Conductor’s gesture in the structure of executive interpretation of the orchestra conductor

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Conducting art is the youngest of the academic types of musical performance -- and to this day practically it did not come out of the semantic field of the magic, difficult to explain, the most psychological, «dark matter» (as it was defined by N. Rimskyi-Kor- sakov). After all, the conductor, rightly called the performer (orchestral, opera, pop-jazz, choral work), does not make a single sound himself, but only directs the team of performers, directing them to the right direction of interpretation, sound extraction and sound science, the relief distribution of textural components, musical and sense feelings of different scales, etc. All this creates a specified aura of mystery around the profession of a conductor. The conductor's figure is often perceived by both orchestra and listeners as a kind of messiah; a person possessing undisputed musician and socio-psychological authority. Overwhelmingly, the term «maestro» (master) is used in musical art in relation to the performer-conductor. However, in musicology, the mechanisms of the conductor's creativity have traditionally been identified locally, with the invariable lacuna of this mystery and with hope for the power of the individual in solving the most complex interpretational and technological problems. Scientific developments in most cases are differentiated here into areas of manual engineering and psychology. The aim of this article is to identify patterns of manual technology with the inevitable individuality of the creative style, the handwriting of each conductor.

Presenting main material. The conductor and the team of performers, the orchestra as a specific synthetic «instrument» of the conductor, act as the subject of the conductor's interpretation. Consequently, unlike other types of musical performance, the structure of the subject of the conductor's interpretation is a complex [8, p. 27--28], system. The «conductor -- orchestra» system assumes specific mutual relations, mutual influences, which include artistic, aesthetic, psychological, technical and technological parameters.

The first of them, artistic and aesthetic one, is in line with any performing musical art and is associated with the system of spiritual values of art and the corresponding system of means of expression for the realization of an artistic idea. The researchers also include the responsibility of the conductor to the orchestral team, high moral and ethical ideals and a developed system of these values, «what gives the conductor the moral right to appeal to universal values both in everyday life, in everyday communication with artists, and in professional and creative» [8, p. 28]. These aspects form a system of interacting components, ensuring the conductor's influence on the orchestra and on the audience.

The psychological layer of the «conductor-orchestra» system is the influence (and interaction) of the conductor on the orchestra, their professional and personal communications that occur on the verbal and paralinguistic (both in the rehearsal process) and non-verbal process (conductor gestures, facial expressions, etc. -- both in the rehearsal and concert setting) levels. It is believed that the conductor's verbal parameter of communication should be minimized, although in a collective musical performance it is difficult to avoid verbal communication, even if it is a minimal discussion of both strategic and local interpretation positions. A paralinguistic layer -- usually «kinetic and phonational elements of communication accompanying verbal utterances» [6] -- is inevitably associated with specific non-verbal ones in the conductor's communication with the orchestra -- conductor gestures and shows that are designed to include not only technological information of tempo, rhythm, timbre, texture, strokes, loudness indicators, but also the general nature of the music, the musical idea, its orientation, and the dynamics of development (although, of course, in communication between the conductor and the orchestra, the trad vocabulary for verbal speech). Subconscious use of the conductor's gestures at the time of verbal communication with the orchestra at a rehearsal by the conductor can be likened to the spatial and instrumental sensations of an instrumentalist -- orientation on the keyboard or neck, positional formulas, forms of movement in various articulational and dynamic or textural situations, etc. Moreover, the forms of movement of the orchestral conductor and instrumentalists, to whom he is currently speaking, are often similar or even identical («imitative gesture» by Musin I. A. [4, p. 286--287]). It is worth noting that Ilia Alexandrovich insists in this matter on the exclusiveness of imitations of the violinist's stroke technique that dates back to the era of conductors-accompanists with simultaneous display of the sound and stroke sides (the direction of the bow, its changes, strokes, etc.). Without denying the universality and certain priority of the bow forms of movement in conductor gestures, let us point out the essential role in the conductor manual technique of the instrumental forms of movement of pianists (performers in one of the most universal instruments, the «orchestra», which is usually owned by all musicians and necessarily the conductor), common a horn-like gesture when showing a wind, specific tweaking of piccicato sound production (it is worth noting that in general the gestures of the conductors of folk instruments orchestras, in the base of which the tweaking is, tend to look a little more «dry» comparing to the symphony), etc.

The technical and technological aspect of the interaction between the conductor and the orchestra involves «conveying by the conductor his own performing version of the work using manual techniques, as well as personal qualities -- will, magnetism, energy, verbal means» [8, p. 27]. The main technique of manual technique is the conductor's gesture.

The meaning of a gesture in the history of human communication can hardly be overestimated (if «even the non-fulfillment of a gesture... can be as important as laughter or tears» [3, p. 34)]. Correspondence of body language with other languages becomes possible due to the fact that «the underlying processes that are the roots of the non-verbal and verbal activities of a person appear to be similar in essential terms» [ibid.], as it is evidenced by certain semantic autonomy of well-known, widespread gestures ; change of gesture behavior under the influence of socio-economic and cultural conditions in parallel with speech; the symbolic nature of the gesture (as well as other language units); the possibility of translation into the appropriate verbal language or other sign language with a close or common problem field; finally, patterns in the execution of gestures regarding the configuration of the constituent parts, the ordering of movements, their contextual conditionality, etc. that reveal a similarity to the syntactic laws and rules of natural languages and music. The stages of gestures (including those of the conductor) also correlate with each other and with the known kinetic parameters of intensity, amplitude, direction, trajectory of movement, degree of hand tension, temporary development (conducting, such as auftakt, point, reflection, or sound extraction, sound science, the completion of sound from instrumentalists).

The creative abilities of a musician can be improved only in the process of performing (instrumental, vocal, conductor) comprehension of the composer's intention. Based on the well-known thesis that «in long-term, persistent attempts at the most complete and perfect disclosure of music content, the singer's musician focuses on the auditory perception of the sound result of his actions and on motor sensations» [5, p. 5], I. Musin concludes: «The specific property of motility -- to help the formation of a musical image -- is especially important in conductor's performance. Motive sensations play an almost decisive role in the art of the conductor »[ibid., p. 5--6]. However, the value of motility is extremely important for instrumental performance, especially for string and keyboard. The auditory aspect is not less important for the conductor even in the oral (without the orchestra, house) incarnation of the score, including the manual one, when imitation of sound sensations in manual motor skills should be constantly controlled by hearing. In conducting, pre-hearing performs the same function as in the instrumental one. Motility, which gives «an opportunity to feel the dynamism and imagery of the performer» [ibid.], is actually the conductor's non-verbal language -- the language of communication of the conductor with the orchestra (and the public) and the language of performing tasks. I. Musin refers performing and authoritative pedagogical aspects of the conductor's activities to the substantive aspects of performance, and the manual «handwriting», conductor gestures (often being «a stumbling block for many wonderful musicians -- performers and composers who become the conductor's console» [ibid.]) despite their incompatibility with the complexity of the technique of playing musical instruments -- a specific feature that «distinguishes one conductor from another», i.e. -- considers individual-style qualities -- the most important component of performance interpretation. Continuing M. Bakhtin's thoughts about style as «the unity of the design and completion techniques of the hero and his world and the methods of processing and adaptation (immanent overcoming) of the material» that they cause »[1, p. 195], about the individual style, which «directly enters into the task of the statement itself, is one of its leading goals...» [2, p. 254], it can be argued that the individual conductor-performing style is represented by conductor gestures as a «specific form of artistic utterance» [7], which is determined by the specifics of the orchestral (instrumental) performance, the system of mobile performing means and is implemented in the process of performing conductor interpretation.

Y Tkach attributes the techniques of sound extraction and sound science (sound filling), carcass, timbre, measure of staccato or legato to the transition from one sound to another, etc.; to technical -- performing means -- «the conductor's manual gestures corresponding to the figurative and content sphere of the work, with the help of which the manager transfers his own performance version of the work» [8, p. 35].

Through conductor's gestures, the conductor initiates and corrects not only the directing energy of tones and structures of various scales, but also the actual sound (orchestral lines) of a certain artistic content. O. Tremzin, following S. Kazachkov, I. Musin, V. Svitov and others, states that «intonation is the basis of the conductor's artistic functionality» [9, p 127]. I. Musin includes articulation, phrasing, agogyk and dynamics as a means of developing musical phrases, performing touches (it is necessary to add here the timbre and quality of sound extraction and sound science, which are reflected in the character of the movement). «The scientist regards the gesture intonation as a «diction» and «recitation» of a musical phrase» [ibid.]. Thus, like all music and performing arts, conducting has as its goal sound creation, interpretation of a musical text through intonation.

«The conductor's sign language is not the language of the deaf-and- dumb or mimes, not the language of ballet art and not some kind of conditional signaling. The language of the conductor, with the help of which he communicates with the performers, affects their consciousness (we will add -- and their instrumental motor skills, the instrumental forms of movement -- S. M.); it emerged and developed as a result of the needs of ensemble musical performance »[5, p. 8].

Conclusions. If the verbal component of communication affects the consciousness of the orchestra, emotional communication, «magnetism» affects the subconscious beginning of interpretation, then the technical, manual and gestural component «works» in the field of conscious and subconscious action of the expressive means of music -- tempo, dynamics, strokes, texture components and the whole, timbre coloring, as well as instrumental forms of movement that form these means -- in their holistic focus on the development of the musical idea of the work in terms of its collective interpretation.

At the same time, the conductor's gesture appears in its movement forms to the closest musical utterance as such, to that manifestation of ideas, thoughts in music (in particular, instrumental, pure, «absolute»), when such ideas are broadcast without a verbal «intermediary», immediately «pure», holistic structures that do not require (not lying) analytical «splitting» and are consistent with the nature of this difficult to explain integrity; the fact that it is inaccurate and only approximately yields to verbal explanation (it's not for anything that the philosophy of the XIX century, having exhausted its own traditional ideological sources, turns in its quest to technology, the ideological structure and examples of musical art). Actually, this property is fundamental to music as an art form.

In general, the appearance of the conducting profession in the middle of the XIX century, already in the heyday of musical art -- not just autonomous, but developing its own language, means of expressiveness, types of thinking and the formation of a musical idea -- is more than revealing. This new kind of performance, in which the performer paradoxically does not make himself, directly, a single sound in the sound art of music -- eloquently fixes the specified property of music by «alien», at first glance, spatial-motor means. Demonstrating (to the orchestra and to the listener) a holistic musical idea with specific non-verbal and conductor gestures and shows, the conductor's performing art has created its own developed, complex technical and technological system, i.e. the language of the conductor's gesture.

References

conductor gesture musical

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