Neidlinger Breathes Life Into the Final Research Session
We have had some great sessions this week in the 12:15 slot, but I must confess that this was a time of day where my body said one of two things: "eat" or "sleep." Today, I had no such problem, Perhaps it was the fact that we had a slightly later start today. Perhaps it was because I sat up front. Maybe I have become accustomed to it. More likely, however, was the engaging session itself.
Dr. Erica Neidlinger's presentation on conducting, as informed by the work of Rudolf Laban, was for me a highlight of the week. Not since Bud Beyer's appearance at the 1999 Conference have we had such a fantastic conducting pedagogy session. Thoroughly professional and engaging, Neidlinger covered a large amount of territory without overwhelming the audience. She used well-known musical examples (as she would with her own students) to make things easy to digest in a short time period. We also got a chance to get up and do a few conducting exercises (that, too, may have helped ward off the mid-day blahs).
I am not going to try to condense 60 minutes of content into a single article. If you want all that information, you should book Erica for your next regional band directors' conference. In fact, the greatest difficulty in writing this review has been to limit this article to a reasonable length. So here are some key concepts — both new and old — that I took home with me.
In conducting, we often speak of hinges (e.g., the wrist, the elbow, the shoulder). A hinge we don't often think of is the sternum. We may overlook it because of societal posture problems (at least for us in North America), but if we open this up (or intentionally move from a more closed position to an open position), we can often create a marked improvement in our ability to communicate our internal intentions to the ensemble. There is vulnerability in exposing the torso, which seems to create a more genuine connection to others as compared to just flailing extremities. As conductors, we are often "peripherally guided," so focussing on having "centralized flow" (beginning from the torso and extending outward into the limbs) creates a much better result.
Those of us who are wind players often breathe as we would if we were playing the phrase on our instrument. While useful for initial entrances, it makes more sense for our breathing and gesture to be in harmony with the rise and fall of the phrase. Sometimes, it will not be possible to do the breathing as the phrase suggests without hyperventilating (e.g., inhale for 3 measures, exhale for 1, repeat), but your gestures can create the illusion of same.
As conductors, we should be able to change from the "micro" to the "macro" at the "drop of a hat." We should be asking ourselves the question, "Who needs you right now?" rather than concentrating on whatever we may have choreographed in advance. She used the second movement of the Holst First Suite in E-Flat as an obvious example of needing to switch between micro (repeated eights) and macro (melodic phrase) depending on what area needs the most leadership at that moment.
Neidlinger also touched on one of my pet peeves regarding most conducting pedagogy we have today. Most of our texts are about beat patterns and the like, and that is important as far as it goes, but her interest in Laban's theories has led her to believe that "the essence of expressive movement lies in what is communicated as we move through positions." How we move from one beat to the next is something that we have not studied a lot; Laban's theory seems to be a good fit for exploring this area of conducting pedagogy.
Finally, Neidlinger closed by reminding us that none of this works without score study and musicianship. She thanked our technician Ian, who helped her with the musical examples. I extend the thanks of everyone to the entire technical team which made all the sessions run smoothly.
In these short words, I have not done her presentation justice. Erica Neidlinger has synthesized the lessons of some great teachers, added her own insight, and presented her ideas with great effectiveness. Seek out her sessions whenever you can. She convinced me that if I were to do a further degree in conducting, she is someone with whom I would want to study. I can pay no higher compliment. Thanks, Erica, for a wonderful conclusion to our research sessions for the week.
©2007 WASBE and/or the contributing author/photographer