Klarinet Archive - Posting 000753.txt from 1996/10

From: Fred Jacobowitz <fredj@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Watch the Conductor! Was Re: Berlin Phil clarinetists?
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 1996 15:17:08 -0500

Jacqueline,
Since you ask my opinion... It really depends on the situation.
If the show is easy and everything is by the numbers, there's not much
reason to watch the conductor. He's (not to be sexist - just using the
conventional English here, folx) there more for the singers than for
the band. However, if it's a complicated show, you obviously need to
watch him as much an necessary. In general, pit conductors are even
worse, if such a thing is possible, than regular ones because they are
actually pianists or composer/arrangers who are put in charge of rehearsing
the cast and then inherit the responsibility for the pit orchestra at the
last minute. So they usually have little or
no conducting training (not to mention concept of beat, cuing, etc.).
Luckily, most musicals really aren't too difficult to follow once one has
read through them a few times, so these music directors can't do much
harm.

Fred Jacobowitz
Clarinet/Sax Instructor, Peabody Preparatory

On Tue, 29 Oct 1996, Jacqueline Eastwood wrote:

> Sorry, folks, I'm way behind here!
>
> I'd like to know Fred's opinion about pit conductors, specifically. My
> spousal equivalent and I argue all the time about whether or not to watch
> the conductor (he's a timpanist, so has a larger ego than most). I say
> that since the conductor is coordinating the singers on stage with the
> pit orchestra, and since we can't see them, and can't hear them properly
> (we get all the nice reverb from the big halls!) that we should watch the
> conductor, especially in rubato or recit. passages. Russell disagrees --
> that if you watch the conductor, you will be late, so it's better to play
> with what you hear. Basically, he thinks that he is in charge of
> rhythm/tempo, and the hell with everyone else if they can't follow him!
> Any comments from those more experienced than I?
>
> Jacqueline
>
> On Wed, 23 Oct 1996, Fred
> Jacobowitz wrote:
>
> > George,
> > I can tell you from bitter experience that all too often it is
> > very confusing to look at a conductor. The bad ones have unreadable
> > and/or confusing beats and ours in Annapolis Symphony (Maryland) often
> > gives bad or wrong cues (when she remembers to give them at all). So it
> > is not surprising that musicians don't look at the conductors.Frankly, I
> > belive that 99% of what conductors do is for their own benefit, as they
> > have to
> > SOMETHING to keep occupied. With top orchestras, the musicians have played
> > most of the music many times and are quite familiar with it. They don't need
a
> > conductor to play together. They play with each other. So why look at
> > him? It is only a distraction. They will look up at the right moment
> > when there needs to be a "traffic cop" and hopefully the conductor will
> > be there. There is a very delicate balance between
> > being helpful and getting in the way and only the best conductors
> > understand that concept enough to do the former and not the latter. Any
> > conductor who has an orchestra looking at him alot is either an
> > egotistical idoit who wats to be watched or
> > is conducting a very inexperienced group of players. Pros don't need much
> > from a conductor and to make them look at one will only detract from
> > their full concentration on making beautiful music.
> >
> > Fred Jacobowitz
> > Clarinet/Sax Instructor, Peabody Preparatory
> >
> > On Tue, 22 Oct 1996, George Lin wrote:
> >
> > > Is this a desirable thing to not have the orchestra look at the baton of
> > > the conductor? I always thought you need to look up avery once in a while.
..
> > >
> > > George Lin
> > >
> >
>