What makes a good conductor ???? Seems an interesting question. Well, most conductors have a very limited means of expresions or let us better say "tools". They know slow-fast, loud-soft, hard-soft, short-long. But this could be done by a programmed machine also. Just think about an electric programmable jumping jack. I might names this way of conducting "the bi-dimensional-music-commanding".
But there is more, like bringing the tempos into a certain mathematical relation (plain numbers, no fractions), work out the phrases set by the composer, balance the dynamics within the sections & between the different instrument groups to form a unified sound. This relates to all kind of music. Keep single members or sections from exaggerating their dynamic. Keep sections or the whole at lower dynamic, so the different solos can shine. All this can be learned or acquired by listening to many performances conducted by well acknowledged maestros. Together with the first paragraph requirements we could name this now "three-dimensional-music-commanding". But there is one dimension still left, the dimension which is the most necessary at all levels: expression, expression that does not just make an audience excited, but more, make it moved. There could come excitement in the audience & within the orchestra because of the technical brilliance & the perfection of sound & execution. But still there´s nobody moved besides the conductor himself perhaps. How to achieve that most important goal ? The fourth dimension. Using the right vocables during the rehearsals, preconditioned everything else is right. The richer the vocabulary of the conductor, the richer the colours of the orchestra and the richer the performance. Vocables as "lovely, blooming, heroic, thundering, not audible but noticeable, fanatic, fantastic, full of love, glooming like rock coal, poisonous, destructing, like clouds before hailstorms, radiating sunny, heating up like a hord of huns, icy, sound of glass, static, desperately sad, full of heavenly joy, etc." - these would be the words we musicians would understand & interpret the right way. But this requires conductors, human conductors, musical & super sensitive characters, which are too rare today within the list of travelling stars. It seems too often, that the only teaching they received was counting $$$$$$$. But there are some gems left, fortunately, but most of them will never get any chance to explore his or her potentials with an orchestra of high class. This is the reason, why some provincial orchestras can do a superb performance once a while, which would blame the superstars. _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
