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Preface
The art and craft of conducting are complex. The interpretation and performance of any score requires a great deal of study and thought. This book helps the conductor better comprehend the interpretive process and the relationship between his/her physical gestures and the expressive potential in a given work. I have chosen to examine meaning, gesture, and expressive potential in the art and craft of conducting through the medium of the wind orchestra. Conductors have (and do) work tirelessly for the wind orchestra to be recognised as a medium of serious expression. They have also fought for works by serious composers and for the training necessary to meet the challenges that these works present. It is important to understand this journey.
I have selected four seminal works from the canon of the wind orchestra to illustrate an approach to the score that provides the conductor with ideas regarding meaning in music and ways in which to create meaning in the works he/she conducts.