Musimédiane 13 – Ingrid Pustijanac

From Sign to Sound: In the Forge of a Conductor

Ingrid Pustijanac
Head of DALM / Dialogic Approaches to Living Musics Research Group
Department of Musicology and Cultural Heritage – University of Pavia

[1] A short personal note: I am a graduate in choral singing and choir conducting (2004) and took the orchestra conducting course with Maestro Emilio Pomarico and Yoichi Sugiyama at the Civica Scuola di Musica in 2006-2008. I conducted the Choir of the Faculty of Musicology from 2002 to 2013, performing both choral and vocal-instrumental repertoire. But the position from which I write the present text is mainly mediated by my composition studies (graduated in 2004) and my experience as a scholar of spectral music and performance studies.

[2] See Pierre MICHEL and Nathalie HÉROLD, “Editorial”, Musimédiane, 13 (2023), https://musimediane.com/13edito (02/04/2023), in this number.

[3] I would like to take this opportunity to thank Pierre-André Valade for generously agreeing to the photographic documentation of his annotated scores and the reproduction of selected pages. Please note that the specific pages from the published scores are published with the permission of the publishing house Ricordi.

[4] See Fabio MORABITO, “The Score in the Performer’s Hands: Reading Traces of the Act of Performance as a Form of Analysis?”, Music Theory Online, 22/2 (2016), Giovanni CESTINO, “Experiencing Notational Artifacts in Music-Making: Towards a Theoretical Framework”, Sound Stage Screen, 1/1 (2021), p. 77-117 and Giovanni CESTINO, “‘I have it in my score privately’: I direttori d’orchestra e le loro partiture: alcune considerazioni per un approccio teorico e un metodo analitico”, in Gabriele MANCA and Claudio TOSCANI, (eds.), Antonino Votto. Il direttore d’orchestra, il didatta, Pisa, ETS 2021, p. 53-64. See also Megan A. WINGET, “Annotations on Musical Scores by Performing Musicians: Collaborative Models, Interactive Methods, and Music Digital Library Tool Development”, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 59/12 (2008), p. 1878-1897, Linda T. KAASTRA, “Annotation and the coordination of cognitive processes in Western Art Music performance”, in Aaron WILLIAMON, Darryl EDWARDS and Lee BARTEL, (eds.), Proceedings of the International Symposium on Performance Science, Utrecht, 2011, p. 675–680, Emily PAYNE and Floris SCHULIN, “The Textility of Marking: Performers’ Annotations as Indicators of the Creative Process in Performance”, Music and Letters, 98/3 (2017), p. 438-464, Nicholas COOK, “Between Process and Product: Music and/as Performance”, Music Theory Online, 7 (2001), § 21, Nicholas COOK, Beyond the Score: Music as Performance, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press, 2013, p. 235.

Imagine you are a conductor being asked to conduct Gérard Grisey's Les Espaces Acoustiques, a magnificent cycle of six pieces that, starting with Prologue (1976) for viola solo, goes on to expand the sonic space through Périodes (1974) for seven musicians, Partiels (1975) for 16 or 18 musicians, Modulations (1976) for 33 musicians, Transitoires (1980-81) for large orchestra, culminating in Épilogue (1985) for four horns and large orchestra. As a conductor who probably has already been engaged in the performance of contemporary music, you may have conducted the chamber pieces of this cycle (Périodes and Partiels) in the past, as they have now become part of the repertoire of contemporary music ensembles and also of the ensembles of the conservatories that are most committed to contemporary music. On the contrary, it might also be that this is the first time you will be approaching spectral music, in general, and this cycle, in particular; and no doubt with a lot of excitement and a hint of panic. But no fear. This article is intended to act as an imaginary guide through the possible stages that lead from an initial performance proposal to the actualisation of the entire cycle. This journey will not be done in an abstract way, nor will it be based on my personal experience as a conductor [1], but will use the extensive material gathered during the project “Interpréter Les Espaces Acoustiques de Gérard Grisey” by the members of the Labex GREAM research group (which later became ITI CREAA) Pierre Michel, Nathalie Hérold, Camille Lienhard and myself, concerning the rehearsals of Les Espaces Acoustiques for the concert of the student orchestra of the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK) at the Tonhalle in Zürich on 22 April 2016, conducted by Pierre-André Valade. As Pierre Michel and Nathalie Hérold emphasized in their presentation of the project [2], the various materials collected (consisting of videos of rehearsals, videos of interviews, as well as photos of the conductor's personal annotated scores) as well as the very act of participative observation during the last days of rehearsals by the members of the research group constitute a unique opportunity for dealing with the multiple perspectives of interpretation for the study of Les Espaces Acoustiques. The observation of the relationship between the musical idea, the notation and its realisation in sound will be adopted as a common thread. Therefore, in addition to the audio-visual materials, commentary on selected pages of the conductor's annotated scores will be used on several occasions [3]. The use of annotated scores as a study aid has been the subject of various methodological reflection and research on performance practice in relatively recent times [4]. Starting with the various signs annotated on specific pages of the scores, a number of reflections on the traces of the analysis, reading and interpretation of the composition revealed by the annotated scores and the complex system of references to the musical idea contained therein will be brought to light, in addition to precise technical-analytical information.

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