Sergiu Celibidache’s Phenomenology of Music and his influence on Orchestral

Conducting in Spain
Sergiu Celibidache was one of the most important conductors in the XX Century and the
most influential one in Spain. Unlike other conductors, he left behind hundreds of students who
had followed him for years, studying and living a way of thinking about music that Celibidache
called “Phenomenology of Music”. Among those students were some of the most important
Spanish conductors who used a specific conducting gesture that was analyzed in this dissertation.
The goal of this research is to study Celibidache’s approach to Phenomenology and his application
of that philosophy to music and, specifically, to orchestral conducting. Inspired by Edmund
Husserl’s Phenomenology, as well as Roman Ingarden, Celibidache applies the principles of
Phenomenology to music in relation to the human conscience. His work follows the ideas written
by another conductor and mathematician, Ernest Ansermet, whose work on phenomenology “Les
fondements de la musique dans la conscience humaine” (1961), precedes and influences
Celibidache’s application to orchestral conducting.
The dissertation aims to illuminate the differences between using the phenomenological
terminology of Husserl and the application of phenomenology to music by Celibidache. The
research was focused on Celibidache’s students’ personal notes since he never left any written
work about his phenomenology or other ideas. With this purpose, personal interviews were
conducted with open answers (same questions for all interviewers). The chosen Spanish
conductors were Enrique Garcia Asensio, Antoni Ros Marba, Juan Jose Mena and Jordi Mora. All
of them Celibidache’s students who had spent time with him.
This study underlines the diversified reception of Celibidache’s ideas in his Spanish students and
their approach to them. Furthermore, by using the interview methodology, we point out the
different understanding of the basic ideas taught by Celibidache. The reception of his work is
influenced by the Spanish conductors’ background/ education in philosophy, mathematic and
languages. Celibidache’s teaching style is called by one of his students as “Socratic” and the use
of parables makes difficult the understanding of eclectic ideas that mix deep Western philosophical
concepts with one of Celibidache’s passions: Zen Buddhism.
The research also explores the difficulties in the practical uses of the phenomenology of music in
orchestral conducting. Celibidache’s philosophical framework is completed by the development
of a conducting technique that has been called The Founder Technique of conducting in the XX
Century. He did not invent anything but distilled a set of rules for conducting that has been taught
since then by many other conducting teachers, even if they do not use the Celibidachian
terminology.
Multiple methods were used to obtain data that could reflect the dissertation’s goal. One of these
methods was comparing the personal notebooks of Celibidache’s Spanish students and the
literature available from Edmund Husserl, Roman Ingarden, Ernest Anserment and other
phenomenologists whose relation with Celibidache was none (Gisèle Brelet, Jeanne Vial, Thomas
Clifton and Edward Lippman).
For the purpose of obtaining the personal archives from the conductors, the author of this
dissertation participated in different conducting workshops in the United States, Romania, and
Spain. These workshops were both with a practice component and a theory which resulted in
practicing the conducting technique and learning the conceptual framework through lectures in
phenomenology and history.
The conducting gesture was examined in concerts as well as through the study of online resources
found available more recently. The observable parameters considered for examination in the thesis
were baton grip, the speed of the strokes (upbeats and downbeats), use of both arms (mirroring)
and facial expressions. These parameters were compared among the Spanish conductors and
Celibidache looking for similarities and, in most cases, for the application of the conducting
technique.

The results suggested by the dissertation affirm an important statement of the thesis: the idea that
Celibidache had influenced on conducting technique in Spain to the point of being currently the
most common technique among Spanish conductor. Even though his technique and ideas are
embedded in most conducting schools, the reception of his lifetime work was heterogeneous. As
mentioned before, the reasons for that reception are several, with the Spanish conductor’s
education and background as the main reason.
The difference between a phenomenologist approach to music analyses and its application to a
conducting technique was a distinctive outcome as a result of this research. The misunderstanding
or even ignoring of the original phenomenology made Celibidache’s conceptual framework to be
applicable only as an analytical method in score study. Celibidache’ speech on phenomenology of
music included concepts like noema or noesis both from Edmund Husserl’s own phenomenology
world. Celibidache’s direct application of Husserl’s concept is tested throughout the paper.
The experience is shown as a frontier of phenomenological knowledge. There is no knowledge if
you have not experienced the phenomenon. We experience the multiple phenomena as music is
shown to our conscience and therefore it is our conscience that is capable of recognizing musical
structures that have a correlation with our own conscience’s structure. This transcendental
interaction between both the outside world (with music as the phenomenon) and our conscience is
the central key to Celibidache’s approach.
Celibidache’s influence on orchestral conducting because of his phenomenology of music and
conducting technique is highlighted by the number of current Spanish conductors using the same
principles and technique. Some of the most important and international acclaimed Spanish
conductors of the second half of the XX Century studied and lived with Celibidache during
different periods of time. They continue teaching the same principles as their teacher, Celibidache,
so the influence has been inestimable in the last decades.