Benjamin Oliver – Capturing the Contemporary Conductor

OCI Conducting Studies Conference

I was pleased to present a paper at the Oxford Conducting Insitute Conducting Studies International Conference in June. There were some excellent papers and great to talk with some like-minded people about all things conducting!

Here is the title and abstract of the paper:

Title:
Capturing the Contemporary Conductor: Using Motion-Capture Technology to Study Conducting Gesture

Abstract:
In September 2017 seven professional instrumentalists and three conductors (Holly Mathieson, Geoffrey Paterson and myself) convened in the Biomechanics Laboratory at the University of Southampton to rehearse and record my brand new three movement composition Captured: Three Mo-Cap Conducting Experiments for Small Ensemble.

More than one hundred motion-capture markers were attached to each conductor (face, hands and body) following a specially designed and tested protocol, which allowed the multi-disciplinary project team to capture precise three-dimensional representations of all movements made by the conductors with a high-end, high-resolution motion capture system. A multi-track audio recording of the ensemble and a wide range of video documentation were also collected. The mo-cap data set and other documentation is currently being prepared for future study by the team and other researchers through open online access.

In this paper I will discuss my contribution to the project outlining some of the key conducting gestures I identified for capture through drawing on my own conducting experience and a review of relevant literature, considering how my compositional approach and preoccupations were informed by the unique exploitation of the new work and reflecting on my experiences as a conducting laboratory guinea pig. I will also use the data-set to undertake a comparative analysis of how the three conductors approached a short section of Captured.

This project is funded by the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust. We are grateful to VICON who provided additional cameras and technical support.

And here is a sneeky peek of one of my examples from the presentation, which shows my beat gets smaller (I predicted that) and the ictus gets higher (didn’t know that!) as the tempo increases…

‘Captured: Three Mo-Cap Experiments for conductor and small ensemble’

I’ve just finished a new piece called Captured: Three Mo-Cap Experiments for conductor and small ensemble. This work will be rehearsed and recorded on 27 September n the motion-capture laboratory at the University of Southampton by seven professional musicians and three conductors (me, Geoffrey Paterson and Holly Mathieson). The piece is scored for seven players (oboe, bass clarinet, trumpet, electric piano, percussion, violin & double bass) and is in three movements (or experiments).

Each of the three experiments in this work are designed to challenge the conductors in different ways and facilitate understanding of how conductors work and the gestures they use to communicate effectively to performers.

For example in conducting Experiment 1: “Wonky Blues” some of the following elements will be need to be managed: asymmetric time signatures at different tempi; phrasing of sustained melodic ideas, sometimes in counterpoint; articulation and dynamic variation; syncopations; abrupt tempo changes; fermatas; tempo modulations (rit. & accel.); and cues. Whereas in Experiment 2: “Watch Out” the conductor has more of a controller/facilitator role, coordinating the ensemble through conducting flag notations and double arm gestures. The conductor in this second movement also has to negotiate conducting with a click track. In Experiment 3: “Three Rooms with the Same Wallpaper” the conductors will have to: understand an execute a range of metric modulations; deal with complex textures; manage homophonic texture coordination; conduct asymmetric time signatures at slow, medium and fast tempi; and shape lines.

I am certain each of the conductors will find their own way of managing the different challenges but that there will be shared techniques and approaches that will be seen across all three of us. It will be fascinating to explore the data after the capture day.

My compositional approach and preoccupations were certainly informed by the context in which Captured… will be used, i.e. in an experiment, and I’m excited to see how the piece works.

What does a conductor of contemporary music do?

Over the past few months I have been undertaking a literature review of books focused on conducting and music direction of contemporary music. This has included: conducting related pedagogical textbooks/manuals; books by and interviews with leading conductors; texts dealing with more general issues in performing contemporary music; and doctoral dissertations on issues relating to conducting.

The focus of this work has been on the physical aspects of conducting focusing on the musical intention of different gestures and approaches. There are, of course, numerous other facets to conducting including, for example, rehearsal techniques, personal and professional interaction with performers and score preparation. These aspects, and many more, have been given much attention in the literature by scholars and practicing conductors alike. There is also an emerging field of ‘conducting studies’ in which scholars have explored and written about the practice of conducting in terms of music semiotics, gesture studies and from anthropological standpoints. Here, however, the concentration is on the physical gestures involved in conducting with a specific focus on contemporary music practice.

The original intention was to create a taxonomy of conducting gestures but it has become apparent that this is likely an impossible (and doomed) task as there are so many different viewpoints, conducting techniques and schools of thought when it comes to thinking about the physical gestures required of a conductor. Numerous scholars and conductors have underlined the inherent individuality of different conductors and that conducting ‘technique’ is fluid and hard to pin down to a series of specific gestures.

However, there are a number of key gestures, basic techniques and conventions that conductors are taught, or develop through practice, that allow them to communicate effectively (or not) with performers. The approach in this review, therefore, has been to try and summarise some of the different ideas and approaches of conducting technique as a starting place for thinking about what motions it might be useful to ‘capture’ in the Capturing the Contemporary Conductor project. This review is also helping me focus my ideas for writing a new piece for the session with live musicians and guest conductors in September 2017.