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Katherine Kilburn DMA Document.pdf (385.82 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

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Pedagogical Approaches to Conducting Gesture in Contemporary Music

Kilburn, Katherine Margaret, Kilburn
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9276-8097
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1466978207

Abstract Details

2016, Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA), Bowling Green State University, Contemporary Music.
Conducting is non-verbal communication of musical ideas through the use of gestures made by the hands, arms, and body, as well as expressions made by the face. It is at once physical, psychological, mental, and potentially even spiritual, requiring presence, an ability to listen, respond, guide, catalyze, shape, lead, sometimes follow, and most of all, invite and inspire musicians. This document addresses gesture as a manifestation of musical sound and how conductors approach these physical, non-verbal motions to affect musical sound and how they might be interpreted by performers. Using anthropologist Ray Birdwhistell’s Kinesics in Context, and studies by psychologist Paul Ekman and his colleagues, I relate kinesics and categories of non-verbal communication to conducting and the teaching of gesture, and how this non-verbal language communicates musical intention. Through information gleaned from interviews with preeminent American conducting pedagogues as well as my own experience as a student and teacher of conducting, I present several approaches to teaching conducting aimed at helping developing conductors improve and cultivate their craft. I also offer a compilation and expansion of exercises that encourage conductors to maximize their expressive potential and most effectively communicate with their ensemble. Finally, this document addresses how the standard idea of gesture applies to Gerard Grisey’s Partiels from his Espaces Acoustiques and Witold Lutoslawski’s Chain 1, taking into account new notational elements. The purpose of this document is to elucidate the gestural language of conducting and the visual aspect of effectively communicated sound, and provide a fresh pedagogical approach to conducting.
Emily Freeman Brown (Advisor)
Mary Natvig (Committee Member)
Robert Satterlee (Committee Member)
Laura Lengel (Committee Member)
158 p.
Music
Music; Conducting Gesture; Contemporary Music; Conducting Pedagogy; Kinesics; Grisey Partiels; Lutoslawski Chain 1;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kilburn, Kilburn, K. M. (2016). Pedagogical Approaches to Conducting Gesture in Contemporary Music [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1466978207

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kilburn, Kilburn, Katherine. Pedagogical Approaches to Conducting Gesture in Contemporary Music . 2016. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1466978207.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kilburn, Kilburn, Katherine. "Pedagogical Approaches to Conducting Gesture in Contemporary Music ." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1466978207

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1466978207
660
© 2016, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.