THE IMPROVISATORY SPIRIT
Different types of performances welcome different levels of improvisation. Sometimes, the vibe of the performance is such that a few mistakes embraced with style and grace won't even be noticed. Other performances seem to demand the highest level of perfection and sophistication. To some extent, this relates to the kind of music we are reproducing. Works of classical music seem to demand a level of precision and reverence toward the composer's intentions. It feels disrespectful not to satisfy the expectations of someone who lived sometimes hundreds of years ago. What a fascinating situation we have there.
|
|
What if we reject the notion of perfection? What if we embrace the idea that we are breathing life into a piece and that to do so requires our openness to the spirit of the moment? Some might argue that that's only possible when the musicians have reached a certain level of skill and to some extent that's true. However, I happen to believe that we can begin to give agency to musicians at an earlier point than we usually do. As a conductor, this very much defines my approach. I ask my students to focus on listening to others around them, to respond when their neighbor plays differently. You might think that would dissolve into chaos, but it does not.
|
In fact, when students learn to listen in rehearsal, they respond beautifully in concert when the unexpected happens, which it just always seems to do. How much do I believe in this method? So much that on several occasions, I have actually removed myself from the equation even at the concert. Many people step away from the podium for a moment or two during rehearsals but not many of us are crazy enough to attempt un-directed student performances. You do need a solid leader in order to do this, of course, but that's really not enough. You have to have taught the group how to play together without getting lost. It takes a lot of work to build their listening skills, their responsiveness, and their confidence. (Funny story: The first time I attempted a conductor-less performance, it was because I knew I might go into labor with my first child and miss the concert, and in fact, I did.)
I believe in responsibility. I spend my life raising teenagers, so I spend a lot of time listening to arguments about privileges vs. rights. But I always change the discussion, because I find that one to be misguided. My students often think that having privileges signifies that you are an adult. I challenge them to consider that having responsibilities is what makes you an adult. In fact, privileges are often doled out by the adults to the children for good behavior. Privileges in the form that they believe they want are actually infantilizing them. You have to wait for someone else to grant you a privilege, so you are always the child in that situation. But responsibilities... those you can always take for yourself. When you take responsibility, you are in control. You are an adult. Take responsibility for yourself, for another person. Take responsibility for your homework, cleaning the dishes without being asked. You want to be an adult? Take responsibility right now. You don't need anyone else to give that to you. You are in control.
What does this have to do with performance? It's exactly the same thing. Give each student on that stage the opportunity to take responsibility for themselves and the group. They must have agency. Until every person in that room is taking responsibility for their part in the group performance, you cannot make music. Everyone needs to be present and invested, engaged and motivated, which is always easiest to accomplish when they feel that their contribution matters. It makes your job as a conductor much more fulfilling, it makes their experience playing music much more satisfying, and the music you produce together has life and energy. Why do we breathe together at the start of a piece? We are about to breathe life into a composition. We must do it together, and we must do it throughout the piece. Focusing on breath reminds us that we are bringing the composition to life and makes each person on that stage feel that their contribution is valuable.
****
Help them listen:
1) Every once in a while stop conducting. Get out of the way. Or continue to conduct but do it with your body in a small way and literally back up on the podium (without falling off, please), so they can see each other. If it's possible to overdo this, then I am probably guilty of that. But I believe in it. I want to be able to conduct the music, not just the beat, and the only way I can do that is if the musicians have got the beat under control. The only way they can do that is to have agency, to connect with each other, and to embrace the confidence that comes with it.
2) Practice breathing the upbeat before a section or the beginning of the piece. You can make them practice audibly at first and even practice with their eyes closed. (You're wondering how to cue them to breathe together if their eyes are closed. You can count a measure before if you want, but I bet you can get them to tag along if you just give a big breath of your own.) Eventually you should change this group breath to a less-audible version. But remember, there should never be a start that doesn't include a group-wide intake of breath. Literally never.
Help them look:
1) Everyone needs to move with the music. There can be an exaggerated version of this in rehearsal to get them comfortable with this. I'm not talking about toe tapping. I mean body movements. Many of these movements should coincide with breathing.
2) When practicing the breathing exercise above, make sure you also create an opportunity for students to get their eyes out of their stands so they can look around (or at one person in particular) while they prepare to play or sing. Obviously you'll need to practice the version with their eyes closed separately.
3) Physically change the stage as needed. Music stands too low, too high, pointing toward stage left? Make them fix it every time before you begin rehearsals. Do it consistently until they do it without you. There is nothing more satisfying than looking around when you first step on the podium and seeing all those stands positioned perfectly. Choral directors must fight the constant sagging of the music being held in front of their singers, while reminding them to stand in a way that supports their breath. I seriously don't know how you do it.
Help them breathe:
1) I've already mentioned the first prep breath, but now I mean breathing throughout the composition. You must breathe together. You must breath life into the piece. Each instrument has a type of breath. Strings breathe as they vibrate and resonate. Drums awaken rapidly and breathe out more slowly. Winds literally vibrate with breath. Music cannot happen without breath.
2) Your conducting must show this breath. I don't just mean literally breathing. Your gestures communicate the amount and quality of air that you want in the music, the type of attack and length of resonance, the drive into a beat and the release after it. Tension in your body distorts your intentions, so it's important to pay attention to your body's tension habits. There is a big difference between the active engagement of your muscles to communicate strength and an uncontrolled tension in your muscles. And there is a big difference in the resulting sounds from the ensemble.
Let mistakes happen:
1) As much as possible, when something goes awry during rehearsal, give it time to fix itself. You should, of course, go back after that phrase or section and try to fix the problem, but it's important to practice letting the ship right itself during rehearsals. This is the opposite of what I say about practice, but groups are different.
2) When I was a kid, I remember being told by a wise jazz trombonist, "When you're improvising, there are no mistakes. If you hit a note that doesn't belong, find a way to weave it back in until it does belong." Truthfully, I practice this technique in life as much as I do in music. We might not want to weave our mistakes into classical (or other non-improvisatory) music repeatedly, but we can take this spirit and allow it to flourish. As Julia Child would say, "Never apologize!" You are offering your performance to the world. As long as you do this with good intentions, you have done your job.
****
The goal with every performance is to breathe life into the music. Tiny imperfections go completely unnoticed if the music is performed with energy and humanity. Playing music together is a community experience, not just between the performers, but also with the audience. Each audience member contributes their own concentration, their heartbeat responds to the music they're hearing, they watch and absorb. We engage in the performing arts because it brings life to something that otherwise exists only in print. The best performances I've ever seen lift the audience through the energy of the performers. The music's life rebounds off the walls and into the minds of the listeners, hopefully staying there well beyond the end of the concert. These priorities are, to me, the only way to accomplish what the composer "originally intended."
I believe in responsibility. I spend my life raising teenagers, so I spend a lot of time listening to arguments about privileges vs. rights. But I always change the discussion, because I find that one to be misguided. My students often think that having privileges signifies that you are an adult. I challenge them to consider that having responsibilities is what makes you an adult. In fact, privileges are often doled out by the adults to the children for good behavior. Privileges in the form that they believe they want are actually infantilizing them. You have to wait for someone else to grant you a privilege, so you are always the child in that situation. But responsibilities... those you can always take for yourself. When you take responsibility, you are in control. You are an adult. Take responsibility for yourself, for another person. Take responsibility for your homework, cleaning the dishes without being asked. You want to be an adult? Take responsibility right now. You don't need anyone else to give that to you. You are in control.
What does this have to do with performance? It's exactly the same thing. Give each student on that stage the opportunity to take responsibility for themselves and the group. They must have agency. Until every person in that room is taking responsibility for their part in the group performance, you cannot make music. Everyone needs to be present and invested, engaged and motivated, which is always easiest to accomplish when they feel that their contribution matters. It makes your job as a conductor much more fulfilling, it makes their experience playing music much more satisfying, and the music you produce together has life and energy. Why do we breathe together at the start of a piece? We are about to breathe life into a composition. We must do it together, and we must do it throughout the piece. Focusing on breath reminds us that we are bringing the composition to life and makes each person on that stage feel that their contribution is valuable.
****
Help them listen:
1) Every once in a while stop conducting. Get out of the way. Or continue to conduct but do it with your body in a small way and literally back up on the podium (without falling off, please), so they can see each other. If it's possible to overdo this, then I am probably guilty of that. But I believe in it. I want to be able to conduct the music, not just the beat, and the only way I can do that is if the musicians have got the beat under control. The only way they can do that is to have agency, to connect with each other, and to embrace the confidence that comes with it.
2) Practice breathing the upbeat before a section or the beginning of the piece. You can make them practice audibly at first and even practice with their eyes closed. (You're wondering how to cue them to breathe together if their eyes are closed. You can count a measure before if you want, but I bet you can get them to tag along if you just give a big breath of your own.) Eventually you should change this group breath to a less-audible version. But remember, there should never be a start that doesn't include a group-wide intake of breath. Literally never.
Help them look:
1) Everyone needs to move with the music. There can be an exaggerated version of this in rehearsal to get them comfortable with this. I'm not talking about toe tapping. I mean body movements. Many of these movements should coincide with breathing.
2) When practicing the breathing exercise above, make sure you also create an opportunity for students to get their eyes out of their stands so they can look around (or at one person in particular) while they prepare to play or sing. Obviously you'll need to practice the version with their eyes closed separately.
3) Physically change the stage as needed. Music stands too low, too high, pointing toward stage left? Make them fix it every time before you begin rehearsals. Do it consistently until they do it without you. There is nothing more satisfying than looking around when you first step on the podium and seeing all those stands positioned perfectly. Choral directors must fight the constant sagging of the music being held in front of their singers, while reminding them to stand in a way that supports their breath. I seriously don't know how you do it.
Help them breathe:
1) I've already mentioned the first prep breath, but now I mean breathing throughout the composition. You must breathe together. You must breath life into the piece. Each instrument has a type of breath. Strings breathe as they vibrate and resonate. Drums awaken rapidly and breathe out more slowly. Winds literally vibrate with breath. Music cannot happen without breath.
2) Your conducting must show this breath. I don't just mean literally breathing. Your gestures communicate the amount and quality of air that you want in the music, the type of attack and length of resonance, the drive into a beat and the release after it. Tension in your body distorts your intentions, so it's important to pay attention to your body's tension habits. There is a big difference between the active engagement of your muscles to communicate strength and an uncontrolled tension in your muscles. And there is a big difference in the resulting sounds from the ensemble.
Let mistakes happen:
1) As much as possible, when something goes awry during rehearsal, give it time to fix itself. You should, of course, go back after that phrase or section and try to fix the problem, but it's important to practice letting the ship right itself during rehearsals. This is the opposite of what I say about practice, but groups are different.
2) When I was a kid, I remember being told by a wise jazz trombonist, "When you're improvising, there are no mistakes. If you hit a note that doesn't belong, find a way to weave it back in until it does belong." Truthfully, I practice this technique in life as much as I do in music. We might not want to weave our mistakes into classical (or other non-improvisatory) music repeatedly, but we can take this spirit and allow it to flourish. As Julia Child would say, "Never apologize!" You are offering your performance to the world. As long as you do this with good intentions, you have done your job.
****
The goal with every performance is to breathe life into the music. Tiny imperfections go completely unnoticed if the music is performed with energy and humanity. Playing music together is a community experience, not just between the performers, but also with the audience. Each audience member contributes their own concentration, their heartbeat responds to the music they're hearing, they watch and absorb. We engage in the performing arts because it brings life to something that otherwise exists only in print. The best performances I've ever seen lift the audience through the energy of the performers. The music's life rebounds off the walls and into the minds of the listeners, hopefully staying there well beyond the end of the concert. These priorities are, to me, the only way to accomplish what the composer "originally intended."