The Silent Musician: Why Conducting Matters

261 Pages·2019·0.591 MB·English

by  Mark Wigglesworth

The Silent Musician

The Silent Musician
Why Conducting Matters
mark wigglesworth
The University of Chicago Press
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
© 2018 by Mark Wigglesworth
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief
quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact
the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2019
Printed in the United States of America
28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-62255-2 (cloth)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-62269-9 (e-book)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226622699.001.0001
First published by Faber & Faber, Ltd., 2018.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wigglesworth, Mark, 1964– author.
Title: The silent musician : why conducting matters / Mark Wigglesworth.
Description: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2019.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018042648 | ISBN 9780226622552 (cloth : alk. paper)
| ISBN 9780226622699 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Conducting.
Classification: LCC ML458 .w54 2019 | DDC 781.45—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018042648
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper).
for Annemieke,
who understands what a conductor does,
and for Clara,
who one day might like to know too.

Contents
Shaping the Invisible 1
1 Conducting Movements 13
2 Conducting Musicians 51
3 Conducting Music 101
4 Conducting Drama 151
5 Conducting Performances 181
6 Conducting Yourself 213
Acknowledgements 247
vii

Time.
There is no force more powerful.
It waits for no one, cares for nothing.
We cannot control it. We cannot influence it. We can
never be free from its irrevocable journey, nor deny its relent-
less passage. Sometimes even clocks do not keep up with it.
But we can control our perception of time.
Through music we can experience an hour as if it were
a minute or a minute as if it were an hour. Music gives us
the power to live in the present. There is no past on which
to reflect. No future on which to dream. Music releases the
present from the weight of its past and the expectations of
its future. Such separation can bring profound relief.
All musicians have the privilege of playing with time.
But for conductors time is our most significant responsi-
bility, weaving pulses in and out of its unwavering path,
generating a more forgiving vision of its inevitable tread.
We seek to organise music within time while simultan-
eously releasing it from the restrictions time imposes. We
work within the boundaries of this paradox, managing the
ebb and flow of music to defy a ticking clock and inspire a
pulsing heart.
We beat time.
We shape the invisible.
ix