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Re: Timbre...

Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2005-11-05 02:32

<<Did you try pulling out the reed?>>

No -- I changed to a flatter-pitched reed.

Not a bad or off reed (neither of the ones I used that night were bad -- just one tended low, the other high -- both were actually pretty well in tune). It is entirely possible that I entered sharp -- it was a cold entrance, after (literally) 35 bars of rest, and I'm just not that good, to hit it spot-on every time.

But the point here is that this is a director who spends an enormous amount of his (limited) rehearsal time fussing over what are very likely transitory variations in pitch from this or that player, at the expense of actually working on interpreting or expressing the music.

We are heading into a performance having never once played any of the pieces completely through.

Maybe this is the hallmark of a complete amateur, but I do play better if I can play completely through something with the group at least once, and get a sense of the flow of the piece or passage, rather than just working small sections and never putting it all together. It seems to me that when we practice only with stop-and-start-and-stop-and-start, the music ends up a patchwork, rather than being woven of whole cloth. Or note-perfect, but soulless.

I mean, I wouldn't go into an audition having only worked the transitions and tricky rhythms of a piece. And I assume the same would be true with an ensemble.

Susan

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Timbre... new

my58vw

2005-11-02 06:37