Shared performance cues in singing and conducting: a content analysis of talk during practice

TLDR

The study investigates how musicians coordinate actions to achieve a unified performance by analyzing verbal commentaries during practice. The authors observed a singer and pianist/conductor during individual practice and joint rehearsals, analyzing their verbal commentaries to identify musical features used as performance cues and how these were transformed into shared cues for coordination. The analysis revealed that musicians resolved structural misunderstandings and coordinated their music‑making by employing shared performance cues.

Abstract

How do musicians performing together coordinate their actions to achieve a unified performance? We observed a singer (the first author) and pianist/conductor (the third author) as they prepared for two performances of Ricercar 1 from Stravinsky's Cantata, one for voice and piano and one for voice and ensemble. This article reports a content analysis of the musicians’ verbal commentaries made in two individual practice sessions and their discussions during two joint rehearsals at the beginning and end of the rehearsal period. In their individual sessions, the musicians began identifying features of the music to use as performance cues that would serve as landmarks to guide their performances. In their joint sessions, some of these features were turned into shared performance cues that could be used to coordinate their actions. The musicians’ comments show how they resolved differences in their conceptualizations of the compositional structure of the piece and how they coordinated their music-making through the use of shared performance cues.