At 1:13 AM -0500 2/25/08, Ray Horton wrote:
As far as listing unusual techniques and unusual instruments in the auditions, it depends on how many players you want to eliminate from considering the auditions.
That's what I sort of figured. (Of course the teaching jobs I've held both here and at Indiana would NEVER have been advertised as they ended up. NOBODY does the strange variety of things I've done!)
Sax is a good example of what I mean. Clarinet players often play sax, orchestras often need sax for pops and the occasional French piece. The next time your orchestra has a second or third clarinet opening, should you list sax as a requirement? Sure, you could, and you will get some applicants, and probably some good ones, but you won't get as many good clarinet applicants, and possibly not the best clarinet applicants. Do you want the best clarinet player you can get playing every day, or do you want to save money on those occasions when you have to hire a sax?
I hear you, Ray. The regional orchestra I played in until recently does the occasional Pops concert with a "star" (or at least someone who passes as a star in central Virginia; hey, we've even had Jimmy Dean!). We had one such a couple of years ago, and it did call for a sax section, which was mostly filled by orchestra members who had sax as a double. Well, the bottom line was that we had 5 sax players, but we didn't have a section. And we had someone playing 1st alto, but we didn't have a lead player!
Also, on that concert, the "star's" conductor had us set up all over the stage in a configuration where nobody could hear what they were used to hearing. In point of fact, he had us separated the way you would in a recording studio, and of course we were all miked. We violas were stuck behind the drum set, and had no chance of getting a section blend with the rest of the strings.
John -- John R. Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
