How do we get to the point of making this decision? There are many overlapping answers, but I think for choral directors it is because we try to figure out how the music is related to the text. I try to understand why the composer wrote what she/he wrote! When I look at a score in any depth, I am especially intrigued by trying to understand the gesture hidden behind, implied by, the symbolic notation of it! – I find that this search often leads me towards answering the Question “why do I want to perform this piece”. It is because, I have come to understand the answer to the “other question”: why the composer wrote what she or he wrote.
And THAT revelation I find to be incredibly compelling – because I want to share it! I want to tell my students about it, and I imagine myself doing just that as I sit at the piano trying to gain more and more insight. In rehearsals I often say to the singers – “the composer didn’t have to do that” – and as we discover together “why” he or she did that, their excitement is palpable, their enthusiasm grows – they understand it; they get it! And this knowledge may inspire them.
For conductors, acquiring this “inspired revelation” is a complex process. In other words, realizing the symbolic notation, in sound, requires the mind’s ear, the conceptualization of all the information that the symbols reveal, and of all that they imply. Bringing this composite picture to aural life requires imagination. Score study is the catalyst that fires the imagination. Score study spawns the mental-aural image, and this insight acts as a powerful energizer in rehearsal for us to motivate singers towards achieving our conception of the composer’s intentions.
The kernel of inspiration for the composer is drawn from the text. Our job is to analyze how the composition illuminates the text by what he/she writes, from the total design to the details that order its architecture: the harmony, melody, rhythm, and texture (and instrumentation in concerted works). This study reinforces and clarifies our mind’s ear of the composer’s expressive vocabulary: tempo and tempo change, dynamics, phrasing, articulation, and rubato (written down and implied).
We bring these insights to rehearsal. In rehearsal our object is to develop ensemble – a unified sound continuum that project our mental-aural image of the composer’s intentions. Achieving ensemble is challenging. It is made possible through unifying pitch, duration, timbre, and intensity – get it in tune, get it in balance, get it together, and match the vowels – placing a foundation to project the full arsenal of expression signaled by the composer.
So, in sum — all these structural, stylistic, and expressive elements will relate in some way or another to text meaning and affect or emotion. Does the composition reflect the text broadly or in detail? Does the composer try to illuminate the meaning of a word, or the mood of a verse, or a single line of text, or by reflecting a change in mood — a passing emotion, or simply by providing a general mood for the entire composition.
NEXT WEEK, we will consider music’s divine ability to inspire.
Julia Laylander says
Jameson (Jim) Marvin says
Julia Laylander says