Hans von Bülow and His Role in the Formation of the Conducting School: Musical Innovation and Performing Mastery

Abstract

The creative path and peculiarities of interaction with the group of performers through the use of unique skills and methods of influence of the talented conductor-interpreter of the German romantic school of the second half of the 19th century, Hans von Bülow, were studied. There is an urgent need to highlight the moment of emergence and further development of a new field of musical performance — and to separate the profession of a conductor-performer into an independent branch. Attention is focused on the features of a new approach to managing a creative team, which was proposed by the first professional conductor-interpreter Hans von Bülow. The factors that separate the profession of a conductor-interpreter from the generally accepted profession of a composer-conductor are determined. The components of the methods of the conductor's influence on the group of performers and the peculiarities of the interpretation of musical material by a professional conductor are considered and substantiated. The emergence, formation and further directions of development of the conducting profession in the personalities of the successors and students of the outstanding musician are determined. The scientific novelty of the article consists in determining the process of formation and development of a professional conductor in the person of a bright representative of the German romantic school of the end of the 19th century, the inheritor of the traditions of the German conducting and conducting-composing heritage of R. Wagner, H. Berlioz and F. Liszt — H. von Bülow, who organized and improved the process of pre-concert rehearsal preparation, establishing certain principles and methods that influenced the further development of the conductor-performer profession.

Statement of the problem. The formation of any link of musical performance has a moment of its birth. The profession of a professional conductor, which is included in the direction of “conductor performance”, is quite young. And it is in the process of the appearance of a professional musicianinterpreter, who takes responsibility for distinguishing the conductor-interpreter way of conducting from the conductor-composer way of managing a team and the separation of the independent profession of a conductor-performer that is the main problem of consideration of this topic. The emergence of the profession of conductor-performer was led by the outstanding German conductor of the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries — Hans von Bǘlow. It was he who formed an authoritative view of the established composer-conductor management style and transferred it to the plane of purely conductor-interpreter management.

Analysis of recent research and publications. Recent years have shown a growing interest in studying the peculiarities of the formation of the conducting profession in the person of professional conductors who stood at the roots of its origin. The figure of Hans von Bülow is one of the most popular in the discussion of this issue. There is probably not a single publication that, covering the history of conducting performance, would not choose the German conducting romantic school as the object of its research.

However, the majority of scientific works are based, for the most part, on superficial or general statements and facts, focusing on the bibliographic component, and as for professional activity, they focus on the definition of well-known principles and methods of work inherent in all representatives of the German romantic school of the second half of the 19th century — the beginning of the 20th century.

Given the conductor's ethnic origin, most research is concentrated in German publications: in particular, the global work of the well-known Anglo-Canadian musicologist and professor Alan Walker “Hans von Bülow” “A Life and Times” (Alan Walker “Hans von Bülow” “A Life And Times”, Oxford University Press, New York 2010 (1568), in which the author consistently and in detail tells about the life and creative path of the outstanding conductor, focusing in separate sections on his direct conducting and concert activities.

The book of the famous German conductor, head of the opera school at the Karlsruhe University of Music, musicologist and researcher Frithjof Haas Life and work of Hans von Bülow, in which the author presents the biographical data and memories of contemporaries of the outstanding maestro in an accessible form.

It is impossible to ignore the work of the German pianist, which examines more than 70 works of eight outstanding piano composers and in which you can hear first-hand information and personal views of maestro Bülow on the performance of individual works and highlights views on the composers' personal style.

The book of the famous German historian, teacher, professor of Heidelberg and Munich universities, author of biographies of Otto von Bismarck and Cosima Wagner - Count Richard-MariaFerdinand-Moulin-Eckart reveals the life and creative path of Hans von Bülow in detail. The large volume of material, citations, correspondence of the conductor and presentation of information by periods of life and creativity really attracts attention. This in-depth work, published immediately after the death of the famous conductor, is quite valuable material for research.

In modern Ukrainian musicology, this topic is presented in the dissertation studies of Authoritative authors here consider the figure of Hans von Bülow in the context of historical discourse, without delving into the details of personal methods and methods of his professional conducting approach, individual views on the formation of the conducting profession.

The purpose of the article is to reveal and highlight the main features of the concert performance of the famous representative of the German romantic school of the second half of the 19th century, Hans von Bülow, in the context of an innovative approach, and the formation of a new independent direction of musical performance - conductor performance.