This is used if the image needs to be moved so that the starting ‘ictus’ position can be as close to (0,0) as possible. The idea of ‘perfect’ technique is that each time there is a change in beat, the ictus point, will be the first point of contact within the graph, so by aligning this starting point from the beginning as a center point of (0,0), it will make analyzing the graph and conducting shape a lot easier. The enhanced digitizer can automatically capture points in a ‘workbook’ and plot them separately in a graph and table – the numerical graph has been summarized and put into a table in the index to view the points from this ‘workbook’. OriginLab plots the points on a graph in the series that they were captured in, and so if there are any discrepancies in the graph, the image is returned to and the ‘re-order points’ button selected so as to set them in the correct order in the graph and in the ‘workbook’. These new graphs and data can be collected and analysed.

Patterns and Data Analysis

The primary skill of conducing is mechanical precision – similar to a metronome, it is as constant as an actual mechanized device. This term is used and explained by Alan J.Gumm in several points. It requires the mastery of the mechanics or techniques of precise movement patterns; it needs to become mechanically automatic and second nature so other functions can be coordinated along with it; and it involves mechanical, metronomic, or time-keeping concepts of music, such as beat, tempo, and meter. In most British and North American music schools or orchestras, conductors and musicians are trained to play on the beat, to produce the sound at the actual moment the baton strikes the appropriate rhythm juncture. However, many European orchestras have been trained to play just after the visible beat, so as to leave room for expression and sudden time changes etc. For this reason alone precise technique is an absolute for keeping the orchestra together. The beat, if using a baton, can also render a piece legato or staccato based on the smoothness between the distance of the ictus. The indication of the beat is shown with vertical and lateral movements in ‘patterns’.

The green line refers to beat 1, the orange to beat 2, the blue to beat three and red to beat 4Figure 1 shows the classical four pattern. The width of the horizontal stroke is called the ‘breadth’ and the height of the vertical stroke is called the ‘amplitude’. Note how the beginning of each beat meets at the centre ictus point, making it extremely clear for musicians to follow. There is no confusion over where to place the beat and this gives orchestral players a lot more confidence and clarity if they are playing behind the beat. There is a slight ricochet in the second beat to differentiate it from the first, making it a bit smaller, but beats three and four should be equally distanced from the ictus in both the left and right plane. This pattern is also diagrammed for legato articulation, as the pattern is curved as opposed to a staccato articulation which might be more static.

The pattern is inattentive to detail and precision, thus will lead to difficulties with the players not having a precise ictus placement. While other techniques, such as those taught in many North American schools, may say to place the second beat outside of the body in the left plane of the graph, this can lead to discrepancies and issues arising among the players, and if not directed well, becomes too difficult for players to follow, and thus can lead to herding behavior – describing how individuals in a group can act collectively without centralized direction. Conducting is almost universally a right-handed practice, which shall be the assumption of this project. The right hand, baton withheld, illustrates time, while the left hand is used to demonstrate lines, expression and cues. Another note is the difference between conducting with a baton and conducting without. While conducting with the wrist alone can have more subtle movements, a baton gives a much larger window. The distance from A( the top of the amplitude of the 1st beat) to B (ictus) can cover nearly sixteen inches and C(furthest point of the breadth of 3rd beat) to D(furthest point of the breadth of 4th beat) can cover up to thirty inches. This being said, there is more room for error, and so by continuation and focus of centrality of the ictus with this image documentation method, the patterns shall become second nature. The use of a baton is not completely necessary, and some have found it to be more expressive without using one such as Mitropoulos, who considers it ‘a distracting antagonist’.

I believe that there is some kind of communication through the expression of the hands of what you feel...I think I can express myself better with my hands...I make an appeal, I mean, when I try to reach, to reach the soul of my musician who plays the solo Granted that freedom in both hands may be more expressive, the baton provides additional precision, and confines the ictus of the beat to a much smaller space, and so isolating the margin of error for entries or beat placements for musicians. The idea of ‘tactus’ represented that of fixing the central pulse of a passage in a regular and identifiable beat pattern. The notion of ictus is to place within that pattern visible beat points which articulate that pulsing, giving some guide to the character of the music. This is achieved in many ways, such as a flick or bounce of the wrist, the distance travelled between the two ictus’ and the raising and lowering of the baton itself. These gestures require a lot of practice, co-ordination and confidence to execute, with repetition being an integral component of the process. The gestures need to be carried out precisely and decisively which partly explains why mechanical precision has remained the primary focus in the conducting classroom as well as the professional field. Thus, with enough repetition these elements will allow any conductor to stand in-front of any orchestra with these basic techniques. There are a huge number of factors that go into the conductor as part of the instrument physically; posture, arms, legs, knees, face. It is the entire “control of the body working as a musical medium”. It is with all of these elements that a conductor not only possesses the ability to understand many different kinds of music in their mind, but also the power to express each one so vividly using gesture. However, for the purpose of this project, it will strip back conducting to the bare essentials and foundations of conducting technique with particular attention being placed on the position and space of the arms and hands and their effect on the ictus.

Having explained how the technique can be achieved, these methods were performed, recorded and analyzed in OriginLab over a period of multiple sessions. After each the session the image was studied and analyzed to decipher what could be improved/continued for the subsequent session. Fig. 3 First Session Figure 3 depicts the result of the average lines of light captured from the first session using the Stroboscopic Image Capturing and Documentation in OriginLab. There is quite a consistent attempt at trying to meet (0,0) however this means that the outer breadth quadrants are being sacrificed, which we can see by the dipping of beat three and four falling below -y, which is seen as ‘weak conducting’. Clear conducting can be assumed to always be +y. The first session shows poor quality of beats, with a margin of error at nearly 12% of the ictus returning to the same position. Figure 4 shows a more condensed amplitude which meets the ictus point upon its return down from the first beat curve. However, due to the imbalance of beats three and four, it means that this ictus point is then lost due to different sized beats. In what is an attempt to avoid the -y region of the graph, the style of conducting becomes a lot more narrow and longer in Figure 5. This results in a larger area of the space and graph being used in terms of breadth and amplitude, and that the ‘wings’ of beat three and four are a lot higher than are meant to be. By using the expression m= (y

2- y

1)/(x

2-x

1 ) the slope can be calculated and compared to that of before. For example, the slope of the attack of the ictus on beat three of Figure 4 is a lot more gradual than that of Figure 5. The slope of Figure 4 m= (3.7133-2.2455)/(-4.9966-0.1035) is m = -0.2878 compared to that of Figure 5 m= (8.7129-1.6537)/(-7.8817-0.0445) where m = -0.8906.

Figure 6 provides us with a much calmer beating pattern than before. There is a broad amount of the graph being used making it very clear for musicians, and beats three and four are much more equal in terms of breadth extension than had been previously seen. The ricochet of the second beat is much more clean and concise, compared to that of the first session, and it is the first time since the first session that the return to the ictus after the third beat has fallen below -y again which had been promising up to this point. The delivery of the final ictus remains to have too strong a slope, leaving it to fall short of the central ictus placement and lead into -y territory. Figure 7 continues to contribute a large scale beat size, and makes way for a larger more clear ricochet second beat. This larger ricochet gives a faster acceleration into the third beat, making it a little larger in amplitude than that of beat four. Beat four however makes up for lack of amplitude with a slightly larger breadth giving way to a precise ictus upbeat. Session five provided a strong attempt at precise and accurate technique. This could only be achieved by the weekly preparation of studying the previous session’s inaccuracies and difficulties, to counter-act these problems and focus on progression. These methods of a gradually improving technique, and the necessity of this practice and self-criticism were challenged by looking at the perception of accurate conducting effectiveness and its effect on an ensemble performance.