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CHAPTER SIX – THE USE OF NON-VERBAL SKILLS AND

CONCEPTS TO ENHANCE EXPRESSIVE CONDUCTING

In this chapter, the main aim is to highlight the enhancement of expressive

conducting through the use of non-verbal communication skills in conducting,
through an examination of the categories and coding of non-verbal
communication available to conductors, and an exploration of the use of
kinesics49 by conductors. Additional aims are to examine the use of observation
and recording of non-verbal communication of relevance to expressive
conducting, and to consider the use of non-verbal communication, facilitated by
the declamatory and narrative modes as described in a thesis by Christopher
Koch (2003), to enhance expressive conducting.

In the first part of this chapter, I will investigate how the expressive elements of
conducting are communicated, given that emphasising communication is a vital
element in the enhancement of expressive conducting to all levels of entering
behaviour. The discussion will be informed by statements of writers Frederick
Harris (2001), Philip Hart (1983) and Barry Green (2003), and conductors
Claudio Abbado (see Matheopoulos 1982), Charles Munch (1955) and Pierre
Boulez (see Matheopoulos 1982). My own experience of conducting and the
results from my surveys suggest that non-verbal communication is the essential
element in expressive conducting for all levels of entering behaviour.
In the second part of this chapter, I will discuss non-verbal communication
research by the scholars Judee Burgoon, David Buller, Gill Woodall (1996), Paul
Ekman and Wallace Friesen (1969), and conducting research by Faye Julian
(1989) and Gary Sousa (1989) as part of my introduction to the categories and
coding of non-verbal communication available to conductors.

In the third part of this chapter, I will discuss the work of the writers and
researchers William James (1932), Mary Key (1975), John Bulwer (2003),
Michael Argyle (1975), Steven Beebe (1974), Ekman and Friesen, and Albert
Mehrabian (1972), neurologist Frank Wilson (1999), and conductor Robert
Grechesky (1985) to show how the use of kinesics can enhance expressive

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The term ‘kinesics’ is defined by anthropologist Ray Birdwhistell as ‘the study of body motion
as related to the non-verbal aspects of inter-personal communication’ (Birdwhistell 1952:3).