| Ever checked out the make-up on the actors backstage when playing a musical? They put on "way too much" so that it will look correct to the audience under the lights on stage. (Hopefully a physics expert will tell us the real formula, but my memory tells me that energy and intensity go away at the rate of distance multiplied by itself!) In the orchestra it should never sound ugly, but rather too much, too intense at close range. (Which is why viola players don't like us too much.) The advice about "never stopping the note with the tongue" and "never tongue between the teeth" goes out the door sometimes. Can we and do we adjust to room size? Yes. For Vulgano Brothers, the danger is that we practice in small rooms like we will play on stage, and then try to recreate that small room sound in the hall. Zap--The conductor's dreaded left hand comes out! In practice, as a section player, we listen to four things at the same time:
1. The principal player
2. The end of our bell
3. The back wall
4. Across the orchestra
The order of importance changes.
__________________ "A tool good enough to be so used and not too good" C.S. Lewis That Hideous Strength www.letsbuildhope.org |