Klarinet Archive - Posting 000095.txt from 1999/11

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: [kl] Auditions (was, hard stuff)
Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 18:41:00 -0500

On Wed, 3 Nov 1999 10:19:16 -0800 , kevinfay@-----.com said:

> The point of these passages is really quite simple. They provide
> excerpts to test people in auditions, even though the parts themselves
> are of no importance in the overall ensemble. That way the "best"
> player can be chosen without regard as to how musically lyrical
> passages are played, or even if the culprit plays in tune. "Technique
> uber alles!!"
>
> (Of course, there are auditions conducted by people with brains. I've
> seen too many run by people who were clueless, however . . . )

We seem fated to meet, Kevin:-)

You may just be being provocative in order to generate a response, but
in any case, I'll bite.

I'd like to know where these 'clueless' auditions occur. Are you
talking about amateur orchestras? Surely not.

Usually in the profession, the people running auditions are the
principal players of an orchestra. While it would be possible to argue
that these players have no brains, and don't understand music at all,
they'd then constitute an orchestra it wasn't worth playing in anyway,
wouldn't they?

Mostly you get a balance of opinion. There are hardliners who want to
reject anyone who doesn't demonstrate a fluent technique in the
audition. On the other hand there are others who realise that playing
accurately in these circumstances can be difficult even for a good
player, and want to give an obviously musical candidate the benefit of
the doubt in allowing him or her to pass to the next evaluation.

I was recently the 'outside expert' in an audition that had its silly
aspects (like using the Mozart Concerto as one of the test pieces), but
it was an audition that ultimately turned up a very good, very musical
player for the job in question (I immediately wrote down his name and
contact details). And I found that the players I was working with
showed great intelligence in arriving at this decision.

I think there's a sort of myth (perhaps you'd like to develop the notion
that it's the counterpart of similar myths about lawyers:-) that the
people who run auditions *want to reject people*. On the contrary, they
want to *find* people who can play, and are very happy when they find
someone who might be able to do so.

On the other hand, it is necessary to guard against the danger of
accepting outright someone who cannot do the job technically.

As an illustration, I was also involved, many years ago, in a decision
to appoint a very musical player to a position in the hope that he would
be able to improve that aspect of his playing. Unfortunately, it turned
out that he couldn't; and since his position was a very prominent one, a
way had to be found to get rid of him.

It would have been better for everyone, including him, if we had never
accepted him in the first place.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339

... Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

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