Conducting the Music, Not the Musicians

Jerry and Henry Nowak's Conducting the Music, Not the Musicians is designed to focus on musical expression as it introduces basic technique through the concept of phrase conducting. In addition, cueing within the beat pattern is examined in detail. The examples and exercises progress to guided practice chorales and etudes and finally to full score rehersal and guided performance. Many of the concepts conveyed in the text are directly from teaching of Pablo Casals (Henry Nowak) and Lucien Cailliet (Jerry Nowak). The emphasis is always on the conducting gestures as a way to reflect and convey an understanding of the music. Our internal imagery of the music should have all the appropriate phrase inflection needed for an expressive performance. That way, singing and playing of the music or the conducting gestures will be meaningful.