In this research I set myself the challenge to answer the questions: Can some techniques from K. Stanislavski’s An Actor Prepares be applied and useful to the musicians’ practice and performance? And, if so, how?
The answer to the first question is yes and the answer to the second is in the Theoretical Framework and, above all, in the Interventions chapters:
First, we need to understand the common ground between acting and music performance, such as their performative aspects, the possibility of conveying emotions, and some shared narrative or dramatic features (at least with some music); then, the adaptability of Stanislavski’s ‘system’ to our art, because of shared interests, like creating a truthful and compelling performance to the audience through the performer’s engagement with the works and a rich practicing framework comprising focus, creativity, comprehension of the work’s meaning, self-confidence and self-knowledge. This way, we can add valuable new tools to our practice.
Regarding the techniques themselves, each functions differently depending on the passage to be played and on the circumstances surrounding it. So it is important that musicians explore different possibilities, so that they find out what works better in each section and for them, since every musician has already their personal tendency to lean more towards ‘given circumstances’, ‘imagination’ or ‘emotions’. In other words, the repercussions of the techniques will vary on every person.
Furthermore, the feeling that they produce in the performer is not always necessarily felt be the audience. However, it does not mean that we should not explore them: they can still expand the spectrum of our tools. In fact, they can work as accessory tools or, instead, through a deepened level of exploration, their efficacy might eventually increase. Exploration is a keyword for us, our artistic paths depend on it and new perspectives on being on stage and on interpretation can only arise from it.
Generally, the most effective for me seemed to be ‘given circumstances’, the ‘magic if’ and the ‘surroundings’. This was also the audience’s average perception, despite the grading differences in the questionnaires’ results not being very significative. The ‘emotion memory’ usefulness depends a lot on the passage and on the performer’s ability to keep grasping the ‘physical actions’ of the music, i.e. keeping a clear mental picture of how they want the passage to sound like. While both the ‘magic if’ and the ‘surroundings’ arouse a creative instinct and bring spontaneity to the performance.
Finally (and probably the most significant conclusion given that the techniques were successfully applied), the reports allow us to conclude that these techniques might have beneficial effects on the performers’ engagement, focus, creativity, self-confidence, knowledge about the works and also self-knowledge, as we can see in the chart below:
