On 18 Feb 2006, at 23:46, John Bell wrote:
On 18 Feb 2006, at 22:38, Darcy James Argue wrote:
However, with string sections, you have a lot more leeway than you do
with winds or solo strings, as half the section can keep playing
while their stand partners turn the page.
No Darcy please! That is not acceptable!
It's perfectly acceptable. The funny thing is that you don't hear the
difference in sound while they're turning. Johannes gave good advice
for places to avoid:
1) G.P., nothing worse than a whole violin section turning pages in a GP
2) Very quiet but melodic or otherwise important places (contrary to
common believe a page turn in a pp passage is much worse than a page
turn in a ff passage.
3) the middle of a high (loud or soft) passage
4) divisis
Yes, do put page turns in loud passages if possible. The noise of a lot
of pages turning can be very distracting: let your violins turn in a
tutti passage where, I repeat, you will not notice the difference in
sound while half of them stop playing to turn the page. Why is this? I
don't know, but it's true. The sound of a large string section is a
very complex thing and is constantly changing, so maybe the difference
that occurs while some of the violins interrupt the sound just gets
swallowed up in the waves of changes that pulsate throughout the
phrase. Some people have suggested that the violinists who continue
playing compensate automatically for the drop in volume.
Do not fall into the trap of automatically putting the page turn where
the violins have a few measures rest: if the only thing that's
happening at this point is a pp clarinet solo, you will have probably
chosen the very worst moment to make the turn.
Michael
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