Fluctuations of agency
Throughout the PhD, in all the processes where I have taken part, there has been an exploration of agency. Like a dance or a play with waves, the project as a whole explores the flexibility and movement of exchange through leadership. I could perhaps also call it morphing leadership, adjusting to the different artistic situations and by adjusting, insights are revealed. A combination of initiating and following these fluctuations or waves is actually a leadership method, and closely related to conducting itself.
This method does not work unless I am firmly rooted in my own artistic identity or perhaps more correctly: in contact with my artistic energy and intention.
The text below focuses on my own feeling of agency in the projects and how I perceived the fluctuations of agency while working with a specific piece and its group of performers.
An important context while reading my reflection in regards to leadership, processes and creative agency in the project is that I am used to be leading, as a classically trained conductor. I started learning conducting from an early age, only 14 years old, so one can say that it is my bones. I am also used to working in an environment where it is expected that I lead in a very clear way.
I have actually been challenging, or at least been in constant negotiation with these expectations to the role all along my professional career as a conductor.
The conductor-orchestra relationship is a very effective one, in terms of practically everyone obeying to the conductor’s wishes. If the conductor and orchestra does a good job, this hierarchical model saves time and makes it possible to do fantastic things in just a few rehearsals.
But to look at it from the more problematic side; the model itself determines most of what we do artistically. We play repertoire that confirm the roles and seldom ask for repertoire that challenge what we do and how we do it.
To challenge, adjusted to what is doable, is one of my contributions to the field with the symphonic part of the Meditations on Listening project. I think it can be very fruitful that the challenge comes from within the symphonic structure itself, from me as a conductor.
The challenge also comes from the composers in the project Hilmar Thordarson and Maja S.K.Ratkje through their compositions and through our collaborations.
I have used a lot of time to consider the right amount of challenge for the symphony orchestra and to find ways of realizing the main aspects of the artistic reflections in a symphonic program. To feel the generally positive vibe from the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra during the rehearsals and especially after the concert was an amazing experience for me and at the same time proof that I found the right amount of challenge for the musicians. It also showed me that many of them connected to the project. I also think that I was being a more authentic version of myself as a leader when rehearsing this project where I was also so present as a creator. It was easier to be rooted in myself during difficult decisions and it was generally a lot of fun to lead during the project days.
Another problematic side to the hierarchical model I am part of as a conductor, is the lack of space to be creative. This is reflected in the artworks in the Meditations on Listening concert in different ways. I hope that the concert program opens for further reflections.
Fluctuations of agency in the resonant Silence project
In this piece I had much less agency compared to when I conduct a symphony orchestra. The agency was distributed to all participants and Guro was the initiator and main creator so she was the leader. The leadership component was no longer part of my conductor’s role.
This floating setting with no clear definition of my role, led by Guro’s artistic intentions and trust, was where I started to search for what to do.
It was challenging at first to not lead the rehearsals and to be constantly in search mode for what my role would be. But at the same time it was highly interesting to search for other ways of contributing to the group, other ways of filling the role.
It appeared that what the musicians needed from me was my trained conductor’s ear for balance, texture, dynamic, form and musical timing. They called it The Outside Ear.
I was also needed for making transitions in the music, due to a very large performance room with very special acoustics where the musicians mostly couldn’t see each other and sometimes couldn’t hear details from the other side of the room.
We landed on a solution where I would be showing transitions either by giving signs or performing ritualistic, performative actions that gave the musicians a visual or auditory cue.
What proved very important for me was to find a way to give the signals in a way that both served the practical purpose and also gave aesthetic content to the piece. In that way both the signals and the ritualistic actions had a scenographic purpose as well as a musical purpose in the piece.
For me it was a process of making these signals feel integrated in my body language in order to be able to perform them.
In the musical stretches that needed no signals from me, I found ways of moving with the musicians' sound that fluctuated between influencing the sound (and them) and being led by the sound (and them). There were various degrees of receiving and impacting, depending on the particular musician and the possibilities within the different parts of the piece.
It is impossible for me to say to what degree I was impacting the music with my movements, but I think it was on equal terms with all the individual performers' agency in the room.
As Vivian Wang, performer in the piece, put it when describing my role and actions:
“ You're sort of drawing the lines, delineating the borders/parameters/changes, connecting the dots, filling in the space of what was either there before, or would soon arrive. I don't know if I'm making sense, but what you do with movement and the occasional cueing of certain musicians, as well as when you direct the audience to move, or when you touch and manipulate the elements in the space, be it air, water, grain, light (in your hands), all of these fluid, shapeshifting layers contribute to an important unfolding of the narrative, a distribution of perspective on the sound and the space.”
Reflections on agency in Hrafntinna/Black Obsidian
In Hrafntinna I had a strong feeling of agency since I was one of the composers and initiators of the project as well as being a dancing conductor on stage.
This agency was expressed in the possibility for me to create musical content, visual content and performative situations.
This influence was a creative process through conversations with the main creators of the piece, Thorbjörg Jonsdottir and Hilmar Thordarson, about the aesthetics of the piece. The performative situations were created in dialogue with Karen Eide Bøen.
My feeling of agency was very high while performing together with the group, based on how much my physical movements could impact the content of the music.
What is very interesting is that it is my impression that the performers also felt free to move and play according to their own inner listening. That means that my strong feeling of agency did not hinder their feeling of agency. I think the musicians' backgrounds also played a role in this. Most of the performers were classically trained, except Guro S. More (bass) and Hrafnkell “Keli” Gudjonsson (percussion)
My feeling of agency also increased due to open conversations with the musicians while rehearsing. Even though I was leading the rehearsals, this type of rehearsing was a much looser leadership than I have ever experienced in my previous life as a conductor.
I think our mutual feeling of increased agency was mainly due to the fact that the score was very open and the fact that we were all co-creating the piece during the rehearsal process.
I think the musicians experienced the balance between my leadership and their own agency in different ways depending on their background.
The following quotes are from performers in Hrafntinna/Black Obsidian after being asked about their experience with me as a leader or as a dancing conductor.
They have slightly different backgrounds, which we can see in their responses.
Else Olsen Storesund is a pianist and composer who went from classical piano to open form and composition resulting in the artistic research project “Open form. An expanded performer’s role” (Olsen Storesund 2021)
She has not worked a lot with conductors and is used to leading herself and being creative in her projects.
“Halldis was clearly leading, and this project was also her as composer.
She listened very much to us as well as to her own inner processes. She could for instance be enthusiastic about a sound or an idea, but in the next rehearsal she could take it away. She was not tempted to add anything without it serving the purpose she was looking for. She was open and listening in her explorations, but also clearly searching for something specific. Usually, in the project I take part in, I have a lead role as a composer. I liked very much to not have that role. Although I sometimes filled that role too easily and interfered with Halldis’ process. I become so easily engaged and excited. Then Halldis would set boundaries and tell me that it was too much interference. That is a very clear and strong leader role I think, that not everyone can take on. Artists can also quickly be offended, or feel overstepped, to be honest. But Halldis had enough integrity and leadership to adjust where she wanted to be in control, or where she wanted the group or other individuals to have control.”
Sigrun Jørdre, a classically trained singer and soprano in the Tabula Rasa Vocal ensemble is more experienced in working with conductors. This is what she said about our interaction in Hrafntinna/Black Obsidian:
“This was a different relation with the conductor than the traditional relation. The contact was like waves; from direct contact: standing in front of each other and I felt that I got all your attention, to where I was observing you, and even to where I would forget about you.”
The Icelandic singer, conductor and violinist Ragnheiður Ingunn Jóhannsdóttir (Agga) one of the performers in the piece, she said this about our interaction:
“The interaction with Halldis was very interesting, and I think it was visually more pleasing for the audience than watching a "regular" conductor, and for sure the only thing that would have worked in this project. She truly inspired us and initiated movements and sounds, while making magic with the glove. It was always easy for us to see her, but maybe harder for her to find us, since we were always moving around. Her cues were very clear, but it required us to always remember what was coming and while improvising we had to be very focused on where we were in which part, how much was left, and while much of it was controlled by Halldis, it was also great to feel the whole group controlling it together.”
Summing up agency in the experimental part of the PhD period.
Sensing and listening to each individual musician's need for agency was an important part of my approach in both these pieces. I think this kind of listening is a very important ingredient in all kinds of leadership and in co-creative processes it is absolutely vital.
As a conductor in a traditional setting I think that this listening to the musician’s agency can be developed. From the conductor’s side: (awareness of the creative potential in each musician and awareness of the creative possibilities within conducting and oneself ) From the musician’s side: ( to have the possibility to create and decide as well as to discover the artistic potential therein) In the symphonic context we mostly perform repertoire that doesn’t really challenge our creative musicianship. It takes time to develop the skills to create, but when we do, it has a transformative potential.
Reflections on agency in the Meditations on Listening concert with Stavanger Symphony Orchestra
My own feeling of agency in this concert was much bigger than what I usually feel when conducting a traditional classical or contemporary program.
I created the whole program with full trust from the orchestra administration and program committee, something that is quite amazing. The fact that they also were okay with me creating some of the pieces was a great act of trust. I think that because it was an artistic research project they opened up to what it could become in this wonderful way.
The individual pieces in the program both problematize and exemplify agency in different ways. In Coloring Echoes the compositional intention is to see the individual musician in the collective and to create a musical situation that will encourage and open creative/inner and spatial listening for the players. We had challenges during rehearsals, the musicians were frustrated about the amount of energy it took them to listen for cues and to orient themselves in the musical landscape. It was such a short rehearsal time, I was not conducting and they did not have a score, only their parts and the sound cues. It is very understandable that this was a challenging situation.
I presented the back-up plan of me giving them some signals during the piece, but I was clear that I wanted to keep the intention of them playing the piece by themselves as long as possible.
The fact that it went so well in the concert without me conducting was a victory for them and me.
In the piece Being Conducted By The Ocean, the ocean has all the agency.
I am merging with the ocean, letting myself disappear in the movements and the waves.
In (How) To Play The Ocean by Maja S. K. Ratkje she gives both the musicians and conductor the possibility to create and shape the piece. She also really gave us freedom during rehearsals by not interfering with our creation of the more open places in the music.
The only thing was that one time she encouraged me to use more of the tools she had created and to be more wild in the big oceanic waves. This input was very fruitful and it really helped the shaping of the piece.
In the Arvo Pärt “Silentium” with a sitting conductor, the agency was in the hands of the orchestra. They also did most of the rehearsing themselves. I only interfered with a couple of musical suggestions and general positive encouragement during rehearsals.
In Black Obsidian Suite, Hilmar Thordarson's recomposition of our mutual piece there is also room for the musicians to be relatively free.
I had to talk to the orchestra about the musical intention of those freer, more improvisational parts, because there was a tendency “to just play it”.
When I emphasized that we have to mean it, or it will just be awkward for the audience to listen to, then those parts suddenly became something with more content.
It was wonderful to rehearse and perform a piece that I had been co-creating. The Hrafntinna/Black Obsidian process with its deeply intuitive work, made me connect easily again to the piece on the podium. The connection with the piece was total, and again there was a merging with the piece and myself as described in Being Conducted By The Ocean and The Creature.