Klarinet Archive - Posting 001046.txt from 2000/10

From: "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] A conductor
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 19:54:21 -0400

William Wright wrote:

<<<Is this the type of conducting under which you would rather play? Or
not?>>>

and later . . .

<<<This was a stupid and inappropriate question to ask on a public list. I
apologize and I retract it.>>>

. . . golly, I thought it was a *great* question.

I find that conductors come in 2 classes. The first gives relevant
information to us poor musicians -- like some idea where the beat is, or
fine-tuning the balance across sections -- which in the end helps us play
together. You don't need to have bandmaster stick technique to impart this
information -- lots of conductors in the European tradition like to conduct
ahead of the beat -- but they're still giving you information that helps you
play together.

The second type is what Bill described: grimacing, waggling fingers and arms
in a great showing of emotion etc. While perhaps a good show for the
audience, they're not helping my performance one whit. I'm not going to
play with "more emotion" or "more musically" because some dude is standing
in front of me apparently in some sort of physical agony; that's what my
ears and brain are for. As soon as a conductor stops giving me useful
information (like where the beat is or should be) they become useless.
They're not conductors, they're dancers.

Most of my playing is in groups where we need the information -- or in the
pit of a musical theater, where we *really* need it. Maybe if I was a much
better musician this would be different. But I doubt it. Others on the
list play with full-time professional orchestras; perhaps they will
enlighten us differently. I'll note, though, that whenever I'm at a concert
and see a "name" conductor going off in some fit of emotion, none of the
folks in the orchestra appear to be looking at him. Funny that.

kjf

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org