 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: Sneakers
Date: 2002-04-28 04:12
Our community orchestra recently played(if you could call it that)this piece on a concert. Poor Debussy must have been rolling over in his grave! Anyway, there were a number of problems, the first of which, was that we didn't rehearse it enough to play it in front of people.
In addition, the conductor decided to just play it with a small group of people, with a piano soloist. So what happened was that the pianist played all the way through it and played the solos along with the flute, clarinet, oboe, etc. We only rehearsed it twice with the pianist, and both times were about an hour before the performance. (BTW - the pianist was wonderful!) Well, I come to my first question,(if you haven't already quit reading this), was this reasonable to expect the soloists of an amateur orchestra with that amount of rehearsal time to be able to play their solos along with the piano, especially this piece?
Next problem, the conductor started beating incorrect meters between rehearsal numbers 2 and 3, so people started to get lost. As she stated herself many times, it needed to be played rubato, so it was difficult to tell exactly where the beat was all the time. So, next question, was it totally unforgiveable for the orchestra members to have gotten lost?
Next, because of the previous problem, when I played the clarinet solo at rehearsal number 3, the oboe player came in with her entrance at number 4, on the fourth measure of number 3. It clashed pretty badly with the second entrance of my solo, so I dropped out. Should I have kept playing, regardless of have bad it sounded?
Then, at rehearsal number 10, there is a violin solo. The conductor decided that none of the violinists in the orchestra could play it well enough, so instead of conducting there, she played. Do I need to say that we were uncertain of where the beat was, and that some people missed their entrances?
I realize that ya'll have no idea how the group plays normally, but is it reasonable to expect an amateur group to have done a good job on this piece, considering the circumstances? I'm sure a professional orchestra could have pulled it off, but we haven't quite reached that level yet.
BTW - the conductor blames all the problems on the soloists and refuses to believe she made any mistakes in her conducting. I wish we had a video tape of the piece.
Oh, and just one more complaint, we also played April in Paris on the same program and she quit conducting several bars before the end. She said a meter change was coming up and that no one was watching her, so she just ended the piece. The entire orchestra quit playing when she quit conducting. Is it possible that NONE of us were watching her, if no one played a note after she quit conducting?
Well, if anyone finished reading this, I would appreciate your comments, even if it is to tell me to learn how to count!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Jim E.
Date: 2002-04-28 04:50
One of my favorite pieces! (I have a lot of favorites! It isn't even my favorite Debussy piece, Clair de Lune is.)
Be aware that many pieces have had multiple arrangements made of them, and some of these may well be simplified for use in schools (and community groups sometimes.) I assume your group was playing the origional orchestration. The only time I have ever played it was in High School concert band, not only was it a transcription, but it was very "dummied down."
Without knowing your group or having heard the "disaster" I would say that in my opinion, one of the roles of a director in less than a top professional group is to know the ability level of the group and match the music to that ability. Not only will this protect your audiences from bad performances, it will preserve the musicians from the bad feelings that come from knowing that you did a poor job.
Based only on your post, in my opinion, your director failed you at least on the above point. I also would fault the person (again based only on your post) for performing a work before it was properly prepared.
Perhaps you might want to find another group if at all possible.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Wes
Date: 2002-04-28 04:50
There is no answer to this. The conductor is trying to play music not suited to the group. Don't feel bad about the performance because the most capable player in the world would have gotten lost. If the oboe player is not able to play in tune, it probably is better to drop out on unisons and not to clash. Music means a lot to you so just try to go forward and be as happy as you can. Don't try to correct the conductor but maybe suggestions could be made for easier pieces. This won't last forever. Good Luck!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Katfish
Date: 2002-04-28 14:07
I have played in a few amateur orchestras over the years. Sometimes the conductors programed wisely, sometimes they overprogrammed.(Try playing Daphnis and Chloe with 5 hours of rehearsal.) Ideally the conductor should take the blame with an amateur group. After all the buck does stop there,but blamming is rather fruitless. Chalk it up to experience, have a good laugh(or cry) and continue playing. We often learn alot from these disasters. I think conductors overprogram for two reasons. Either it is a piece they love that they always wanted to conduct, or they want to pad their repetoir for a better job.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: David dow Sympony NB
Date: 2002-04-29 13:14
One of the great dangers of live music making is just that is is live...sometimes things fall apart even when totally great conductors and orchestras get together. Much of the timre spent in larger groups is more of familiarilzing the orchestra with the style of the conductor and the interpretation, and this when everyone knosws how the piece goes..with less advanced groups one runs into elements which are more difficult. Tuning, timing and artistic values on tonal beauty, phrasing, entrances, balances and tempo deiviation are things younger or less mature players need to work harder on..imagine the Berlin Phil which knows Brahms still are requested by major conductors for at least four rehearsals...
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Kim
Date: 2002-04-29 14:16
To address your question of whether or not you should have continued playing when the oboe came in incorrectly and clashed with you, I think that you should have continued in that circumstance. Since people seemed to be getting lost, dropping out and letting the oboe have the melody could cause others to become more lost. Don't be hard on yourself about this, however, as I think that everyone's first instinct would be to do what you did. (BTW, I came to this conclusion by making a similar mistake.)
The principal clarinetist in an orchestra that I used to play in started playing a unison duet/soli incorrectly (wrong notes), it clashed, and I decided to drop out because I didn't know what else to do. Problem was, she decided to drop out at the same time, (she'd realized her mistake and was trying to figure out where to get back in). Well, there was a couple of beats of silence in the middle of this clarinet melody with hardly anything else going on. Of course, to make matters worse, there was a clarinetist from a major orchestra attending the concert. How embarassing.
So I learned that if you're pretty sure that you're right, in most cases you should just keep plowing through. It's always a judgement call. Anyway, I think everyone has stories like this, so chalk it up to experience.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2002-04-29 17:25
Sneakers -
There's no good answer when things go drastically wrong. You just do what works. When the oboe came in wrong, you did exactly right to stop playing. Better the oboe out of place than a series of clashes. The same when the conductor gets lost. Find the next spot where everyone agrees and start playing.
It varies with the circumstances. I went to a reading band once where they played "Italian in Algiers," where, in the orchestral version, it starts with pizzicato strings. The idiot conductor demanded long notes, because "that's the way it is in the orchestra part." It would have done no good to embarrass him, so I just kept quiet (and didn't come back).
I once sang a Bach motet where the altos dropped an entrance. We quickly got back (it was a good choir), but it was Schoenberg for a couple of measures. The next day, the New York Times reviewer marveled at how daring Bach was in his harmonies....
At the Maryland Handel Festival a few years ago, there was a chorus with antiphonal entrances. The conductor gave the wrong cue, and both choruses started singing together, with silent gaps in between. He tried to get them back, but eventually had to stop the performance. He said "encore" (once again) and started the whole thing over. At the end, a couple of audience members were wondering "why he did an encore."
So -- nobody in the audience notices. Even the critics are often dumb. You notice, of course, and it's dreadful when it happens. Believe me, everybody has gone through similar things.
After a week or so it becomes a "war story," and at the reunion 20 years from now, everyone will be laughing.
In fact, your posting itself is a war story, and a pretty good one, too. Enjoy it now, as well as later.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Sneakers
Date: 2002-04-29 23:58
Thanks for your comments. I will try to keep your suggestions in mind if something like this happens again. BTW - the audience thought it was pretty!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Jim E.
Date: 2002-04-30 03:48
Good point that many times the majority of the audience doesn't know trhe music, and will not notice non-obvious mistakes.
Also, in my community theater lighting days, I was taught that if you do make a mistake, act as though it was deliberate, and make the correction look deliberate also. I once was operating a rented lighting board for a performance of Pirates of Penzance. I hit the button to make a level change at the beginning of a solo, and then looked into my script for the next cue. When I next looked up, the stage was totally dark except for the follow spot. I quietly told the spot guy not to move a musscle, and very gradually manually restored the stage lights to the correct level. As it turned out the board had a quirk that if the auto change button was pressed hard, it would take the lights all the way out gradually. I found this out the hard way. The audience had no idea that anything was wrong. I was very careful with that board for the rest of the run!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
