You can’t fix everything in one rehearsal.
It is the inescapable truth. There are too many different issues at play. So you have to make choices. You have to pick your battles according to the situation at hand. The conductor is going to have to make choices according to the artistic and pragmatic needs of the ensemble in the moment. I mean, somebody’s gotta do it, so it falls to the conductor.
Legendary football coach Lou Holtz had a simple way of stating this. W.I.N. – What’s Important Now? In rehearsal, you as the conductor will have to decide what is more important – run through the whole piece? spend your rehearsal time on the hardest section while ignoring the easier sections? Break into sectionals? Work on tuning? Rhythm? Tone? Bowings? Balance? Dynamics?
You will develop a feel for how you use your time as you continue to do rehearsals. But, I believe that the best thing for any conductor, beginning or otherwise, is to make lists. And be systematic in your approach. Make lists of techinically difficult spots, make lists of what balances need to be fixed, make lists of areas that need to be focused on for tuning. Listen to the ensemble, make lists, go through your lists, keep listening, make new lists.
You are never going to have the time you really want to have, so you have to make the time you do have work for you. Be smart about the programming, be systematic about how you rehearse it, and always keep in mind - What’s Important Now?
If you don’t know Shaker Loops, then shame on you. Go download it, and then sit by yourself and listen to the whole thing in one sitting.
After that . . .
Here is a long and wonderful clip of John Adams rehearsing and performing Shaker Loops at the La Jolla Festival in 2002. Well worth the time spent to watch it all, and you need to watch it all.
In my last post, I discussed philosophical choices for programming. Today, I want to continue on this same topic, but from a different perspective.
There are a number of elements that I believe go into good programming. This discussion is applicable through a whole range of ensembles from public school ensembles, youth orchestras, collegiate level groups, and that nebulous, and ever changing – semi-pro/community/small town orchestra and even to professional groups.
And I also believe that some Music Directors of professional orchestras could stand to read this, but that whole area has many other considerations involved. This post is mostly about those groups that are educational in nature.
There is only so much money, so much rehearsal time and so many players available to any group. You would be wise to consider these Finite Resources.
And for Finite Resources, you have to answer these questions – Who is available to play for you? How much time do you have to rehearse? How much money to you have to spend on music/extra players/extra rehearsals?
I might sum this up as Practical Programming – ability, availability, and money.
What music can the ensemble in front of you play well that is available and affordable.
It is important to have these questions enter into your programming equation even though you are engaged in a wonderful and creative artistic activity. Rental pieces are expensive. Large works require extra players. Hard pieces require more rehearsal time.
Everything has a cost - either in time, in personal favors, or in actual dollars.
So what elements should one consider when Programming Practically?
Here is a list of a few things that I always try to consider when creating a concert program:
- The Music Has to be Good - Otherwise, who cares? The audience doesn’t, the players don’t, don’t waste yours and everyone else’s time with bad music just because it is playable.
- Independence of Voices – If everyone has unison rhythms, and unison melodic content, a lot your rehearsal work will take care of itself. For these kinds of works, you can have less mature, less proactive musicians playing the parts and you will still be able to pull off a reasonable performance. Greater and greater independence of individual parts generally follows this order:
- Differentiation by Area – Strings vs. woodwinds vs. brass
- Sectional Differentiation – Violin I vs Violin II, Flutes vs oboes
- Within Section Differentiation – Divisi string parts, Flute I vs. Flute II, Clarinet I vs. Clarinet II
- Solos - Extended solo sections requiring individual musicians to show substantial, individual musicianship.
- As the piece features more of the elements further down the list, your ensemble needs to be a more mature, independent, and pro-active collection of musicians if they are to have a successful performance of the work.
- Key Signature matters – Understand that if you are performing a piece with a student level orchestra, the key of the work will be a factor. Pieces that are predominantly flats, will have more tuning problems in the strings than a key that is a “nice” key for strings – C, G, D, etc. Should this change what you program? Maybe, maybe not. It really depends on the ability level of the group. So you should know that Ab or Db major are going to be battles for young string players and large portions of your rehearsal time will be spent just getting the players to begin playing comfortably in that key.
- Will the musicians basically understand the work after the first few read-throughs? – There are lots great pieces of music that your ensemble will understand after going through it a few times. And there are lots of important and amazing pieces of music that require more attention, more time, and more focus. These pieces are less instantly rewarding. There are some great pieces that your group just might not ever get no matter how much time you spend discussing, rehearsing, and teaching it to them. I consider the “can they get it?” question to be a major factor when assessing the amount of rehearsal time I have available. If your musicians can get the idea of the piece quickly, the rehearsal time will be spent working difficult spots, cleaning up tuning and rhythms, etc. If they don’t get it, you will have to constantly re-teach the rhythms, intervals, tuning, dynamics, and everything else, every time you start the piece. If they can hear why they need to do what the music says, then they will initiate the musical ideas themselves.
What elements do you take into consideration when programming? Do you agree or disagree with anything/everything/something I’ve stated here? I would love to hear your thoughts. Post a comment!
Before the downbeat of any rehearsal, the conductor has to make one of the most important decisions of his or her position. When planning a concert, this seems like a big “Duh,” I mean, obviously, the conductor is completely obsessed with this aspect of a concert
But, I’m not talking about the conductor’s career ambitions, or the far-reaching musical concepts or long-term artistic ambitions of an ensemble. Instead, when a conductor considers the rehearsal time available, the players who are involved, the artistic goals of the ensemble, and the artistic goals of the concert, what is the single biggest factor for success in the rehearsal process of a group?
The Repertoire.
The music programmed will make or break a group. The truth is that some pieces are just too damned hard for a particular group. AND, conversely, some pieces are too damned easy for a group and will not challenge an ensemble enough to make it worth the time and effort.
But . . .
There are those pieces that take hold of a group. The group reads it and you and everyone else in the room can feel the possibility, the potential that is present. Everyone knows that a not just a successful performance is possible, but an experience that might not be repeated ever again is right there in front of them. Everyone knows that it won’t be easy. Everyone knows that the work to make this piece happen will be worth it.
If you haven’t read it yet, you need to read the book Flow by Csikszentmihalyi. Here is a video from a TED lecture he gave. In the book, he discusses his research on happiness and the optimal experience. Let’s say it can be summed up as that sweet-spot where technical ability of the perfomer and technical difficulty of the performed meet. At this point, the piece is difficult enough, and the perfomer is technically proficient enough that the performer completely loses a sense of self and a sense of time while engaged in the effort of bringing this work to life. All that is left is a total focus and complete absorption in the work being undertaken.
I think that’s beautiful.
Csikszentmihalyi says that this is what happiness, in its most true and pure essence, is.
My goal is to create this not only for myself, but for my ensembles. I want my groups to be in this state of Flow, not only for their own happiness, not only for our collective need to have a good performance, but because when we all are there,
It is transformative.
Life changes for those invovled in these works. There is the period in their lives before this event, and then there is everything else after it. As artists, as musicians, as conductors and leaders, I think this should be one of our goals.
If you agree, disagree, or just have something else to say, I welcome, encourage, ask you to post a comment.
Coming up . . .
Factors to consider in repertoire choices, rehearsal processes, triage, in defense of what works, and more.
Stay Tuned!
The public face of the conductor is at the concert. The ritual, the costume, the energy of the moment, the applause . . . it’s all great. But without a doubt, the true work of a conductor takes place during the rehearsal process.
This post is the first in a planned series about the rehearsal process. I can only speak for myself and my own philosophies. That’s why I have a blog. It’s a good deal. But, I would like to talk about rehearsals broadly – philosophies, goals, etc., and and also talk about rehearsals specifically in terms of tactics, pacing, responsibilities, and more.
My hope is that you will join the discussion with your experiences while working. Your war stories, success stories, goals you have for your own rehearsals, tactics, strategies, philosophies, your experiences on a particular work, on a particular age group, ensemble, and so on. Because, ultimately, that will be what makes this a real source for our community (and a much more interesting read.)
The point of this series is to be a place to discuss your thoughts on what it takes to get done what needs to be done.
To wrap up this intro post, I offer this idea in the hopes of sparking some discussion,
The rehearsal defines the ensemble.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
Marin Alsop and the Balitmore Symphony are always doing some of the coolest, most interesting community outreach projects around. Rusty Musicians is another one. What a great way to build attachment and support from the community of retired and amateur musicians in Balitmore.
When I entered the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Conservatory of Music as a viola performance major it was known to the orchestra conductor there that I wanted to be a conductor. As a matter of fact, one of the major reasons I went to UMKC was because Dr. Glenn Block allowed me to study conducting with him as an undergraduate.
I will never forget those first days at my private lessons. Within the first few lessons, Dr. Block handed me what he termed as a “basic repertoire and reading list” for conductors. The list included all of the standard repertoire one can think of for conductors and was followed by a “recommended reading” list that was full of amazing books.
20 years later this has got me to wondering. What is a “basic” repertoire list for conductors? I am talking about the beginner who is excited to become a conductor but doesn’t know where to begin in terms of repertoire.
What are some factors at play? Well, I think pretty much anything that is on the list should be available by Dover publications. I am not saying that Dover has the final word on authoritative editions, because some of their editions have serious flaws; but I am saying that we should assume young conductors don’t have unlimited funds at their disposal. However, I do think we should insist that all of our young conducting students purchase and own their own scores. (We should train them to build their own library!) Now, that being said, not every score listed below is available from Dover.
So, here’s a list that I compiled recently. It’s open to amendment, and I would love to hear your suggestions!
- Bach Orchestral Suites and Brandenburg Concertos
- Beethoven Symphonies, Violin Concerto, Piano Concerto No. 5
- Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique
- Bizet Carmen Suites
- Borodin Symphony No. 2, In the Steppes of Central Asia
- Brahms Symphonies, Double Concerto, Haydn Variations
- Copland Billy the Kid, Appalachian Spring (13 instruments version)
- Debussy La Mer
- Dvorak Symphonies No. 8 and 9
- Haydn Symphonies 99-104
- Mahler Symphony No. 1
- Mendelssohn Symphonies No. 4 and 5, Violin Concerto, Hebrides Overture
- Mozart Symphonies 35-41, Magic Flute Overture
- Prokofiev Symphonies No. 1 and 5, Piano Concerto No. 3, Peter and the Wolf
- Rachmaninov Piano Concertos No. 2 and 3
- Ravel La Valse, Bolero, Daphnis and Chloe Suite No. 2
- Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade, Russian Easter Overture, Capriccio Espagnol
- Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 “Organ”
- Schubert Symphony No. 8, Octet
- Schumann Symphonies 1 – 4
- Shostakovich Symphony No. 5
- Sibelius Symphony No. 2, Finlandia
- Strauss Til Eulenspiegel, Don Quixote,
- Stravinsky Firebird, Petrouchka, Rite of Spring
- Tchaikovsky Symphonies 4-6, Violin Concerto, Nutcracker Ballet
- Verdi Forza del Destino Overture, Nabucco Overture
- Wagner Tristan und Isolde Prelude, Die Meistersingers Overture
Your thoughts are appreciated! What else do you think should make the list?
The point of this blog is not about the orchestra or non-profit arts business. Its purpose is to be about conducting. However, there were three articles that I read this morning that struck me because of their relationship to each other. One is a comment on another which is a commentary on the situation of the Utah Symphony and how orchestras need to stop being the victim in this economic mess and start being leaders in the recovery.
The other article I found interesting was yesterday’s New York Times piece on Eli Broad’s (rhymes with road) philanthropy which apparently always comes with strings of steel attached. He is a major player in the arts world of Los Angeles. Broad has no problems with leaving the board and pulling his money out of an organization if he doesn’t agree with the direction or choices being made.
Are the articles related? Sorta. They are about different cities, different organizations, and focus on different elements of the arts business, but I think it is interesting to read about a conductor’s call-to-arms to get out and make your orchestra matter to a community in these hard times rather than being a drain on it.
Rather that the “riding out the storm approach” that most seem to be taking, there needs to be a proactive approach with the mission to become one of the anchor organizations that actually helps the economy recover. This would not only better serve orchestras, but also show that we are leaders in helping to solve the crisis!
And to then read about a major arts supporter’s choice to reduce his support from an education program he had previously supported:
But Mr. Broad is fond of using a specific matrix to judge the success of his giving. Museums should see attendance rise and giving increase by board members. Schools should see test scores go up.
In the case of Strong American Schools he suggested to Chad Kolton, the communications director for the campaign, that one way to judge its impact would be the number of column inches newspapers devoted to the subject.
In the end, Mr. Broad said, the campaign did not have the impact on voters that he’d hoped, so he reduced his pledge to about a third of the original promise.
“If we’re not getting results,” Mr. Broad said during an interview in his offices in the Westwood district, surrounded by modern art on the walls and framed by the spread of Los Angeles behind him, “why should we spend all that money?”
I think there is something here that needs connecting, but I’m not sure how to articulate it yet.
Any thoughts?
There is a great blog running that works to maintain a current list of all the conducting masterclasses, workshops, jobs, announcements, etc.
I’ve added it to the blogroll but it is also here.
It’s a great service and project. Go check it out!
Jacob Harrison
brianstjohn