[TPIN] Orchestral Balance

[Steve B]

When they do it, it can be wonderful.  A few years
ago.. Bud Herseth's last with the CSO.. I was in
Chicago twice in a month.  I caught both the CSO -
doing among other things Holst's Planets - and the LA
Philharmonic.  I forget the piece that LA played but
the conductor got the orchestra truly down to
pianissimo,  It was a whisper yet I could still hear
each and every voice.  Emotionally powerful event. 

Still tingle to think about it.



 i--- Mike Vax <vaxtrpts42 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I think Michael hits the nail on the head here. 
> Part of the job of the
> strings and woodwinds is to ALSO put out sound.  I,
> too, have heard and
> played in orchestras where, if the strings were wind
> instruments, they would
> be sucking instead of blowing.
> That being said, part of the problem is that our
> whole civilization's
> concept of music has become louder and louder.  You
> can thank the rock,
> salsa, rap and pop people and recording companies
> for that.  Now we know
> that those types of music don't have anything to do
> with orchestral music
> and very little to do with jazz, but the effect has
> been building up for 40
> years.
> One of the big differences I see today is not just
> that orchestras, or even
> big bands play louder than they used to, but that
> the total dynamic range
> isn't used as much.  My trumpet teacher, Gordon
> Finlay, used to have a
> saying:
> "Nothing makes loud sound better than soft, and
> nothing makes high sound
> better than low."
> It is the contrast in music that really draws the
> audience into a great
> performance.  (So of course, scratch most rock, pop,
> rap, etc.....
> performances - all they rely on is LOUD!)  Coming
> from the genre that I know
> the best, Ellington, Basie, Woody, Kenton, even
> Buddy Rich and Maynard
> (earlier years) could play just a soft as the played
> loud.  It was really
> exciting to hear -- and to play the music that way.
> Mike Vax
> 
> On Feb 5, 2008 7:46 AM, Michael Anderson
> <manderson at okcu.edu> wrote:
> 
> > Its really hard to tell from the back row. It is
> even hard to tell from
> > the
> > podium. You need a recorder out in the hall to
> know for sure.
> >
> > Much of our literature is really hard to play
> without projecting and being
> > aggressive. It looses its sparkle if you back way
> off and suck on it so
> > that
> > you aren't overblowing a lame string section.
> >
> > Was this a regional orchestra, major orchestra?
> Lots of smaller orchestras
> > have cut way back on the number of strings for
> financial reasons. They
> > shouldn't program huge works or they should raise
> the money to have beefy
> > string sections.
> >
> > MA
> >
> >
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