On Thursday, June 12, 2003, at 04:57 PM, Andrew Stiller wrote:
Of course, I also think all orchl. music before Mahler shd. be played with the violin sections sitting opposite each other,
Not just *before* Mahler* but *including* Mahler, too, right? Zander does it this way for his Mahler recordings and performances, presumably because that's the way Gustav did it.
When were orchestras re-arranged to put all the violins on the same side? I much prefer the earlier "stereophonic violins" setup.
- Darcy
It was Mahler himself who made the current arrangement (formerly rare) the standard. He also introduced the concept that you don't clap betw. mvts.
The reason Mahler reorganized the violins was that the orchestra had gotten so huge that real coordination problems were developing beetween the last-row 1st vns. and the last-row 2nds, because of the time it takes for sound to travel across the full width of the orchestra.
The problem with the altered arrangement though is that there are deliberate stereophonic effects--some of them quite important--in almost every piece composed under the old arrangement, and these effects are totally lost when the violins all sit together. Take Beethoven's violin concerto for example. In bar 10 of the first mvt. [I'm doing this w.o a score so I may not have the number right] the first violins stomp out four quarter-notes (the motive introduced by the timp. in bar 1), which are then answered in bar 12 by the seconds playing the same thing. It's an echo effect, in other words, and it is completely lost in any conventional performance.
In the last mvt. of Tchaikovsky's 6th there is a passage where the melody is composed of notes alternating between the firsts and seconds, an effect expressive of restlessness and anxiety--and completely effaced if the violin sections are not separated. Further examples could be provided from almost any score you please.
-- Andrew Stiller Kallisti Music Press
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