Ah this topic is interesting to me: disrespect in the section
First of all I have a couple of stories:
In my six years in Sacramento Symphony full time we had a very good horn
section that was often praised as the best section in the orchestra. This
section really worked well together and I felt everybody had some say in how
things went or were played. The first horn is still the spokes person for
the section and as fourth horn I dont think there were more than ten times
in six years that I spoke to the conductor in a rehearsal. I would ask the
first Horn & He would take care of it as he saw fit. A nice working
relationship with Mutual respect.
After that, back as a freelance player in Northern California I have had two
lesser experiences that come to mind. One is when I was playing 4th in a
different orchestra I saw the conductor speeding up as the first horn was
slowing down & without thinking, and being used to being able to discuss
things, I blurted out the conductor is speeding up! after which the 1st
horn took me aside and told me never to tell her what to do~! I saw her as
wrong she saw me as wrong for saying something.
Recently when playing 3rd horn there was a measure where the 2nd horn was
just rushing a measure so much that it was like jumping ahead. I told her &
since I am not the leader of the section she did not listen & did it in
concert. It sounded bad & I looked at her..
The solution to these occurrences:
As a section player go to the 1st to discuss it. As a section leader it is
your task to get the section sounding as good as you can. Two leaders in a
section just does not work, but the first person to care about how something
should go should be granted there way. Too much talking also disrupts the
rest of the orchestra, so the whole situation is a very delicate one. And I
would assume ultimately is done by a leader who has subtle but definite body
language leading (quietly) with mutual respect.
Richard Burdick
FIRST horn Regina Symphony
Regina, SK Canada
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