The interaction in orchestra rehearsals

How does the conductor in an orchestra rehearsal convey to the musicians what he/she wants to hear from them? This question illustrates in a nutshell what is investigated in this volume: the practices used in orchestra rehearsals to communicate and interact. In this institutiona l setting, the interplay of different semiotic resources is constitutive for the organization and progression of the interaction between the conductor and the musicians: speech (verbal resources), hand and body movements as well as postures (gestural resources), sung demonstrations (vocal resources), facial expressions (mimic resources) as well as gaze directions to different instrument groups (e.g., to the violinists, to the hornists) of the conductor alternate with tones/sounds played by the musicians (musical resources). In this volume, the focus is on discussion parts in orchestra rehearsals (that interchange with performance parts), in which the conductor presents his/her interpretation of the rehearsed work to the orchestra. The study describes multimodally realized types of actions, first and foremost the action of instructing and correcting which is significant for orchestra rehearsals. This action type is produced through different practices such as directing, explaining, describing, demonstrating, addressing, localizing and evaluating. The analysis models the ways in which different modalities are used and combined in these instructive practices and how the musicians react to such activities on their instruments or through other communicative channels as well. How does the conductor give instructions? What is instructed? Which role do semiotic resources such as language, gestures, singing, facial expressions, posture and gaze direction play? Another focus of the study is put on the multilingual character of orchestra rehearsals. It is discussed when which language(s) is/are employed and for which purpose in the interaction between conductor and musicians. Which languages and codes are used for communication? What are the functions of the different languages? Where, how and why do conductors (and also other participants, e.g. the concertmaster) switch between different languages? For the analysis of instructive, corrective and multilingual practices, this study uses video data from rehearsals of symphony orchestras situated in France and Italy. The methodological approach is based on multimodal conversation analysis, research on multilingualism and ethnography of communication. It is illustrated how the use of different languages and multimodal instructive actions contribute to the constitution of intersubjectivity as well as a social order and reality orchestra rehearsals. In this way, the volume importantly contributes to the study of institutional interactive and communicative patterns.