Those Who Can’t Do Redux – Maestro Myths

As I expected there was some very interesting feedback from my recent conductor rants.  Personally, I find the fact that the secret society of The Golden Baton didn’t send the Mahler Ninjas to disrupt my concerts last week quite surprising – whether that means that I’m just too small time to merit their attention is a subject for another posting.  But back to the feedback – boy, there are still some serious Maestro Myths out there.What surprised me from the comments I received was that some musicians were distinctly blasé about the idea of the performing conductor.  While a few people sent the basic “who cares?” there were a couple who went on to bemoan the lack of knowledge about their own instruments in particular, and/or the “once they’ve had the experience of playing in an orchestra that’s enough for me, and any further experience wouldn’t make any difference” line.  What struck me about these comments was the static concept of conducting that they seem to espouse, and the Maestro Myths that they perpetuate.

1)  The Score Studying Myth –  “I’d rather that conductors spend their time studying scores” was a frequent response. The problem here is that one is confusing “knowing the score” with “being a good musician.” God help me for admitting this, but if it takes you more than 15′ to study a Mozart Symphony or the like (assuming that there’s one you haven’t conducted), then you shouldn’t be a conductor. The simple fact is that the notes aren’t important anyway.  Understanding the structure of the piece, how a composer functions, what the relationships are between theme, harmony, accompaniment – in essence, what makes Mozart Mozart – that’s important.  And you should have figured out your stylistic approach to Mozart by the time you’ve had more than 3 professional gigs under your belt.

Even many complicated scores shouldn’t take you more than a few hours, and if you’ve hit the middle period of your conducting career there are whole swathes of the repertoire that you should be able to work up in under an hour, including many of the standard works of Bartok, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, etc. (Opera is an obvious exception to this rule due to the sheer size of the beast involved).  If you’ve done it more than once then it should be readily accessible on your internal hard drive.  Any conductor that claims they’re up studying scores regularly @ 4:30 in the morning has sleep disorders.

2) The Technique Myth – “I’d rather that conductors spend time working on their technique” popped up once or twice.  I admit that this one had me particularly stumped.  It’s rather hard to work on your technique away from your “instrument,” which in this case would be the orchestra, and how would you understand experiments in  technique without experiencing those things from the other side?  I learned a lot about conducting by playing in an orchestra, watching conductors, and observing what not to do.

But the raw truth here is that when it comes to conductors techniques – what you see is what you get.  There is nothing complicated about conducting technique.  Indeed, it is actually very simplistic, and certainly comes nowhere near what is required to play any instrument.  What is complicated is the application of said technique.  A professional conductor who claims they must go “work on their technique” is most probably a fraud.  (Please – no comments about whether that last sentence is redundant – that’s too easy.)  If a conductor’s technique seems lacking there are only two reasons: either A) they have no technique; or B) they haven’t had enough experience from the other side to apply the technique they have in a constructive manner. Why do you think we videotape conducting students in the first place?  So they can see what a mess they’re making from the musician’s perspective!  Goodness, if you want to know about playing Offensive Tackle in the NFL then ask an Offensive Tackle.  Then go ask a Defensive Tackle, since it’s his job to make the O.T. look like an idiot.  It’s important to experience something from multiple perspectives.

3) The Further Experience Unnecessary Myth  – “If a conductor played in an orchestra sometime in the late Pleistocene Period then that’s good enough for me” was essentially written by a few folk.  This is like that myth that once you’ve ridden a bicycle it’ll just automatically come back to you.  This one was particularly amusing for me because I’m Music Director of an orchestra that doesn’t work as an ensemble from mid-June to the end of August.  I would wager good money that not one of those people thing that the level of ensemble playing in August is anywhere near where it is in June.  It takes times for any group of people to re-adjust to playing together.  If professional musicians of that caliber require time to get back in the groove how would one expect a conductor who hasn’t been in a playing situation in years to remember the pitfalls and traps that the average orchestral musician faces?

Case in point – I did a play/conduct 2 weeks ago of K. 466 of Mozart, the great D minor concerto.  I usually put the piano butt end into the orchestra so that I’m facing them and I have my back to the audience (lid off, of course).  Just a few days later we did a concert where I again performed one of the movements from K. 466, but this time I had to play/conduct in the traditional soloist position.  The physical distance between where I had been and where I ended up for the 2nd concert couldn’t have been more than 2 – 3 feet.  The aural distance, however, was very surprising.  In a hall I know very well, with an orchestra I’ve been MD of for 5 years, in a piece I’ve played dozens of times, I found myself wondering about the acoustics across the stage, the placement of the overhead sound dome, the use of curtains, etc.  Suddenly what I was hearing was very, very different than it had been before.  I was able to have that experience because I take the time out to be in shape on my instrument, and will I try to put that experience to good use.  If I hadn’t gotten off of my high horse, AKA the podium, I wouldn’t have had that experience at all.