 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: BflatNH
Date: 2011-12-13 18:45
Last week we had a very good last rehearsal where we were watching the conductor, in tune, listening to each other, etc.
Last night we had a fairly poor performance where many entrances, solo, etc. were missed. (I should have been warned, full moon, and just before performance one of the trombones had a minor seizure, etc.) And also with me, until I realized I had to isolate myself from the others, rather than to try to tune in to and be close to them, as I seemed to be importing their problems. For me, things got a lot better (but not truly artistically great) when I focused only on my music, my playing and the conductor (at times, only the tip of the baton). Since I was somewhat in 'crisis recovery' mode, I didn't focus too much on my playing as it was largely automatic by that point, if I didn't stop. Admittedly, I am much the novice here, but I wonder, what you do when 'something bad happens' in a group?
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Author: TJTG
Date: 2011-12-13 18:59
My ear goes to the principals, and I do watch the conductor if it effected the whole ensemble. It helps if you know the piece as a whole, ie having listened to everybody in rehearsals. Isolation is one of the worst thing you can do. That assumes everybody is looking to you to get back on, which honestly won't work. It can also make it harder for the group to get back together if you stubbornly are sitting where you think is correct.
My freshman year in college our orchestra was playing Lutoslawski's Mala Suita, and we got off horribly in the end.... we did not recover. Mostly, everybody in the winds simultaneously lost confidence, some people started following the brass, and the strings payed attention to their concert master.... Chaos followed. The piece had 3 endings... it was bad. We were all pretty novice players in the "2nd" orchestra. Sadly... our conductor was no help. We should have known our parts better and had followed the concert master.
Really, it is your call. If you're in band and people are following you, because you have the lead, yes, stay strong. In any other situation I would look to other peoples parts to help you get back together.
Not sure if that helps... Maybe it did. Let me know. heh
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2011-12-13 19:26
To reinforce the idea of LISTENING, we had a performance of Death and Transfiguration where the first flute came in early. It's basically just a vamp but if the orchestra came in on the 'correct' count the flute would have looked bad (sounded bad). As it was everyone just automatically adjusted for the entrance.......... Always LISTEN.
I'm not downplaying the importance of the conductor's ictus, it is just that the SOUND of what is going on is what is MOST important.
....................Paul Aviles
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2011-12-14 01:20
Henry Smith, the former principal trombonist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, told this story. They were on tour and playing a contemporary piece in which the meter changed constantly. Eugene Ormandy added a beat in one measure in a tutti section, and the orchestra saw that his hand was in the wrong position to make the next downbeat. The entire orchestra repeated the final beat and continued on as if nothing had happened. Ormandy was surprised and turned toward the concertmaster, Jacob Krachmalnick, pointed to his chest and whispered "Me?" Krachmalnick nodded his head (and his violin) up and down and whispered "Yes."
That's the Philadelphia Orchestra, and it shows the sort of concentration and quick reactions that are expected on that level.
I've been in a number of train wrecks. You get back together and continue on. I tend to listen for what's happening and get back on beat even if I have to skip a beat.
I sang in a chorus in Bach's motet "Jesu Meine Freude." The chorus "Dem Tod" has fugal entrances, led by the sopranos, except for one led by the altos. To make things worse, the alto entrance was right after a page turn. The conductor dropped the cue to the altos, they didn't enter, and suddenly it was Schoenberg. A soprano jumped down to the alto part, and a tenor jumped up, and things got straightened out within a few beats. Afterward, the conductor was very upset, until I reminded him that Artur Rubinstein sometimes dropped as many notes as he played, yet everyone love his playing. The next day, the New York Times reviewer said that he had not realized how advanced Bach had been in his harmonies, and he had learned something.
At a Handel festival concert, they did one of the Chandos Anthems, in the finale of which the chorus was divided, and they alternated entrances. The conductor dropped a cue and everyone came in together, producing cacophony, followed by total silence, cacophony and silence, cacophony and silence. The conductor stopped the performance, softly said "Encore" and started the finale again. Afterword, I heard one member of the audience ask another, "Why did they give an encore?"
Louis Cahuzac's recording of the Mozart Concerto has an enormous squeak, or maybe two, yet it's a great performance. There are more squeaks in his Nielsen Concerto, in which he can barely get through some of the tough passages, yet makes up for it (in my opinion) by make better music of it than almost anyone else.
The upshot is that you notice a mistake a thousand times more than the audience. If you get back together and go on, nobody remembers it. Tonight it's a disaster. Tomorrow it's a war story.
Ken Shaw
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Author: bethmhil
Date: 2011-12-14 02:05
That's the biggest challenge of performing... stuff happens. Stuff that you can't even imagine will happen. That's why it's important to always practice and rehearse like you are performing, because otherwise, you'll completely screw it up... (compliments of my clarinet teacher. )
The challenge of performing in an ensemble is being able to not only perform your part technically well, but to conform to the ensemble.
I have so many stories about issues during performances, but this one is the most memorable:
Last April, ISU's Wind Symphony performed Mozart's Gran Partita. The performance was very much less than satisfactory, mainly because of severe pitch problems. The lead basset horn player was dreadfully out of tune, and he never was able to figure out which way to adjust. Because the ensemble was so small (13 winds!), we were all freaking out because we didn't know if we should adjust downward to the basset horn, or to just stay put. It was a disaster because some of us took it upon ourselves to adjust to him, and others didn't.
In a case like that, a good rule of thumb is for the higher winds to listen down (or back), and the lower winds to listen up (forward). ISU's band director is constantly yelling at us to listen, and so many issues magically go away. Always listen.
During a performance, always be ready to listen loudly and to expect the unexpected. A lot of things can happen, from the director accidentally dropping beats, to someone completely messing up a solo.
BMH
Illinois State University, BME and BM Performance
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2011-12-14 14:48
From Ken Shaw's wonderful story about the Philadelphia Orchestra's moment of musical purgatory...
>> Ormandy was surprised and turned toward the concertmaster, Jacob Krachmalnick, pointed to his chest and whispered "Me?" Krachmalnick nodded his head (and his violin) up and down and whispered "Yes."
>>
Jacob Krachmalnick later migrated to the West Coast, as concertmaster of the San Francisco S. O.. When I was in high school in Marin County (the unincorporated and un-Marinated northern edge), class of 1966, he gave private lessons to our concertmaster, principal second and a couple of others. The Krachmalnick students and a few others with good private teachers knew what they were doing, but most of the kids in that orchestra never had private lessons at all.
We had our share of spontaneous aleatory events. The two conductors during my four years told us the same rule for bad entrances, tempo falling apart and similar breakdowns: "Read the music with one eye and follow ME with the other." Alas, we could assume that at least half the people in our sections would get too flustered to follow that instruction. Some would lose their places altogether and fake playing; others would barge ahead on the "I'm right and they're all wrong" theory; while still others would choose and follow someone, anyone, who seemed secure (but they wouldn't all pick the same person). Dvorak's New World Symphony stands out as particularly interesting. But I think that for student or amateur orchestras and bands, the conductor's the one to follow on tempo, entrances and so forth. The conductor's the only one standing up front and waving a stick, with the authority to pull things together.
Don't ask me what we were supposed to do about intonation whoopsies. If that whole ensemble had ever played together on pitch, I'd have known I was asleep and dreaming.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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