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1 The Nature of the Orchestra A substantial share of the greatest music of the Western World is intended for performance by chorus and orchestra in combination. Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Passions, and the Requiems of Mozart, Verdi, and Brahms are among the works that require these forces. To list the repertoire for voices and instruments combined is to call the roll of the masters: Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Mahler, Britten, Stravinsky, and their contemporaries. Each year millions in America and around the world rejoice in one of these major works. That means choral conductors lead thousands of such performances every year in churches large and small, in colleges and universities, and in auditoriums both renowned and little-known.Some of their choirs are huge and others modest ; some orchestras are world-famous, while others are improvised aggregations of amateurs and students. Sometimes the entire work is presented; often, on the other hand (especially in the case of Christmas performances of Messiah), only portions of the masterpiece are attempted. Choral conductors generally have only limited experience rehearsing and performing with orchestras. Accustomed to the nature and the special techniques of choral work, we may ¤nd it strange to deal instead with the expectations and needs of instrumentalists. As a result, many of us prepare ourselves badly for rehearsals and concerts. Working with amateur players, we may not be able to help them enough; working in turn with professionals, we may feel intimidated .In either case,we ¤nd ourselves unable to achieve our best intentions. The problem is not with the players. Most of it can be eliminated by preparation , precise language, and experience. To confront an orchestra with con¤dence , one ¤rst must understand as much as possible about the instruments, the musicians, and their standard ways of communicating with each other. Fundamental Matters Orchestral players are trained in a tradition different from that known by choral musicians. Accustomed to that tradition and its routines, they may¤nd the language, conducting style, and rehearsal procedures of a good choral conductor peculiar—perhaps even confusing. Among the differences between singers and players: 1. Orchestras generally have fewer hours of rehearsal per concert, and have to cover more music more quickly. They expect to do so. 2. Orchestral musicians are likely to have had more years of individual training than the choral singers performing with them. 3. They do not memorize the music they play; it follows, then, that direct eye contact between players and a conductor is sporadic and dif¤cult. As a consequence, they depend very heavily on the baton. 4. Players more commonly are paid for their work. Thus they are less likely than volunteer singers to establish a “personality cult” around their conductor. For the same reason they tend not to respond to “pep talks,” as some choirs do. 5. Although string players, like choral singers, work in sections, the wind and percussion players are soloists. In that sense, every note these people perform is “exposed.” 6. In an orchestra there is no expert pianist present to lead the ensemble through the dif¤cult spots of a rehearsal (as accompanists often do for choral ensembles). The conductor and the players must ¤nd and solve all the problems. Recognizing that orchestras differ from choirs in these (and other) respects, we can begin to see why special conducting procedures must be used.As a choral conductor rehearsing an orchestra you must expect to cover the music more quickly (stopping fewer times than you might in a choral session), depend more on the players than you usually do on your singers, re¤ne your conducting gestures and signals (remembering that these instrumentalists are less familiar with you and your intentions than are your singers), and work in a very direct, objective way. Review your conducting technique. This may be a ¤ne opportunity for you to practice and enlarge your craft. You need not be afraid that any adjustments you make will prove detrimental to your work as a choral conductor; many of the distinctions between so-called “choral” and “instrumental” conducting are more habitual and arti¤cial than substantial. (Europeans, for example, generally acknowledge no difference; the dichotomy is primarily an American one.) Neither need you fear that orchestra players will be somehow prejudiced against you because you are a choral conductor by training. It is unlikely they will wonder much about your background, or care very much how you were taught. They will be concerned only with...

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