Mark Wigglesworth, The Silent Musician: Why Conducting Matters. Faber & Faber, 2018

This brilliant book contains a wealth of information. Maestro Wigglesworth provides innumerable insights into his art. As a writer as well as a conductor, he is able to write clearly and understandably. 

I recommend this book. The following extracts provide evidence that this book is a must for classical music listeners.

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Why a Conductor Is Needed

…The need for orchestral music to be coaxed and controlled, driven and steered, is one of the reasons it is a good idea to have one individual in charge. Musicians are perfectly capable of doing these things on their own, of course, but with large groups it is almost impossible to reach a unanimous opinion about the detailed route the music should take. A conductor’s responsibility is to create such unanimity—to make sure that every player is able to be a part of the same performance. 5

An orchestra can have as many different opinions as there are players within it. …If every opinion is expressed simultaneously, the power of the music will be so diluted that the audience’s experience is compromised. This potential loss of specificity is one of the reasons some people prefer chamber music. They value the intensity of a connection with a composer made the more direct by being created by fewer intermediaries. The sheer mass of an orchestra can work against the music unless its power is concentrated into as defined a conduit as possible. 6

Conductor’s Inspiration

A professional orchestra has a contract to honour the conductor’s view, but, other than at the most superficial level, a good performance depends partly on those who are actually playing. A talent for inspiring others remains the key component in a conductor’s life. 9-10

Conductors have to put their personalities into the orchestra. But we have no right to own the personalities of the musicians. Our job is to embrace these individual psyches; only by doing so do we get into a position to influence them. Ultimately influence is all we have. It is certainly nothing like the level of control that an audience might imagine. 10

…when conductors are convinced as to what the music is saying, this conviction physically communicates itself directly, and unavoidably, to the players… . The clarity of our gestures is a direct result of the clarity of thought and feeling that lie behind them... I know from personal experience that whenever an orchestra I am conducting is untogether, it is almost always the result of musical indecision on my part that my body then subconsciously communicates. 20

The Conductor’s Rostrum

…the sense of formality and structure that it [the rostrum] gives can be valuable in separating the professional relationship from the personal one. 25

Your body needs to move in both poetry and prose, and to reflect a grammar of musical language that allows endless adjectives and adverbs to colour the structure they are supporting. There needs to be a physical grasp of time that makes it clear whether the music is traveling or arriving, striving uphill, or rolling down… I’m not sure you can make it smell like honeysuckle or taste like an onion, but the more multi-sensory you are able to be, the more powerfully will your imagination be transmitted to the orchestra.” 27

Hands

Hands seem to speak a primordial language with a vocabulary that no one who seeks to be understood ignores… Conductors constantly use them to send out a vast range of subliminal messages. Hands can caress and command in equal measure. Fingers can encourage a delicate fragility of sound, or a detailed precision of articulation, while the passion and determination of a clenched fist feels like a gesture from the very beginning of time. Given our hands’ expressive capabilities, it makes complete sense that some conductors choose not to use a baton. 28-9

Starting a Piece

The very beginning of a piece, or of any movement for that matter, is the only moment you know for sure that every orchestra musician is watching you. And probably everyone in the audience too. You are unquestionably the centre of attention. Establishing with a single motion the music’s breath, pulse, sound, volume, mood, temperature and style needs a concentration of physical energy and a calmness of mind. But apart from the musical and practical need for the up-beat to be clear, the opening gesture also needs to send a message of complete confidence to the musicians, some of whom might quite understandably be feeling nerves of their own. The goal is to be able to dictate with both conviction and trust. 37-8

Beating Time

Some beating patterns are more musical to conduct than others. Personally, I’m more comfortable with sideways gestures than up-and-down ones. I feel the binary nature of two-in-a-bar offers limited opportunities for expression. There’s simply not much room to work with. But lateral movements left and right force you to reveal more personal space. The communication is more openhearted…. When it comes to beating time, the most important thing is to make the beginning of every bar visibly unequivocal without the musical line sounding self-consciously, constantly, interrupted, by annoying, fastidious punctuation. The grammatical structure of a musical sentence should be as unobtrusive as it is in any language. 41-2

Left Hand and Right Hand

There is a theory that suggests that the right hand is for beating time and left hand is for expression, or the other way around for left-handed conductors. But it’s not only simplistic to separate the practical from the expressive; it is impossible. You cannot shape a musical phrase without suggesting its sense of  rhythmic movement as well. Nor can you beat time devoid of meaning altogether. A military bandmaster’s absence of sentiment can be deeply moving. However there is no point in both arms doing the same thing. Players do not need information replicated in mirror image. Given the near impossibility of perfect synchronicity between the two anyway, it is more likely that the arms would simply contradict each other. You should be able to conduct one-handed, and if your arms do not have autonomy of movement, it might be a lot clearer if you did. 43-44

Conductors have to listen to how the musicians respond to their beat in order to know how to conduct the next beat. There is no contradiction between listening and leading. It is a constant cycle of action and reaction, a virtuous circle of coordinated response that connects the reality of the sound with the sound in your imagination. You have to listen, then hear, then react, then create, and do all these as instantaneously as possible. 47

String Player’s Role

As a team within a team, string players appreciate that they need to be particularly unanimous. It is not their role to be independent, and though they need to give of themselves completely, no one player should ever stick out of the texture unless the composer has specifically asked for that to be the case. It is in an orchestral string player’s nature to want to blend. Their mentality is to be part of the greater sound. 66-7

Conducting with a Score

Some conductors feel they can meet all their responsibilities in performance more easily if they are conducting without a score. The intensity of communication is increased by a constancy of eye-contact as well as a full-bodied physicality undivided and undiluted by the barrier of the music stand. Not having to engage in the rather prosaic practicality of turning pages allows your arms the maximum opportunity to shape the music. The concentration of memory also forces you to keep hold of the musical line more attentively yourself… Not having anything to read gives you more headspace to listen. 95-6

Wigglesworth’s Preference

I find the freedom of conducting without looking at the printed music exhilarating. I feel closer to the composer, and in a way to the orchestra as well. I feel more connected. I love the subjectivity if offers me too, and to feel so at one with the music is deeply fulfilling… For all sorts of reason, conducting be heart, which is a far healthier way of describing it than “from memory,” forces me to express myself more, therefore, I hope, better. 99

The Conductor and the Score

The majority of conductors spend most of their time studying the music they are going to be conducting. It certainly takes up much more of my life than rehearsing or performing. There are as many different ways of preparing a piece as there are conductors, but I imagine the motivation to do so is normally the same. You want to know exactly what it is the composer has written so that you can form a firm view of what you believe the piece is expressing. A score is written in code, and though the limitations of this code mean that it can be only the start of your understanding, it’s a road map on which everything you think has to be based. Knowledge of the score is the root from which your imagination can grow. Separate the two and the performance will be too much a reflection of the conductor and not enough of the composer. Any fantasy has to be based on the reality of the score. 118

Players’ Needs from a Conductor

I once asked some players to write down what they looked for in a conductor. Their collated response revealed a daunting job description: 

Conductors need good baton technique, rehearsal technique, musicianship, knowledge, interpretative conviction, and ability to communicate, to stretch and challenge people, to make the performance better than the rehearsals, to be inspirational, have a good ear, clear thoughts, reliability, competence, rhythm, and expressive face, sense of structure, an ability to accompany, style, suitability for the repertoire, originality, knowledge of string bowing, an ability to collaborate, analyse and solve difficulties, explain why things need to be repeated, empower people, train people, make people listen. They must not talk, over-rehearse, under-rehearse, or be musically detached. They must have good manners, humour, respect, approachability, enthusiasm, encouragement, humility, positive spirit, patience, leadership, sincerity, audibility, creativity, and awareness of everyone, self-control and strength of character. They must be relaxed, self-confident, empathetic, punctual, motivating, polite, authoritative, realistic, interesting, charismatic, persevering, committed, well dressed, even-tempered. They must be popular with audiences, and show chastity, poverty and obedience to the score. They must not be egocentric, intimidating, sarcastic, rude, boring, nervous, bullying, ugly, smelly, over-familiar, detached, pedantic, cynical, insecure, or blinkered. They must not change things for the sake of it, glare at mistakes, or hit the stand. 221-2