Over the last two centuries, the conductor has been a key figure in the evolution of music. Today every aspect of the conductor’s technique and musical input should be addressed in order to satisfy the demands of composers, ensembles, audience. Therefore, a pedagogical approach and discipline needs be embraced at the earliest stage of the learning process of conducting, covering all aspects of the technique, musicality and administrative skills, which become the fundamentals and guidance necessary to direct a successful ensemble.
Conducting technique may be defined as the art of shaping musical ideas through a wide range of non verbal gestures, involving eyes, face, arms and the body as well as the use or not of the baton. All these elements are combined in order to make the conductors able to convey and communicate all types of musical ideas with precision enabling the composer’s thoughts and ideas to be translated into viable and musical results.
However, the conducting technique is often misunderstood by those who associate it with the mere beating of time. Time beating is a significant aspect of the conducting technique but, it is much more than keeping time. In that, conducting technique is about re-creating music, utilising the most sophisticated language by which precision, balance as well as all types of textures, which must be achieved. Consequently, conducting becomes a language a sophisticated communication, expressing and conveying all kinds of musical discourses without uttering a single verbalised word.
The pedagogical approach is what makes it valuable, in that, it embraces the learning process, strategies, methodologies and technologies which offer not only the concepts of conducting technique, but the applicability of them, in improving conducting technique which enhances the performance. This is achieved by providing excerpts of music, video recordings, group classes, as well as the implementation of technical resources that enhance the execution of each concept. In this way conductors who implement this conducting material should be able to succeed in achieving a higher degree of performance.
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