André Teixeira

The belief that imagination’s engagement and emotional connection with what I play enhance my performance propelled me to do this research. However, these are not systematically integrated in instrumental practice. Thus, it seemed to me that the twentieth century theatre director Konstantin Stanislavski’s ‘system’ would be the perfect basis for such a quest. The starting point were acting techniques from his first book "An Actor Prepares": the "given circumstances", imagination-related ("supposed circumstances", “inner visions”, "magic if”) – and emotion-related ("emotion memory", "sensation memory", "surroundings"). Partly supported by existing literature, these techniques were linked with the instrumentalists' work and tested out in a self-case study through three interventions. The process consisted of making video recordings of the 'before' and the actual interventions, which were guided by the filling out of intervention forms designed by me. The techniques were applied on three distinct piano passages of Richard Strauss’ melodrama for narrator and piano "Enoch Arden". Furthermore, I did interventions’ reports to provide more palpable insights about the experience, namely the effects of each technique on the performer. The outcome was evaluated through a questionnaire filled in by a group of listeners, comprising musicians and non-musicians, and by me. The responses generally show that the techniques were effective. However, the recordings were perceived as very similar. Also, the listeners’ perception sometimes differed from mine. Nevertheless, the reports allow us to conclude that these techniques might affect the performer’s focus, creativity, self-confidence, knowledge about the works and also self-knowledge.

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8. IMPLICATIONS

I intend to keep exploring these techniques. I have been using some already, namely the ‘supposed circumstances’ and the ‘magic if’. Very likely I will not fill in all the intervention forms for every piece I will play (especially the ‘given circumstances’), but I will investigate under the topics in that form, and make use of the techniques by selecting the ones that seem more appropriate for every specific passage.

Moreover, I expect to use them in teaching, to expand my students’ tools.

There is still a lot of investigation and exploration to do through this kind of approaches. As I previously mentioned, I will further research on the application of other Stanislavski’s techniques, namely the ‘circles of attention’ (which I can compare with the circles of attention by Hans Eberspächer, and Wieke Karsten’s adaptation to music), the ‘units’ and ‘objectives’ and the ‘super-objective’.

Finally, I hope my research can guide other musicians’ search into effective and explorative practice, since I tried to keep my explanations as objective as I could, and that it draws attention to the importance and the impact of the connection between the musicians and the works they perform, being through Stanislavski, who still has a lot to offer to musicians, or by any other kind of approach, interdisciplinary or not.

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