MARIPOSA, Michelle Mariel C.

MuC 110-C
Dr. Bevely Shangkuan-Cheng

Reflection Paper 2: Ave Maria (Dett)

The first thing I noticed with my masterclass video was my lack of eye contact with the choir,
and how I sort of over-conducted, especially when I wanted to really bring out the nuances in the
score, which I think, was reflective of my lack of trust towards the singers. Looking at how I
attempted to bring out the nuances, my conducting just became a lot more akin to waving my
hands around, frantically trying to get my singers to look at me as I conducted. I failed to
remember that, certainly, less is more, especially in working on a piece as dynamic as Dett’s Ave
Maria. I can work on giving all the dynamic and tempo indications, all the cues, and still not be
as effective, because I do too much.
I did observe some improvements compared to my first masterclass: (1) I was conducting
significantly lower in my body, and I was able to more quickly notice when my conducting
would move up, (2) I showed more breath in the right places, (3) I was moving my upper arms
much less as I conducted, (4) I was able to execute “nothing,” especially during the segments in
the music where a tapering-off is called for.
Dr. Cheng’s comments were more on the technical side, such as a clearer cut-off on m.
16, a simple “eye-cue” for the basses on their pick up to m. 17, a gentler downbeat on m. 27, and
a reminder to turn my music using my left hand.
My biggest takeaways are still similar to my main takeaways from the first masterclass:
(1) less is more, and more specifically for this second masterclass, (2) I need show trust in my
singers, through my conducting. I guess the two are linked, in that trusting my singers will allow
me to conduct less, and conducting less will help me draw in my singers better, such that each
nuance becomes more pronounced, simply because I am doing less activity with my hands and
body. With less activity, each cue and dynamic or tempo indication becomes clearer and more
effective. The role of the conductor and the conductor’s rapport with the singers highly affects
the resulting music. It’s interesting how such a simple concept such as trust is able to affect the
music in great ways.