Preparatory work on a piece as a form of developing student’s artistic autonomy

Abstract

The development of a student’s artistic autonomy is one of the most important tasks in the educational process at higher education level. One of the methods of accomplishing this task is to teach students to work autonomously on the score. This is the first step towards helping a young conductor to get acquainted with a composition, to define one’s own vision of an artwork, to get prepared for cooperation with an ensemble and later for performing the piece on stage. Therefore, when reaching for a new score, a student should learn how to analyze it in terms of: form (taking into account the composition’s structure, harmonic layout, general knowledge regarding authors of lyrics and music, style), vocal-choral aspects (type and kind of a choir, vocal range, breathing, problems concerning voice production, diction, dynamics, agogics, articulation) and performance (manners of conveying one’s artistic vision, role of a conductor’s gesture, vocal-choral means of expression). A detailed analysis of the musical material advances performers towards proper interpretation, as close to the composer’s intentions as possible. Understanding the content and artistic idea behind the piece significantly eliminates ‘arbitrariness’ of performance. Getting acquainted with common influence of artistic means of expression, understanding the occurrence of particular elements of a musical language, comprehending the principles of a musical form, distinguishing characteristic qualities of a chosen composer’s style. These skills, developed over the course of analysis, help students respond to music more briskly, broaden their intellectual horizons, foster unassisted orientation in the musical form and language of a piece, develop perceptiveness and better memorization of a musical material.