I’m an equal opportunity kind of guy. Since in my last post I called into question all those working conductors out there who don’t play their instruments anymore, I feel it’s only fair to look at another side of the coin – players who are driven to pick up the baton. I’m starting to feel like I’m breaking the Omerta code…
OK, that might be a little facetious, but it’s important to look at this particular sub-specie of Homo Musicus Musicus. Everyone who has been affiliated with a community orchestra, or a pickup ensemble, or some variation thereof is familiar with the following scenario: Mr. Huhdifluh is Principal Trombone with the Very Important Professional Orchestra. Mr. Huhdifluh feels that given his extraordinarily lofty position he is more than qualified to lead the local community ensemble as their Chief Cond……. nay, as their Music Director! You may now call him Maestro Huhdifluh.
Sometimes this works out. After all, the first and most important qualification for being a good conductor is to be a good musician. If you are a good musician, and you have your collective act together, then it is indeed possible for one to be a good conductor for a community organization, or in some cases a professional one. From the semi-pro bands perspective – if Maestro Huhdifluh isn’t going to be your leader, then who is? Some 19 year-old punk from the local conservatory? I think not! Theoretically a community or semi-pro orchestra would want a good musician to lead them, and when you have the VIP orchestra right up the street then, bingo!!!
But there are other things that go into making a good conductor then winning an audition for the VIP Orchestra- a decent baton technique, an understanding of how all the instruments of the orchestra function, rehearsal technique, score reading, acoustics ……. this is just to name a few. As I read that list I can hear my colleagues rolling their collective eyes and saying “but so few conductors have any of those!!!” That may be, but I’m trying to describe the mythical good conductor, somewhat akin to finding a non-grainy film of Sasquatch. A good conductor is going to have at least a fair understanding of most of that list. Of course there’s also that intangible something that great conductors have. My best buddy described an encounter with Leonard Bernstein as “being just a little too close to a supernova.” Technique? Nah, I wouldn’t really call his baton stuff technique. But Good God….. L.B. could just light up the room.
The tidbits I listed, though, are fairly important. The clearer the technique then the easier it is for everyone to play as an ensemble, and this is critical whether you’re playing in the Lower East Side Community Orchestra and Knitting Club or the aforementioned VIP Orchestra getting ready for this year’s Carnegie Hall appearance. Conducting itself may be an art form but the technique of conducting is very much a science. One has to understand that the downbeat isn’t nearly as important as the upbeat!!! The orchestra is reacting to what they have seen before so by definition a conductor has to be one step ahead of the players. Nothing will drive a wind/brass section crazier faster than a conductor who doesn’t breathe with them on the upbeat and/or prepare said upbeat with the fact in mind that other people have to breathe. A decent conductor also has to get the patterns right, and do it clearly. Ictus, good tempo indications, size of beat displaying dynamics etc., these are all part of the science of conducting.
When it comes to the knowing the instruments there is that same issue, and this ties in directly with rehearsal technique, score reading, and acoustics. Knowing to ask for a string passage in a different part of the bow, or for a harder mallet for the timpani, or whatever is critical to developing a musical sound for an ensemble. Understanding how a score functions, what it’s telling you, and how the acoustics of your instruments and hall function will usually lead one to make good musical decisions. So what’s the problem with players picking up the baton?
In a word, nothing. But in another word, training. I know this may come as a shock to people by most good conductors have good conducting training. (Actually, many bad conductors have good conducting training as well, but that’s a whole ‘nother topic.) And this is where the first problem comes into focus. If you are a professional musician at some point in your career you are going to either conduct the local orchestra, conduct your students in an ensemble, run a sectional, or do something like that. This is just part of being a working musician. Why, then, can you go through a complete conservatory curriculum without ever having a baton put in your hand?
Once again I looked up Juilliard. There’s a lot of highfallutin’ language about Ear Training and Music Literature in the B.M. curriculum, but not one mention of Basic Conducting, Acoustics, Score Reading, or any of those other tidbits that go into conductor training. Their “Literature and Materials of Music” courses, all four years of it, is “devoted to the study and practice of music theory.” Although the curriculum description goes on to mention “analytical score study” the skeptic in me questions whether any of this material is ever approached from a conductor’s point of view. What about how the different instruments attack a note? Balance in an orchestra and how to achieve it? Or the very basic problem that the orchestra is spread all over God’s Green Creation and yet somehow has to play together? I suspect that isn’t covered but I would dearly love to hear otherwise.
Ditto for my alma mater Eastman. If I hadn’t voluntarily taken conducting there, and gotten together with my fellow nerds to discuss scores (usually with the mighty Mojo Rising… but that’s really way too much information…), then I probably would have never picked up a baton. I certainly wouldn’t have been required to do so over the course of either my B.M. or M.M. degree from that institution. Without wasting too much time I’m going to assume that it’s probably the same at all the other major conservatories. From my point of view this makes no sense at all since the vast majority of musicians who come out of these conservatories will make their living playing in ensembles that require a conductor, if they make their living in the music biz at all. Does it not make sense for them to have at least a basic understanding of what goes into that position? Does this not fall under the category of the “well-rounded professional musician?”
Once again, I’m not suggesting that every orchestral musician be immediately thrown up in front of the VIP Orchestra to conduct the Rite of Spring, as entertaining as that might be. (And if you haven’t seen this young man take a whack at that you really need to).
However, there are certain basic skills that need to be developed, and certain basic knowledge needs to be learned, before a person can pragmatically function as a decent conductor. It would be an asset to every professional musician to have a better understanding of these basics.
But what about experience? Nothing, not any knowledge or good intentions, can substitute for experience. This is the reason we throw young conductors in front of orchestras. Honestly people, there is a LOT going on up there when you’re trying to lead an orchestra, and you have to get used to all those different elements happening simultaneously. This is why there are conducting ensembles in college. This is why we used to bribe our collegiate colleagues with beer to play in our pickup orchestras at Eastman. This is why there are Assistant Conductor positions in many orchestras. This is also why there’s the entire répétiteur tradition in Europe. Go over it, keep going over it, go over it until you’re on the verge of a(nother) psychiatric episode, get that experience, work with the singers, the players, and then maybe, just maybe, we’ll let you get up there and wave your arms. Experience counts, and experience conducting counts more. For every player out there who says “PFFT!! I could do that!! It’s EASY!!!” I say – “here, go ahead, put you’re baton where your mouth is. I dare you – first 2 minutes of Petrouchka……. GO!!! And then rehearse it. Good luck.”
What, then, to do with musicians who tack on conducting to their major solo careers? Ashkenazy comes to mind, as does Perlman and Oundjian. Well, honestly, I don’t know. I did say that “the first and most important qualification to being a good conductor is to be a good musician.” There’s also that crazy intangible something that some people just have that can go a mighty long way. I once asked a friend of mine how in the world his orchestra followed Ashkenazy? He replied “we don’t, but he’s such a great musician that the rehearsals are just riveting.” You really have to be a damn good musician in order for that to happen.
I realize there is a certain practicality about players taking up the baton. There are just not a lot of conductors to go around in many situations, and somebody has got to get up there. Playing a Mozart symphony without a conductor is difficult enough, and I certainly wouldn’t want to try a Stravinsky ballet that way. The truth is that many of these johnny-come-latelies shouldn’t ever pick up the baton because we don’t prepare them to do so! They’re missing the science part of the equation, and despite the fact that music is truly an art form the science part can make the difference between the good, the bad, and the very very ugly conductor.
The conservatories of the world today are frequently so focused on churning out the next great violin soloist that they neglect this aspect of an average professional career. Why shouldn’t a basic conducting class be an absolute requirement? Why shouldn’t score studying, acoustics, and learning about other instruments be a part of the curriculum? Right now it is as if a student is expected to pick all this up via osmosis.
I’m detecting a thread between this post and my last one and it’s centering upon education. I suspect that we have become too specialized in the requirements to matriculate from a conservatory, and the requirements that we demand of our professional musicians after college. Very recently I had a young man ask me whether he should attend a) the local big university music school so that he could focus on practicing; or b) the local liberal arts college where his current teacher was. He really loves his teacher, but his main gripe about the liberal arts college was that he would have to take things like Philosophy, Religion, or History. Really? I suspect I know which one Thomas Jefferson would have picked.
I played in the conductor’s orchestra at the Aspen Music Festival, which was an education in itself! One memorable quotation from Leonard Slatkin, warning his conducting students about what they were about to face in an orchestra:
“You’ve got to remember that 80% of the people you are conducting think they can do a better job than you, and about 20% of them are right!”
Ahaha, that’s a good line.
Bill, about Ashkenazy. I have been in the audience for two of his concerts at San Francisco Symphony. The first was so damn boring that I only went to the second because Belshazzar’s Feast was on the program. He did pretty well with that, so maybe he’s best in loud, shallow, audience-pleasers. But – as a musician who’s performed with lots of different conductors – I was aghast at his technique, which looked incredibly stiff and all elbows.