Conducting for a New Era

A guide to the art of conducting in the twenty-first century, by the founder of the RCM’s Twentieth Century Ensemble.

Conducting for a New Era fills in a lacuna by offering guidance and practical advice for conducting twentieth-century and contemporary repertoire. The book begins with a look at the development of the art of conducting during the first half of the twentieth century. Distinctions are made between conductors who pursued populist careers and those who established the foundations for the new art form of the twenty-first century. The book goes on to discuss the technical resources required to negotiate the rhythmic complexity of so much music composed since 1950. Beginning with the rhythmic revolution created by Stravinsky in Le Sacre du Printemps (in which conducting unequal units within single bars was introduced), ten different categories of music are featured in an analysis of the technical and aesthetic characteristics involved.
The substance of interviews with distinguished soloists, orchestral musicians, conductors and composers is examined in assessing the changing role of the conductor in the twenty-first century. In a final section the technique and artistry of the progressive repertoire is discussed through detailed analysis of specific scores. Conducting for a New Era will be of interest not only to advanced students of conducting, in particular conducting of contemporary music, but also to the music enthusiast who might wish to know ’how it is done’. The book includes a DVD with conducting examples.

EDWIN ROXBURGH is a composer, conductor and oboist and visiting tutor and researcher at the BCU Birmingham Conservatoire. Recordings of hismusic are on NMC, Naxos, Warehouse, Oboe Classics and Metier labels, and his music is published by United Music Publishing, Ricordi and Maecenas. As a conductor he has premiered a vast number of works, originally with the Twentieth Century Ensemble of London, which he founded, and later with several of the principle orchestras of the UK.