Never Get Lost Conducting in 1: The Secret Weapon in Conducting Technique (Dvorak Example!)

[@ggriglio]

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[@turangalila1862]

Oh, you used the Bartók Divertimento as intro music! Any plans to do a video on that piece?

[@ggriglio]

As in a musical analysis or a technical one?

[@turangalila1862]

@@ggriglio Either I guess. I'm actually conducting a reading of it tomorrow (I'm an amateur, and it is an amateur group). A reason I clicked on this particular video was to see if it helped with the 3rd mvt of the Bartók (which is in 1), and it definitely did! Thanks!

[@ggriglio]

@@turangalila1862 thanks, I'm glad it helped you. Best of luck tomorrow!

[@jxpx777]

Thanks for your videos, maestro. They’ve been quite valuable to me. Do you have any suggestions or resources on conducting smaller ensembles? I recently began conducting a chamber ensemble of about 12 members. I enjoyed my conducting class in college (over 20 years ago) but I haven’t had opportunities to conduct since then and the class was focused on larger ensembles anyway. So far the current group is going well but I definitely want to put some effort into improving.

[@ggriglio]

Thank you for your comment. From a technical point of view, nothing really changes. However, with a small ensemble you may have to work more on the sound and its quality. Breathing together, making sure that everyone plays at the same point of the bow within the section, listening to each other: the are all things that are common to any orchestras of any size but can be heard even more in a small ensemble when not tended to carefully. Are you having issues with anything in particular?

[@joshuanesbit]

I was taught that if you conduct phrase shapes it could confuse the players?

[@ggriglio]

thanks Joshua. I think what confuses the players is when the pulse is not present. But then it would be unclear regardless of the phrasing. I believe grouping bars to show the phrasing actually helps players better understand the direction of the music. It could be a good idea for a new video 🙂 What kind of issue did you experience?

[@piano1500]

@@ggriglioInteresting. When I was conducted by Riccardo Muti, he said during the rehearsal that he got out of the "time" business a long time ago. What he meant was he didn't care so much about keeping time or the beat necessarily, but focused more on the dynamics, articulation, phrasing, etc.

[@ggriglio]

@@piano1500 thank you! that's exactly the point: a conductor is not a metronome and keeping time is not a full time job. When the pulse is there, the orchestra will keep time until otherwise indicated (i.e. rallentando or accelerando). Beating time does not justify a conductor's presence on the podium: our job needs to focus on showing the music, its direction, and its nuances, like, precisely as you pointed out, dynamics, articulation, etc.