Performative Aesthetics in Choral Conducting: A Case Studt of The 3rd International Bandung Choral Festival

Farhan Reza Paz, Abizar Algifari Saiful

Abstract


This study examines how choral conductors articulate aesthetic perception within the milieu of an international choral festival, addressing a persistent lacuna in conducting scholarship that has privileged technical analysis over interpretive sensibility. Drawing on performative aesthetics (Fischer-Lichte, 2008) and tacit knowledge theory (Polanyi, 1966), the inquiry interrogates how conductors negotiate the dialectic between technical execution and aesthetic interpretation in cross-cultural performative settings. A qualitative case study was conducted at the 3rd International Bandung Choral Festival (2023), involving three conductors of distinct cultural and professional trajectories. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews, sustained observation of rehearsals and concert performances, and analysis of festival documents and musical scores, and were subjected to reflexive thematic analysis. Three interrelated themes emerged: aesthetic interpretation as embodied practice, the negotiation of cultural plurality, and the conductor's mediating function in the formation of collective musical identity. The findings suggest that aesthetic perception in choral conducting is irreducible to score-based analysis or gestural technique alone; rather, it constitutes a relational practice mobilising tacit, embodied, and dialogical modes of knowing. The study contributes to performance pedagogy scholarship by reframing conducting as an aesthetically generative, rather than merely executory, undertaking.

Keywords


Aesthetic perception; Choral conducting; International choral festival; Performative aesthetics; Tacit knowledge

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.17509/interlude.v4i1.100010

Copyright (c) 2026 Farhan Reza Paz, Abizar Algifari Saiful

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Program Studi Musik, Fakultas Pendidikan Seni Dan Desain, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia. Gedung FPSD - Jl. Dr. Setiabudi No.229, Isola, Kec. Sukasari, Kota Bandung, Jawa Barat 40154, Bandung, Provinsi Jawa Barat.