Tarter_trpt8

Manny,

I hope all is well, and that you are still loving music at the end of the season!

Ok, I was talking to a good friend of mine from a college that I went to my first year. He lives in Milwaukee and studies with Mark Neihaus (sp?). What we were wondering about was how a principle player in an orchestra like yourself sounds like when you are taking a lesson with them in comparison to their playing in an orchestra...My friend had the opportunity of sitting in during one of the Milwaukee rehearsals next to Mark and he told me that Mark sounded absolutely different. Mainly the louder and articulated sections. Maybe I misunderstood him, but what he said was that every articulation is accented a lot more harshly (if that is a good word to use) and with more bite to the note in order for it ot sound good out in the hall. He also said that Mark's sound changes from a practice room to the hall. Does any of this ring a bell or make sense...I just want to know if there is a difference to you when you play with the orchestra as opposed to alone and by yourself, and does the excerpt change once it is put in place with the whole group?

Jeremy

PH

I can't wait for this answer!

I seem to remember a Manny clinic (at ITG) years ago where he talked about the difference in how he played excerpts in an audition (without the orchestra around him) and in a concert.

Vulgano Brother

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.

Manny Laureano

In the best scenario, the conductor should be of great aid in this regard. That depends on the taste and ear of the maestro, however. With Osmo, he is very attentive to dtails like clarity of articulation. If it's not what he hears in his head he asks for it, plain and simple.

Past that, a good, experienced principal player needs to bring some initial ideas to the table. I couldn't stand to work as a principal trumpeter if I had to depend on the conductor for all my playing. I have to have some responsibility! Otherwise, I won't feel like I have any ownership. It, once again, boils down to training and taste. You'd really have to as people that know my playing close up and from the audience if my approach is different, I really couldn't tell you. I react to my envronment. Just like when I go back to NYC and hang with my friends, my accent changes from when I'm here in my new home of Minneapolis.

Context, context, context.

ML

Billy B

I would like to dig a bit deeper here. The sound from the player's perspective, the conductor's podium and from the audience are all different. Throw in the sound from a recording with all the variables from microphone to playback equipment, and the concept of sound becomes quite confusing. I remember a lesson with Bill Adam when he had me sit beside him as he played, then had me go out in the hall and listen.The harshness of his up close sound became warm and present in the hall. Manny?

Vulgano Brother

Manny is busy undertaking his Vulgano Brother initiation (involving beer and viola players who don't shave their legs or their underarms anymore) so can only say that the famous Reiner mono recordings were made with the microphone hangng over the conductor. Forget the audience, they have payed already. Obey your boss.