Re: [Hornlist] Re: Horn Digest, Vol 68, Issue 1
> > Quality of life or our work has no meaning any more. If it is not > measurable, hence bottom-lineable, it doesn't matter. It doesn't exist. > Subjectivity is a dirty word. Objectivity is king. Too bad there is no such > thing as true objectivity. Subjectivity is what makes human beings. I love > the comment in JW's post about leaving the musical part to the conductor! So > true and so pathetic. Conductors? They have been bottom-lining for so long > they haven't got any music left in them. Fortunately for them, the > performances are now judged only by the "perfection index," which simply > requires the right notes at acceptable tolerances of dynamics and rhythm. > Just read the reviews. Those have been bottom-lined too. We have lost our > way. I have to say that this is one of the reasons I walked away from the idea of a professional career after I finished college 25 years ago. (Another reason was of course the huge oversupply of new graduates relative to the number of available jobs.) Fortunately, I had done my first degree in a completely non-musical subject (electronic engineering) before going on to do 2 years of music as postgraduate student, so I was able quite easily to decide that it was going to be much more fun being a professional engineer and an amateur musician rather than trying to do it the other way around. That was absolutely the right decision for me, it meant I could play just the music that I wanted to play, with people who were there primarily because they wanted to be there. The technical standard of of the music I take part in is usually well below professional standard, but that is made up for by the obvious enjoyment of the people participating - there is often an excitement about amateur performances which can be lacking from professional concerts, even of the highest level. I remember going to see Simon Rattle bringing the Berlin Philharmonic on their first trip to London after he took over there. The main work was Bruckner 9, something a horn player in the audience ought to thoroughly enjoy! The sound was beautiful, everything was perfectly in place - and the overall effect was if anything slightly boring. I know Rattle is capable of making the piece exciting, because I had played the same piece under him on on orchestral course with the Rehearsal Orchestra a few months previously, and it is one of my finest musical experiences, it was inspiring seeing how over the course of a day's rehearsal he built the sound of a good amateur group into something that wouldn't disgrace a professional orchestra. Admittedly, the excitement of amateur performances is sometimes a result of the fact that you don't quite know what is going to happen next - because the the players don't quite know either! The best amateur performances can stack up against professional performances, because the players are all there because they want to participate, and they play primarily because they love the music. The best amateurs have levels of technical competence not all that far short of professional levels. When I'm fortunate enough to play in such a group, it is one of the finest musical experiences going. We all talk a fair bit about clams or cracked notes. Yes, of course, you should refine your technique in order to minimise them. But I work on the basis that an occasional clam is forgivable, and so I will go to the edge of my technique and take the risk of a cracked note occasionally in order to get the phrasing and expression I want. In that, attention to detail is everything - you need to listen to and adjust the tuning of every note. You have to make a definite decision about the phrasing and dynamics, e.g. for instance for a pair of hairpins on a long note, you have to decide precisely where in the note the top of the crescendo should occur, how loud it should be, what should be the shape of the crescendo - where should be the fastest part of the volume increase. For staccato, you need to decide how hard to tongue the note and how short to make it. In all of these things (and many others) when playing in an orchestra or other ensemble, you need to listen to the other players and adjust your playing to blend with what everyone else is doing. The conductor can help by saying what he wants, and you can follow the beat, but far more important is listening to the other players. There is a fine line to be walked between making your own decisions about phrasing and matching what else is going on. The decision on when to lead and when to match is itself dependent on the musical circumstances. To get these kinds of decisions right requires two things. Firstly, you need to be aware that these are *your* decisions and you have no choice but to do something about them. Second, you just need to do lots of playing in orchestras and ensembles in order to get experience of playing in groups and seeing what works and what doesn't. Regards Jonathan West ___ po
[Hornlist] Re: Horn Digest, Vol 68, Issue 1
message: 6 date: Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:07:06 -0500 from: "William Foss" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> subject: [Hornlist] Players & Musicians Sorry about the double post-- I just wanted to get as many ideas about this topic as I can. I look forward to hearing input, and hopefully very little heated disagreement. Also, I really enjoyed meeting a lot of you in person this past week; it was nice to put some faces with the names. It seemed to me that a theme that was present throughout the conference (especially the "Pedagogical Pearls" and "Meet the Masters" sessions) was the state of music education. The information that I took is that today, a large portion of the teaching community is very focused on getting students through an audition=97so much so that we lose individual musicianship. On Tuesday, Dr. Hill stressed the need for teachers to focus on teaching each student. "We are not teaching horn, we are teaching individuals" (or something to that effect). I remember that during the "Meet the Masters" session Mr. Cerminaro said something to the effect of (and I am paraphrasing, I don't remember exactly what it was that he said), "All of us on this stage are great musicians first and great horn players second." I thought that that was a very good point. They spent some of the time talking about students who do not understand the historical and musical contexts for the music that they play= . The problem seems to me to be whether students are being taught to be players or musicians. I'm sure that we have all heard players who hit the right notes, but are uninspiring (sometimes even boring) to hear. I had class with a piano professor who was very fond of encouraging us to play expressively saying, "=85that's why they call it 'music' and not 'notes.'" = As tired as I got of hearing that, it has stuck with me and is one I've even used when I teach my middle school and high school students. I wonder how long this trend will continue. Certainly the system will stop short of educating students who are technically proficient but fail to play musically. I am curious as to what everyone's thoughts are on this, and is this as severe a problem outside the US? Thanks William Foss message: 7 date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 10:38:07 +0100 from: "Jonathan West" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> subject: Re: [Hornlist] Players & Musicians I suspect that a surprisingly large number of orchestral musicians (even at a professional level) regard their work as a craft rather than an art. By that, I mean that they regard their task as beginning and ending with the mastery of their particular instrument and playing the notes in whatever fashion the conductor requires of them. They aren't much concerned with musicianship and interpretation, they leave that to the conductor. Playing to a professional standard requires huge amounts of work to achieve that mastery of the instrument, so it is inevitable that much teaching work is directed towards technical matters, and there is always a danger that musicianship and interpretation is forgotten. The difference between good professional musicians and great ones is not in the mastery of the technical aspects of the instrument, but in the fact that they have (and think deeply about) the musicianship as well. Regards Jonathan West Hi, I put these two posts together because they speak eloquently to an issue that has been bothering me for quite a while. Perhaps every generation feels the same way about the next one coming along, but I do think that there has been a serious cultural shift in this country that has affected the Classical music world along with everything else. That issue is "bottom-lining" and it has elevated itself to the level of a cult. We have bottom-lined everything from our economy, politics, education, food, entertainment, Xmas and even sex. Health care and quality of life were recently bottom-lined by a young poster on this or the Yahoo forum by the formula, Money=Life. Pathetic. Quality of life or our work has no meaning any more. If it is not measurable, hence bottom-lineable, it doesn't matter. It doesn't exist. Subjectivity is a dirty word. Objectivity is king. Too bad there is no such thing as true objectivity. Subjectivity is what makes human beings. I love the comment in JW's post about leaving the musical part to the conductor! So true and so pathetic. Conductors? They have been bottom-lining for so long they haven't got any music left in them. Fortunately for them, the performances are now judged only by the "perfection index," which simply requires the right notes at acceptable tolerances of dynamics and rhythm. Just read the reviews. Those have been bottom-lined too. We have lost our way. I have to admit that part of the fault does lie with us in the business and our obsession with auditions. We had to try and make hiring more fair so we have gone to the other extreme now and m
