5.3 What is Expression?
One implicit question underlying this thesis has been
"what is the nature of expression"? That is, how do humans depict emotion
and character through gesture? I don’t think that these are answerable
questions in their general form. While I’ve been able to make a number
of context-specific observations, this thesis does not purport to explain
the emotions felt or expressed by conductors. However, I can report a few
good hunches. For example, I think that expressive, emotionally-impactful
gestures are made with force, energy, concentration, and control. They
require more than the minimum, baseline amount of effort. Expressive gestures
reach quick peaks with big dynamic ranges. They respond quickly to indications
that do not match their expectations; they react more forcefully when faced
with disagreement. The finer details of expressive gestures are well-resolved;
they contain more continuous structure and show less apparent noise. They
contain carefully crafted shapes, if sometimes improvised, and are rarely
stopped abruptly. Even quick changes are made with some graduation from
state to state:
"Great care must be taken that the stick never stops
in the middle of a bar, as this is certain to interfere with the smooth
run of the music. Even in ritardandi this should be avoided; in
fact a complete stoppage of the stick should only occur when the rhythm
is definitely broken – in a ritardando it is only bent, and the
curve of the bend would be spoilt if the point of the stick were allowed
to stop."
Also, expressive gestures contain an element of character;
it is not their symbolic meaning that has significance, but rather the
manner in which they are performed. Character is expressed in the
modulation of otherwise simple or normal actions through variations such
as emphasis and timing. Finally, on the issue of expressive gesture and
music, I refer to Manfred Clynes, who, I believe, said it best:
"Music moves. Not only emotionally, but bodily: music
dances inwardly and incites to gesture, to dance, outwardly. Song and gesture
both contain movement generated by the musical thought and form. They are
a transformation from thought to movement –a direct crossing of the mind-body
barrier, as is a voluntary act of lifting a finger. Even thinking music,
without sound, involves experience of movement in imagination. But the
movement of musical thought is not mere movement: it is expressive movement.
The difference between movement and expressive movement is that expressive
movement contains essentic form."
Chapter 6.1