Bar 18 - Quiz Show

In rehearsal on Brahms last week, ensemble disintegrated at one point.  The concertmaster, who is wonderful, immediately turned to her section and urged them to watch me.  I didn't mean to contradict her, but I suggested precisely the opposite, "No, let's try it again; do it without me."  I didn't beat at all, and as usual in any repertoire this side of Le Sacre du Printemps, it worked just fine. The solution wasn't to watch the conductor; it was for the musicians to be more connected with each other.

This anecdote does beg several questions, which I raise from time to time with my students, and that is the subject of today's quiz:

1) How many musicians are actually looking at us at any given time?  

2) What percentage of the time are they looking at us?

3) How often do we want/expect them to be looking at us?

4) How often do they really need to look at us?

5) What part of us exactly are they supposed to be looking at?  The tip of the stick?  Our face?  The turn of our left hand?  

6) Why after all do we want, need or expect the orchestra to look at us? 

Before jumping all over that one, think carefully, and consider the next question:

7) How much of the orchestra do we actually look at when we conduct, how often, and why?

Many other factors to take into account:  Is it a rehearsal or a concert?  If a rehearsal, is it a rehearsal to fix "mechanics," or to establish geist and flow?  Are we seeking to "inspire" the group?  If it is a concert, do our expectations change (does the orchestra's?), and if so, how?  My colleague, Imre Pallo, once told me that he didn't like to rehearse too much.  That way, he said, he knew the orchestra would be looking at him during the concert. Well, there’s a tradeoff:

8)  Would you give up rehearsal time if you knew the orchestra would pay more attention to you in performance?

I don't mean to overwhelm with questions; the point is that the concept of "looking" is far more nuanced and complex than it first appears.  Think of the layers of interpersonal and technical complexity involved in the perennial (and loaded) question:

Bonus question:

9) "Where do you want us/are we supposed to play on your beat?"  

God, don't you hate it when they ask us that!  It is usually preceded by a loss of pulse and ragged ensemble after the group is already frustrated either with themselves or with Maestro, invariably delivered with a soupçon of 'tude.  Of course, it's a trick question, to which there is no single satisfactory answer.  But that is to be addressed in another bar, on another sunny day.

In closing, if you really want to orchestra to look at you, to hang on your every word and gesture, consider becoming its personnel manager.

Possible Answers:

1) All of them some of the time; none of them all of the time.

2) Depends on many factors, from who is playing to what they are playing to where they are sitting.

3) Consider this: Have you ever looked at the 1st violin part of Don Juan, much less tried to play it?

4) My rule: The orchestra will be happy to look at us if we give them something worthwhile to look at. 

5) Good question, think about it: How much of us can an orchestra member actually focus on, spatially, between the music on their stand, our two hands (usually parallel, separated and away from our bodies), the stick in one of them and our face, while actually playing an instrument?  

6) Your wants mean nothing, “need” is a big word and expectations will break your heart every time.

7) Physician, heal thyself.

8) Well, would you?

9) A little like the lawyer who asks you, “Have you stopped beating your wife?”

Back to work!