Enhancing Young Violinists’ Musical Identities Using a Dialectical Approach Drawn from the Stanislavsky System

ABSTRACT

This paper draws on the fields of music education and actor training. It describes the use of acting techniques based on the Stanislavsky system in music education as a means of facilitating the exploration of musical identity in young violinists. It also investigates how acting activities can enhance students’ development through the social interactions of group teaching, and how the power of language, storytelling, imagination, and fiction can trigger meaningful processes and influence behaviour by shaping and shifting young students’ beliefs about a performer’s musical identity. The focus of this article is on the application of approaches and activities, based on the Stanislavsky system, to music education, in the context of violin pedagogy.

KEYWORDS:

• Music performance
• young violinists musical identity
• Stanislavsky system
• Suzuki method
• violin pedagogy

Introduction: Interdisciplinary Connections

The contemporary epistemological concept of interdisciplinarity and the shift within education towards innovative educational practices are an interesting research area. The main characteristic of an interdisciplinary teaching method is that it allows for adaptation to changing circumstances and seeks to offer learners a holistic education that helps the individual to evaluate rather than to memorize, to act rather than to be inactive.¹ Activities inspired by the principle of interdisciplinarity demonstrate the multiple benefits of the approach within the international context of modern education. This paper draws from the field of theatre and actor training, showing the use of acting techniques based on the Stanislavsky system in music education as a means of facilitating the exploration of individuals’ musical identity. Musical identity is hereby understood as a performative and social concept representing what we do, rather than what we have in relation to music.² While identities in music (IIM) reflect on those aspects of musical identity that are defined by cultural roles such as “musician,” “composer,” and “performer,” music in identities (MII) on the other hand refers to the ways individuals use music as a resource for self-making, such as the ways music shape self-concepts regarding gender, age, or social class. The perceptions of the various self-concepts related to musical activity and engagement, holistically describe musical identity. Central to young people’s self-image regarding music is their lived experience in music-learning contexts and the role of the educator.³ This paper will also examine how acting activities can enhance students’ development through the social interactions of group teaching, and how the power of language, storytelling, imagination, and fiction can trigger meaningful processes and influence behaviour by shaping and shifting young students’ beliefs about a performer’s musical identity.

Historical and Pedagogical Links Between the Stanislavsky System and Music Education

As early as 1937, the Russian pianist and pedagogue Lev Barenboim pointed out the potential benefits of a comparative analysis between the different disciplines of theatre and music.⁴ Music and theatre belong to the performing arts and share concepts such as audience, emotion, performance on stage, and the studying and interpreting of the work in question. Stanislavsky benefited from a musical environment from a very early age. Because of their social position, the Alexeyevs were able to bring up their children in a keenly artistic environment, and this encouraged them to become involved in music and acting. Stanislavsky’s memories of this artistic childhood began with his siblings’ attendance at opera performances given by Italian troupes which were touring Russia at that time.⁵ In 1886, when he was offered the post of director of the Russian Musical Society and Conservatory, Stanislavsky met some of the country’s musical elite, including Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Sergei Taneyev, and the conductor and piano professor Vasily Safonov. Safonov had trained a number of famous pianists, including Alexander Scriabin, Nikolai Medtner, Josef Lhévinne, and Rosina Lhévinne. Stanislavsky also met the pianist Anton Rubinstein, who impressed him greatly and who had a considerable influence on his artistic career.⁶ With the rise of the Russian National Opera, Stanislavsky’s love of music grew, and he decided to train to become a professional opera singer. Between 1884 and 1887, Stanislavsky prepared for an operatic career at the Moscow Conservatory under the tenor Professor Fyodor Komissarzhevsky. The lessons went beyond mere vocal technique. Under Komissarzhevsky, he explored the coordination of voice and body. He subsequently devoted himself exclusively to theatre, since his voice proved unsuited to opera.⁷ Maria Shevtsova emphasizes the importance of this music education for Stanislavsky’s development as a theatre maker:

Apart from its technical benefits for acting such as placing the voice and encouraging clear diction, it enabled him to phrase tones, intonations, tempi, breathing and rhythmic patterns, and cadences of speech not only for the musicality of his and fellow actors’ performances, but also to improve the overall arc of the productions he directed.⁸

It was through his musical training that Stanislavsky made discoveries that were to have a major influence on his theories of acting, most notably the idea of “tempo-rhythm:”

I could not help noticing the way singers were able simultaneously to combine totally disparate rhythms. The orchestra and the composer maintain their own rhythm, which the singers parallel, but the chorus automatically move their hands up and down in another rhythm and walk in another.⁹

The ability of musicians to perform using one rhythm and then move to another reminded Stanislavsky of the ability of an actor to perform an external action but to have a different internal action. In his observations of musicians, he noted the importance of singers’ recognizing the physical rhythm of a musical work. His interest in rhythm and movement was at the centre of his study of music, and he paid particular attention to the movements of the body in response to the moods and actions present in the music.¹⁰ His subsequent introduction to Jacques-Dalcroze’s Eurhythmics demonstrated his interest in rhythm and movement. After Jaques-Dalcroze and his company appeared on the stage of the Moscow Art Theatre [MXAT] in 1911, Stanislavsky set up rhythm classes for his actors, which took place in the foyer of the theatre from 10 to 11.30 in the morning.¹¹ Aspects of Jacques-Dalcroze’s music pedagogy, including ensemble work, intention and emotion, and psychophysical performance development, reflect elements of Stanislavsky’s acting training.¹² There is also a connection between the creative process an actor undertakes with a script, called “active analysis,” and the creative process a musician undertakes with a score, known as “plastique animée.”¹³ Plastique Animée is a dynamic approach to analysing a musical score through movement. Musicians improvise in movement, coordinate and refine ideas, and devise choreography, ultimately creating an embodied interpretation of a musical composition.¹⁴

In 1921, the students of the Bolshoi Opera Studio received lectures on Stanislavsky’s system. These lectures were recorded in the book Stanislavski on Opera, compiled by his student Rumyantsev, which brings Stanislavsky’s system and musical interpretation together, demonstrating the common artistic concerns of music and theatrical interpretation via numerous interdisciplinary references.¹⁵ Stanislavsky trained young singers how to play their roles on stage and because of his knowledge and love of opera, the Opera Studio became a workshop for developing artistic potential, where the director-cum-pedagogue experimented with his techniques through his work with opera singers. The opera singers were well trained and undertook various activities in addition to learning the theoretical principles of the system:

[…] daily exercises to music, sketches acted out for the purpose of giving a basis to the most varied kinds of body positions, movements in space, the freeing of muscular tension and, finally, the main and most interesting part of the work, the singing of arias and lyrical ballads (during the performance of which the students compose all the components of the “system”).¹⁶

Although acting techniques may seem directly applicable to opera, particularly given the dramatic nature of the libretto and the presence of a stage, Stanislavsky urged his opera singers to study all aspects of the instrumental score and to devote all their attention to the emotional material within the composition.¹⁷ He also admired the unified system of musical terminology that is used by composers, such as allegro, rubato, crescendo, rallentando, as well as the way in which instructions regarding the artistic and musical characteristics of the score are given to the performers by means of symbols. Before Stanislavsky, actors had no common vocabulary for discussing the artistic elements of a performance. He created a vocabulary for defining the techniques and strategies needed in order to create truthful performances. Stanislavsky saw his terminology as a “grammar” for actors, thereby creating a common language of theatre.¹⁸

According to Stanislavsky’s writings about the system, it is crucial for actors to answer the questions who, why, when, where, and how. Answering these questions has an effect on the actor’s level of stage anxiety, emotions, discipline, and ability to relax and concentrate. He believed that answering these questions would help actors to set themselves tasks during the performance that would in turn lead to the successful embodiment of both the character’s and the play’s higher aims.¹⁹ It is also important that the outcome of any theatrical action be motivated from deep within, rather than being mere sterile external gestures. Between 1934 and 1938, Stanislavsky experimented with a new theatrical technique. He gave it the provisional name “method of physical actions.” This process was based on the idea that a play is like a musical score that encodes energies, and that words, like notes, indicate what and how the actors should act, just like in music. It seems that Stanislavsky also felt that, instead of using read-throughs, a script is better discovered directly by the actor through an improvisational approach to the analysis.

Stanislavsky’s goal was to give actors control of the phenomenon of inspiration.²⁰ Similarly, musicians and performers seek to create their own unique interpretation of a musical work, striving to justify their choices through logical and expressive changes that shape their musical identity. It is also important to note that Stanislavsky describes his techniques through the vehicle of a dialogue between a mentor teacher and a young, inexperienced student. In antiquity, dialectic was the art of arriving at truth through a conflict of opposing views, used in almost all of Plato’s works. Stanislavsky, in his book An Actor Prepares, describes an actor’s attempts to overcome the difficulties of acting with the help of a new method. The author presents the book as the diary of the student Kostya, who describes the acting lessons given by the director Tortsov (Stanislavsky). The approach is closely related to the framework used in violin teaching and, more generally, to the principles governing the teaching of musical performance as defined by great music educators such as Heinrich Neuhaus, Lev Barenboim, George Kochevitsky, Josef and Rosina Lhévinne, and Artur Rubinstein.²¹ The influence of Stanislavsky’s method on musicians is evident in references to his work by important figures such as pianist and pedagogue Heinrich Neuhaus. Neuhaus taught for over 40 years at the Moscow Conservatory, and his students included acclaimed artists such as Yakov Zak, Emil Gilels, and Sviatoslav Richter. On two occasions in his treatise, Neuhaus encourages his readers to look at the writings of Stanislavsky for further study of natural rhythmic freedom in phrases and determining the correct musical nuances. The interpretive hints that flow from Stanislavsky’s teaching demonstrate the impact of his system. Neuhaus discusses important pianistic skills that allow for an interpretive insight into a work. These skills include rhythmic ideas that correspond to natural phenomena, such as breathing, sea waves, and the rustling of wheat in a field. Neuhaus also emphasizes the importance of relaxation as a means to achieve beautiful sound and technical dexterity, as well as other interpretive endeavours.²² Recently, the incorporation of Stanislavsky’s techniques has been discussed in various studies related to musical performance, including those by Hinkley, Johnson, McAlvin, Minut and Whitehead, all of which support the idea that Stanislavsky’s acting techniques provide a constructive context in which to facilitate the exploration of the musical self and the improvement of the music performance.²³

Challenges Related to Musical Performance

Important music educators such as Shinichi Suzuki, Zoltán Kodály, and Carl Orff believed that innate musicality is much more widespread than generally acknowledged, and that, given the right training, most children can be taught to be competent performers.²⁴ As Jonathan Dunsby argues, the demands on a classical musician are challenging. Musical training is most likely to succeed when it begins in childhood, usually between the ages of five and eight, and the performer is expected to devote about eight or nine years of daily practice as a prerequisite for reaching a level on their instrument that might qualify them to enter higher education in the field.²⁵ At the same time, the young performer is expected to be able to perform the music correctly while communicating and giving his/hers personal interpretation to the audience. Musical performance is not just influenced by the musical elements inherent in the musical work but also originates from the musician’s own life and their individual characteristics and values, which shape the musical performance on stage.²⁶ Musical interpretation recreates, rather than merely reproduces, a musical work, and the performer’s perspective is crucial.²⁷ Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, son of Johann Sebastian Bach, had the following to say:

What comprises good performance? The ability through singing or playing to make the ear conscious of the true content and affect of a composition. Any passage can be so radically changed by modifying its performance that it will be barely recognizable.²⁸

Additionally, various challenges related to musical performance include the musician’s overall perception of him or herself and of his or her own well-being, the desire for perfection, degree of social connectedness, psychological pressures, fear of failure, and even fear of success.²⁹ In order for musicians to fulfil their artistic responsibilities effectively, they need to pay attention not only to the composer’s intentions, but also to the audience’s feelings. Music’s social dimension should also be highlighted, and take into consideration the interdependent composer-performer-listener triptych. As Eugene Narmour argues:

[A]s cognitive psychology has taught us, the temporal realization of a musical work does not come from the composer alone or from the performer alone, but from a triarchic relationship between the composer, the performer and the listener […] in order for performers to be able to faithfully fulfil their aesthetic choices, they must pay particular attention not only to their understanding of the composer’s requirements and wishes, but also to the sensibilities of the audience.³⁰

The triptych’s social dimension is underpinned by the fact that music is a channel of communication, without the requirement for any other common language. It is also evident that, through its sociological dimension, the musical experience is not merely capable of expressing, but also for the construction, negotiation, and conservation of human identity.³¹ In other words, the musical experience occupies such an important place in society that it has a significant role in education.

Violin Performance Skills and Interpretation

As hinted to above, young violin students might struggle to balance these principles and to feel comfortable on stage. According to Stanislavsky, “the situation of the actor on stage, facing the audience, is unnatural and is the greatest obstacle to being creative on stage.”³² Music education has often borrowed from sport psychology to address both the mental and physical aspects of performance. Strategies based on sport psychology research bear a unique resemblance to those provided by the Stanislavsky System. These strategies include preparatory exercises before performance, such as centring, relaxation imagery, positive imagery, positive self-talk, concentration and attention, combining mental and physical practice, muscle relaxation techniques, and yoga.³³ In classical violin lessons, teachers are expected to help the young music performer to develop the technical skills required for performing on the instrument, and this requires discipline and consistency. The violin teacher is expected to have knowledge and skills beyond those of playing and teaching the instrument; his or her knowledge must also include educational methodology, the psychology of preschool and school age children, and knowledge of the stages of child development.³⁴ It is therefore important for the violin teacher to have the ability to observe and understand his or her pupils’ musical behaviour; in other words, to have the willingness to engage, understand, and communicate with the child, to “descend to the level of the child’s physical limitations and rise to the level that the child feels and dreams […].”³⁵ Recent research indicates the importance of developing a strong musical identity if one is to create a lifelong relationship and engagement with music.³⁶ One’s self-concept is the core of one’s attitude to life and to oneself; it affects one’s self-confidence, view of one’s abilities, potential for success and of course, one’s development.³⁷

Contemporary violin teaching is directly linked to the violin teaching of the past; a path can be traced from the early violin teachers to those of the present day.³⁸ It is important to realize that the art of playing an instrument is mainly transmitted through individual lessons: musical interpretation functions as a component of the social structures and practices that characterize a particular time and place.³⁹ The development of the practice of performing a musical instrument is accomplished through the empirical study of historical recordings and/or scores, through the exploration of performance from the psychological perspective of performers and audiences, and through the relationship between the aesthetics of musical performance and broader concepts of human creativity. In the late 1980s, Bennett Reimer observed, concerning violin education and the training of musicians to be teachers, that there was a tendency for music teaching to focus on learning skills and performance through imitation rather than through knowledge gained from broad musicality.⁴⁰

This is a style of teaching that Stanislavsky himself had experienced. He auditioned for, and was accepted into, the Moscow Theatre School at the age of 20, but spent only a short time there, being disappointed with the training and style of education on offer. Instead of acquiring an understanding of the actor’s inner creative mechanism, Stanislavsky was asked to blindly copy the performance of the teachers and quickly became disillusioned with the school.⁴¹ In his autobiography, he reveals how much he was influenced by his professional relationship with the Russian director Aleksander Fedotov. Fedotov corrected many of Stanislavsky’s bad acting habits, helped him perfect his skills, and had a decisive influence on his acting techniques, as well as on his social, political, and aesthetic views:

There is no doubt that Fedotov had created a complete perturbation in me. I understood now that to approach a role by imitating another actor does not yet create the necessary image. I understood that I had to create my own image. I understood that it was necessary to create something within myself, for without that there could be no excitement and no quickening of the creative.⁴²

There is no doubt that Stanislavsky’s quest for the “inner life” is closely linked to self-awareness and identity. Creativity, as he understands it, is directly related to something internal which he calls “truth,” and is clearly influenced by the field of psychology. The mimicry that Stanislavsky encountered at the Moscow School of Theatre, which was such a disappointment to him, is still used at times today in music education, as Reimer hinted; it is a simple “knowledge transfer” between teacher and student, and does not focus on artistic motivation; rather, it requires musical interpretation on the part of the student; that is to say, the reproduction of the musical work through imitation. It can also be described as an authoritative teaching style using a traditional teacher-centred approach, often characterized by lectures or presentations, in which the communication is unidirectional. In this approach students are expected to pay attention, absorb information, take notes and ask questions. Contemporary education, on the other hand, seems to be shifting away from the simple “transfer of knowledge” model and orienting more towards processes such as problem solving, experimentation, investigation and discovery, and critical thinking, thus actively involving the student in the learning process.⁴³

Suzuki Method and Artistic Potential as Seen Through a Theatrical Lens

In the twentieth century, Shinichi Suzuki revolutionized certain areas of violin teaching, allowing students to develop their artistic potential alongside the acquisition of technical skills.⁴⁴ Like many other great educators, Suzuki believed in the value of “music-making” both as a contributor to the overall human experience and in the formation of character. He felt that his methods were applicable to all areas and to every skill.⁴⁵ He argued that the goal of education was to allow the child to discover love, truth, virtue, and beauty.⁴⁶ Cultivating a positive self-image in children and students is of utmost importance for their musical development and success, as well as for the broader course of their lives. Suzuki’s method is based on the belief that children’s abilities should be developed in such a way that they become automatic, or part of themselves.⁴⁷ The progress of the individual is centred in their reflections about their own actions and behaviours, while self-criticism is the ability to perceive one’s mistakes and to strive to correct them. According to Suzuki, “a person who is self-critical opens his eyes to the truth.”⁴⁸ Although Suzuki’s method has gained international recognition, it is nevertheless rooted in a philosophy of life that embodies aspects of Zen philosophy.⁴⁹ An important element of the method, that is in line with the principles of the Stanislavsky system, is the cooperation between mind and body. The Suzuki method, places particular emphasis on achieving harmony between these two, since, according to Suzuki, one’s physical and mental abilities are linked. In Zen philosophy the mind and body are one, while peace of mind and a clear view of things can only be realized when the body is quiet and relaxed.⁵⁰ Consequently, educators of the Suzuki method work with the express aim of gradually achieving harmony between body and mind. The parallel with Stanislavsky’s system is clear: Lee Norvelle, for example, argues that physical release is a vital aspect of the system.⁵¹ Suzuki’s attention to correct physical alignment, posture, breathing, and relaxation demonstrates an important connection between Stanislavsky’s theatrical performance techniques and those required of musical performers. This is especially relevant for violinists, since playing the violin is physically demanding. The Suzuki method encourages the use of mental images and representations in order to achieve this goal.⁵² Mental imagery is an effective tool, because the skills practised in one situation can be transferred to a similar, new situation. This approach is similar to Stanislavsky’s “magic if” technique. The answer to the question, “What would I do in this (the character’s) situation?” enhances the actor’s power of imagination by creating a scenario that is connected to their own personality, beliefs, and logic.⁵³ Richard Suinn, psychologist to Olympic athletes, takes an interdisciplinary perspective, and he too believes that mentally visualizing a goal with such vividness that it feels real leads to feelings of self-confidence, courage, belief in success and, ultimately, victory.⁵⁴ It is worth mentioning that actors working with Stanislavsky’s system are expected to be able to turn their attention away from the audience and towards their role, so “bringing psychological depth to the surface by emphasizing the actors’ performance as a whole,” with “the actor [being] asked to subdue his ego, taking satisfaction from the group’s achievement.”⁵⁵ The same is true of the Suzuki method, where group lessons are an essential factor in motivating students, consolidating musical skills and concepts worked on in individual lessons, and in developing students’ ability to play together. Also of interest is the special emphasis that many teachers place on concentration and meditation techniques when working with children.⁵⁶ In the Stanislavsky system, “concentration” refers to the actor’s ability to concentrate on a focal point. As Sonia Moore notes, Stanislavsky believed that concentration was the key to the actor attaining the “creative state.”⁵⁷ The process of reaching the “creative state” during a performance became an obsession for him. The last chapter of An Actor’s Work contains the underlying idea which his psychophysical technique uses: a belief in the truth of the part and the skill of breathing “new life” into the role through the textual, emotional, and physical analysis outlined in the system.⁵⁸

Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe (1858–1931) rehearsed his musical repertoire using full-body exercises which he had developed.⁵⁹ He wrote to Jaques-Dalcroze: “The sound vibrations must penetrate us entirely right down to our viscera, and the rhythmic movement must enliven all our muscular system, without resistance or exaggeration.”⁶⁰ Andrew Davidson⁶¹ argues that this foreshadows the idea of the actor reliving the emotional life of his or her character when studying a script. Drawing on the interdisciplinary connections mentioned above, learning an instrument should include relaxation, group learning, visualization, concentration, and imagination. This approach enables students to explore and orientate themselves by adapting these techniques to their own needs and wishes. Thus, the forming of their musical independence is achieved through their knowledge of their own strengths, weaknesses and needs, and the conscious management of their own learning through self-perception, self-esteem, and self-improvement.

Musical Identity and its Construction

Self-perception, self-esteem, and self-development are inextricably linked with the idea of the musical self or identity.⁶² The importance of identity in musical development emerged indirectly from Lev Vygotsky’s idea that the self is formed through interactions with others and that social relationships are what underpin an individual’s development. Vygotsky is of the opinion that the role of education is to develop the personality of the child.⁶³ Since the formation of personality is linked to the development of creative potential, one of the tasks of the educator is to develop this, and the modern model of holistic education must moreover include a democratic and equitable teacher-student relationship. The meaning of musical identity, as well as the processes involved in its development, are an important part of contemporary music education. The exploration and understanding of the concept of identity, both individual and social, and the factors that influence and regulate the interactive process underlying its construction, are key. Identity is defined as a dynamic construct that includes both fixed individual characteristics and those that are “fluid” and evolving.⁶⁴ Erikson makes the observation that the formation of identity involves developing a concept not so much of who one is but of “who one can become,” i.e. it is defined by both self-perception and self-improvement.⁶⁵ Marcia’s theory expands on Erikson’s suggestion that crises or conflicts between opposing tendencies occur at various times in the life of each individual and that these must be resolved in order to move on to the next stage of identity development.⁶⁶ Marcia’s concept of “identity status” describes the extent to which an individual has explored a variety of identity possibilities and attained a degree of stability in their belief in, and commitment to, one of these, while Taylor’s anthropology of identity is based on the concept of “significance.” According to this, an individual defines his or her identity in terms of “meaningful” values, some of which can be seen as life goals which signpost the way.⁶⁷ Wilson and MacDonald argue that the psychological process underpinning how musical performers negotiate and maintain their identity is critical to coping with the many challenges that musical performers face over the course of their careers.⁶⁸ The psychology of music has now evolved to cover more complex issues related to “ecological” theory and musical behaviour and understanding, including musical expression and performance, creativity in composition and improvisation, and many other practical matters.⁶⁹ In “ecological” theory, individuals form their identities through interaction with people in their environment, and that each individual may have a different identity depending on the circumstances, situations, and social groups in which they find themselves.⁷⁰ Susan O’ Neill has developed a theoretical framework consisting of six qualitative characteristics associated with the development of musical identity: confidence, character, commitment, connection, competence, and contribution.⁷¹ The combination of these qualitative characteristics builds an educational pathway which results in a meaningful musical identity. The individual’s perceptions of how he or she views and evaluates him or herself is a key pillar in defining and understanding identity. Different aspects of the musical self, such as self-image, self-perception, self-esteem, self-development, and self-efficacy operate as a unit and are inextricably linked to what is defined as self or identity.⁷²

The value of developing musical skills and creating a learning environment, where young violinists can develop a strong music performer identity through exploring their musical selves from an early age, is clear. By strengthening their musical identities, young performers are motivated to learn music, express themselves artistically, and develop a strong relationship with music and with the violin. An individual’s social and cultural environment is a major influence on their musical identity, and is directly linked to concepts such as self-esteem and self-efficacy. The effect of this is that students take different and varied paths to musical development, and educators should be sensitive to the personas of their students and their individual identities and artistic potentials as music performers.

The Stanislavsky system as a Facilitator of Young Violinists’ Exploration of their Musical Self

It appears that the intersection of Stanislavsky’s techniques with music education has the potential to promote artistic growth by allowing the musician to explore self-perception, self-esteem, and self-improvement. A key element in Stanislavsky’s philosophy is artistic depth, which involves the exploration of the deeper motivations behind expression and interpretation through a continuous, individual creative search that includes elements of self-reflection and self-efficacy. For Stanislavsky, the result of every theatrical act should be based in a deeper motivation, should be deeply rooted in emotion; every action on stage should have inner justification, logical consistency, continuity, and truth. He writes:

For me, as a spectator, what happens inside you is much more important. These emotions, which come from our actual experience, and are transferred into our role, are what bring the play to life. […] Any external representation is typical, cold, and pointless if it doesn’t have an inner motivation.⁷³

Stanislavsky contemplated whether it might be possible to deliberately stimulate the emotions and so indirectly influence the psychological mechanism responsible for a person’s emotional state:

In certain parts of the system, like the physiological and psychological, such laws exist for all, forever, and in all creative processes. They are indubitable, completely conscious, tried by science and found true, and binding on all. […] These conscious laws exist for the purpose of awaking another and higher superconscious region of creativeness. This latter is outside of our comprehension, and we are helpless in our consciousness when we attain it. It is ruled by inspiration. It is that miracle without which there can be no true art, and which is served by the conscious technique of the actor which I tried to establish. THE SUPERCONSCIOUS THROUGH THE CONSCIOUS! That is the meaning of the thing to which I have devoted my life since the year 1906, to which I devote my life at present, and to which I will devote my life while there is life in me.⁷⁴

He believed that the actor’s mind, will, and emotion – the three forces that govern life – must all be involved in the creation of a living person on stage.⁷⁵ His quest for inner justification, “truth,” and the transition from the conscious to the subconscious, are also relevant to questions about the inner workings of the self. The process of justifying our actions to ourselves, identifying what we perceive to be true, and navigating the shift from conscious to subconscious thought, are all part of the formation of personal identity. In this way, Stanislavsky’s “creative state” helps the student search for what lies at the heart of a performance and is associated with the performer’s commitment to their art, their character and their self-confidence.

Reflections

Performers use their identity to communicate with the audience as well as the need, especially where soloists are concerned, to project a persona that is more focused, more confident, and “larger” than would be appropriate in normal conversation.⁷⁶ The performer is transformed into an imaginary character who is part of the performer’s identity and whose job it is to communicate with the audience. It should be noted that this does not necessarily mean that the audience will accurately perceive the performer’s extramusical meanings, emotions, and personal experiences, but rather that the audience will become part of the performer’s “truth” (as conceived by Stanislavsky), with each audience member providing his or her own meaning. The question that arises is: “Which acting practices can be used by music educators and performers as part of their ongoing professional development?” The dialectical approach to teaching and to group and peer learning, consonant with the theories of Vygotsky, Erikson, and Garcia, involves students in acting tasks employing techniques such as the “magic if,” imagination, storytelling, emotion, mutual learning, and other ideas related to creativity. Activities such as ensemble work, “inner justification,” and the development of psychologically real performing should be included. More specifically since, according to Bernacka, actor training requires answering the questions who, why, when, where, and how for each role created,⁷⁷ the same principles can be applied in music teaching. The activities take place in group lessons where relaxation, creativity, dialectics, and group and mutual learning are promoted, and positive feedback including the evaluation of one’s own and others’ performances is important. Activities should aim to maximize motivation, develop individual skills, interests and self-awareness, promote self-reliance and initiative, and enhance cooperative skills and collective learning. Based on the above, the techniques and principles of Stanislavsky’s system, such as the “creative state” and “super objective,” are especially useful in engaging young students in an exploration of their musical selves.

In conclusion, the educator’s “super objective” should be the student’s interpretation of his or her own musical language and the emergence of the student’s personal “truth.” Students tend to fixate on giving the best possible performance during a concert, since they wish to avoid mistakes and are afraid of failing in public. In a similar way, when teaching music, it is common to describe music as either happy or sad and to instruct students to play accordingly. Actors, though, understand that this simplistic approach will not work. Instead, the educator should stimulate the children’s “creative state” through a variety of activities. For example, we should encourage students to create a story inspired by the music, to associate specific emotions with different musical episodes, and to assign goals to the “characters” in their stories. We are aware that children learn best when they enjoy what they are doing and when they experience an activity as constructive.⁷⁸ In group lessons, the role of the educator is to guide and facilitate this. By working on musical concepts and skills while setting and achieving goals, children develop a sense of self-confidence that is an important foundation for their future sense of independence. Students create their own stories, and they then attempt to perform their music and recreate it with varying emotional backgrounds, such that they take genuine artistic decisions rather than merely aiming to perform “correctly.” One aspect of the activities has the objective of enabling students to experience their own personalities within a role, so as to find their musical “truth” for a given score. An analogy can be found in the screen character, Indiana Jones. When a young musician enters the stage, their feeling should be one of embarking on an adventure. This journey involves playing their music and embracing the challenges and obstacles that come their way. Every moment should be cherished and enjoyed, in the same way as Indiana Jones searches for treasure. In the film, understanding the difficulties and challenges that the hero encounters are important for grasping the overall meaning of the plot. A film has little to interest the audience if the hero finds the treasure with ease. In the same way, the tasks and technical challenges of a piece of music are there for the student to interpret; the student plays an imaginary character within an imaginary narrative. The educator’s “super-objective” is to inspire children to imagine that every note, phrase, and musical episode tells a story, and to come to terms with any mistake that may happen on stage. The role of acting exercises can strengthen a student’s self-development through the social interaction of group teaching and the power of language. Storytelling, imagination, and fiction can trigger meaningful processes and influence behaviour by shaping and shifting young students’ beliefs about the musical identity of the performer. In this way, language-related activities provide a “programmatic” dimension to the musical experience, allowing for differentiated conceptualizations and giving personal meaning and emotion to the musical work; this inspires young violinists to recreate rather than merely reproduce their musical interpretation, thereby reflecting their unique perception of the work. This is based on a connection with Stanislavsky’s notion of “experiencing,” where the variation in interpretation of a musical work that has been performed many times lies in the unique way in which the musical performer experiences it, which always refers back to his or her particular musical identity. The use of Stanislavsky’s system for uncovering extramusical meanings and content in a score, which derives from other art forms such as poetry, painting, and literature, or else from the personal experiences, emotions, and feelings of the student, can foster the personality and identity of the young performer on stage, such that they are able to enhance the piece through the meaning they give to it and create a convincing musical discourse through a sequence of dramatic changes whose logical and expressive justification must be communicated to the audience. The issue at hand is not simply the ability of the student to read the score, but rather the capacity of the young violinist to first envision and then connect with the music. This connection should be evident in every phrase and every note, allowing the performance to convey a compelling narrative. It is of prime importance that educators and performers have the necessary tools and an understanding of the interdisciplinary context to their collective performing art. As the acclaimed violinist David Oistrakh said: “Take care of every note, they have such a short life.”⁷⁹

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Konstantinos Demirtzoglou

Konstantinos Demirtzoglou was born in Athens to a family of musicians. In 2000 was admitted to the Moscow Academy of Music Tchaikovsky from which he received his degree in the specialty of violin pedagogy and orchestra artist. He also holds a master’s degree in violin performance and pedagogy from the University of Nicosia. Currently, he works as a violin professor at the Music Schools of the Ministry of Education. Mr. Demirtzoglou is a PhD candidate at the Department of Arts, European University Cyprus. He is a founding member and first violin of the Concordia String Quartet and the concertmaster of the orchestral ensemble “Orchestra Ostinata.”

Maria Papazachariou-Christoforou

Dr Maria Papazachariou-Christoforou holds the position of Assistant Professor in Music Education and Pedagogy at the Department of Education Sciences, European University Cyprus. She is also the Director of the LifeLong Music Engagement Research Unit, SosciEAtH, and a Board Member of EuNetMERYC. Her primary research interests include the sociological dimensions of music pedagogy and musical identities, music education in early childhood, informal learning practices, and lifelong music engagement and well-being. She has worked as a music educator for twenty-five years within the Public Education in Cyprus, as well as serving as the Director of Music Education at the Pedagogical Institute Cyprus. Dr Papazachariou-Christoforou has presented research papers at numerous conferences worldwide, and her publications include peer-reviewed journal papers and research papers in referred conference proceedings.

Notes

1. Zikos & Michailidis, “Interdisciplinarity,” 14.

2. MacDonald et al., Handbook of Musical identities, 4.

3. Hargreaves et. al., “What Are Musical Identities?,” 2.

4. Barenboim L. A. Voprosy fortepiannoĭ pedagogiki.

5. Stanislavsky, My Life in Art, 20.

6. Ibid., 45.

7. Ibid., 79.

8. Shevtsova, Rediscovering Stanislavsky, 1.

9. Stanislavsky, My Life in Art, 81.

10. Johnson, “The Acting System,” 64; Davidson, K. “Stanislavski and E. J. Dalcroze,” 186.

11. Lee, “Dalcroze,” 177.

12. Davidson, “Stanislavski and E. J. Dalcroze,” 1.

13. Ibid.

14. Dale, “American Modern Dance,” 13.

15. Rumyantsev and Stanislavski, Stanislavski on Opera, 3.

16. Ibid., 2.

17. Johnson, “The Acting System,” 101.

18. Ibid., 80.

19. Minut, “Acting ‘System,’” 36.

20. Stanislavsky, My Life in Art, 462.

21. Johnson, “The Acting System,” 56.

22. Ibid., 57; Neuhaus, The Art of Piano Playing, 30 and 53.

23. Hinkley, “A Clarinetist Acts;” Johnson, “The Acting System;” McAlvin, “Unbroken Line;” Minut, “Acting System;” Whitehead, “Creating Musical ‘Truth.’”

24. Masin, “Violin teaching,” 1–7.

25. Dunsby, “Performance,” 5.

26. Oakland et al. “Identity,” 651–69.

27. Deutsch et al., “Psychology of music.”

28. Bach, Art das Clavier, 148.

29. Pecen et al., “Performance practitioner considerations,” 377–95.

30. Narmour, “Performance and interpretation,” 317–40.

31. Bowman, Philosophical perspectives, 289, 291, and 294.

32. Stanislavsky, My Life in Art, 256.

33. Johnson, “The Acting System,” 60.

34. Stamou, A humanistic approach, 43.

35. Collier-Slone, They’re Rarely Too Young … and never Too Old “to Twinkle”, 6.

36. Evans et al., “Identity and practice,” 407–22; Lamont, “The beat goes on,” 369–88.

37. Stamou, A humanistic approach, 34.

38. Masin, “Violin teaching,” 1–7.

39. Ibid.

40. Ibid.

41. Benedetti, Stanislavski, 21.

42. Stanislavsky, My Life in Art, 184.

43. Papazachariou-Christoforou, “Informal music learning,” 331.

44. Boyden et al., “Violin.”

45. Masin, “Violin teaching,” 1–7.

46. Suzuki, Nurtured by love, 80.

47. Stamou, A humanistic approach, 20.

48. Suzuki, Ability development, 31.

49. Stamou, A humanistic approach, 115.

50. Starr, To learn with love, 71.

51. Norvelle, “Stanislavski Revisited,” 29–37.

52. Stamou, A humanistic approach, 114–20.

53. Johnson, “The Acting System,” 197.

54. Suinn, Psychology in sports, 90.

55. Gray, “Stanislavski and America,” 21–60.

56. Stamou, A humanistic approach, 114–20.

57. Moore, The Stanislavski system, 29.

58. Johnson, “The Acting System,” 195.

59. Lee, “Dalcroze,” 51.

60. Jaques-Dalcroze, Souvenirs: Notes et Critiques, 44.

61. Davidson, “Stanislavski and E. J. Dalcroze,” 190.

62. Hargreaves et. al., “What Are Musical Identities?,” 14.

63. Vygotsky, L. S. Thought and language.

64. Baumann, Liquid modernity; Kroger, Identity in adolescence; Moran et al. “Creativity in the making.”

65. Erikson, Identity, 218.

66. Marcia, Identity, 73.

67. Taylor, Sources of self.

68. Wilson, et. al., “The ear of the beholder,” 117.

69. Hargreaves et. al., “What Are Musical Identities?,” 3.

70. Bronfenbrenner, The ecology of human development, 3.

71. O’Neill, “Musical engagement,” 469.

72. Harter, “The development of self-representations,” 612.

73. Stanislavski, An Actor Prepares, 178.

74. Stanislavsky, My Life in Art, 483.

75. Moore, The Stanislavski system, 23.

76. Davidson, “The solo performer’s identity,” 103.

77. Bernacka, “L’Interprétation de la Musique,” 6.

78. Papazachariou-Christoforou, “Informal music learning,” 339.

79. Masin, “Violin teaching,” 1–7.