Essentials in Conducting

by Karl Wilson Gehrkens

CHAPTER VI

Interpretation in Conducting

(Continued)

DYNAMICS

IMPORTANCE OF DYNAMICS

Another important factor in the expressive rendition of music is dynamics, i.e., the relative loudness and softness of tone. The composer is supposed to have a fairly large share in this phase of expression, and in modern music always indicates in the score at least the most important dynamic changes that he has in mind. But our observation of musical performances tends to make us feel that in this aspect, even more than in tempo changes, it is the conductor or performer who must bear the greater responsibility, and that the amount of dynamic contrast to be employed certainly depends entirely upon the taste of the conductor or performer.

It is safe to say that the dynamic factor is easier to control than is the tempo, and yet in spite of this fact, there is no question but that the rendition of most choral and orchestral music could be made much more interesting if it could be given with a greater variety of dynamic shading. Nor is there, in our opinion, any question but that the changes from forte to piano and vice versa, the gradually worked up crescendos, the vigorous accents on certain important tones or chords, together with those subtler shadings often referred to as dynamic nuances, may become just as important and powerful a means of conveying emotional effects as tempo. Joy and triumph and exuberance are of course expressed by forte and fortissimo effects (the crowd at a football game does not whisper its approval when its own team has made a touch-down), but the image of a mother singing a lullaby would demand altogether different dynamic treatment.

The crescendo is one of the most powerful means of expression that the composer has at his disposal—especially in writing for the modern orchestra, but there seems to be a good deal of misunderstanding on the part of amateur conductors and performers about the real meaning of the term. Crescendo does not mean forte; indeed Weingartner (op. cit., p. 6) quotes von Bülow as remarking that crescendo signifies piano,—meaning of course that a crescendo usually implies a soft beginning.

It should perhaps be noted at this point that there are two varieties of crescendo; one being produced by performing succeeding tones each more loudly than the one immediately preceding it; the other by prolonging the same tone and increasing its power gradually as it continues to sound. The first type is much commoner than the second, and is indeed the one kind of crescendo that is possible in piano playing; but the second variety can be secured in the case of an organ with swell box, the human voice, and in both string and wind orchestral instruments. Since some of the most beautiful musical effects may be produced by the use of this second type of crescendo, it should be employed very much more than it is in choral and orchestral music. The English conductor Coward takes the ground that the swell (a combination of crescendo and diminuendo) is the most powerful choral effect in existence.[17]