Klarinet Archive - Posting 000641.txt from 2005/03

From: "colin.touchin@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] conducting
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 01:34:13 -0500

Hi JDStackpole, there surely are standard patterns and gestures, but
not every one learns them and uses them consistently! - there are
also international differences (for example 6/8 and 9/8 are done
differently in France and Germany: hey, Dan, could we check some
recordings and see if we can tell which conductor's using which
pattern?!). In Gunther Schuller's book The Compleat Conductor he
berates conductors who take liberties the conductors would never
allow their players to take! It is certainly true that a well-practised
and sensitive conductor should always be clear in beat patterns to
any and every group of musicians they conduct at every level in
every country, and they then can add to that their interpretative
individuality But this Utopia is not often encountered, more like Hell
on Earth at times!!
There are also others who claim that because all the musicians
should be counting the beats and be aware of the pattern of musical
rhythms around them, that it's not essential to keep a clear 4/4 or
whatever going incessantly, rather only to show the significant beats
in some phrases to reinforce the musicians' convictions of where
they are in the music at any one moment, and certainly should never
confuse them. But this I think only works with experienced
ensembles, and most players and singers prefer to be kept in touch
with reality fairly frequently. After all, noone should ever go wrong in
most classical and baroque counting, so the beat pattern (and the
conductor as mentioned before) is almost superfluous in this
repertoire.
As a result of space programme and virtual reality technology, a
conducting student's jacket has been created which will send many
signals to a computer from receptors/transmitters at many points in
the garment which can then be displayed on a screen to show the
conductor what s/he is doing - this is then mappable against
"ideal"/preferred practice to show which parts of which limbs might
move in a clearer way - this may be the conducting training of the
future and is getting scarily near to the robotic inventions suggested
earlier.
Best wishes, Colin.

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