Starting

Beginning a work or movement together can be challenging for any ensemble, and so starting is a matter of particular importance for the conductor. It is commonly thought that musicians require a preparatory gesture to inform them when to begin and at what speed. In fact the musicians know (within a very small range) when to begin, and they know (within a very small range) the speed.

Before the performance begins, noise and activity fill the room. A signal— for example, raised arms from the conductor or a raised instrument from the leader of a chamber group—initiates quiet and stillness. In that moment of utter silence the focused consciousness of each musician enters the world of the upcoming sound. For each musician so focused, there is a moment at which the sound must begin … a moment before which it is too soon and aft er which it is too late. And within a very small range, musicians share a sense of that moment. Further, assuming that the work has been rehearsed at an effective tempo, musicians know that tempo within a very small range. Thus the conductor's preparatory gesture does not dictate the beginning point or speed of the performance; rather the conductor— whose focused consciousness is also turned toward the upcoming sound— gives a preparatory gesture for the sound to begin at his or her intuited moment. That gesture serves to confirm and synchronize the narrowly divergent individual musicians’ senses of both beginning point and speed.

An effective preparatory gesture describes (or implies) a full beat. It reflects the character of the first sounding beat in internal structure, volume, and quality of sound, and it pinpoints the temporal beginning of that initial sound. The preparatory gesture—or preparation—consists of no less than one impulse and one descent and no more than one full impulse and two descents. And it occupies the position in the pattern immediately preceding that of the first musical beat.