Thoughts related to "rebirth"

Below is a compilation of thoughts I've been collecting of over the years that address issues in the classical orchestral world. Not all these problems are necessarily issues with every orchestra. They are just common problems I notice that are regular enough to necessitate some kind of remedy. They are bullet points without a lot of explanation, so if anyone is curious to hear more about a particular idea or what I meant, don't hesitate to ask!

As I see it, the real environment for these types of ideas to work is in academia. Many of these ideas below would never fly in the professional world and aren't intended for such an environment. Students seem much more open to change and experimentation than the pros and so might be more open to the types of ideas below.

I sent this over to Mr. Sandow (via Dr. Brunner) and he had some interesting responses. Will share more in class if it comes up.

Here goes...

Problems----------------------------------------------Potential Solutions

Orchestra

A) String players losing a sense of artistic individuality.-----------------Divide string players into quintets playing their orchestra rep in chamber groups. Then, join full orchestra with that same approach.

B) Orchestra has no sense of ownership of the piece--------------------Get interpretive input from players in rehearsal and vote on musical issues.

C) Orchestras not listening to each other well--------------------------Have the players sit in a different

place in the orchestra.

D) Orchestra not knowing the score-------------------------------------Study the score with the orchestra. Get together over coffee, sit down and talk about the piece.

Audience

A) Audience members are spectators, not participants-------------------1) Encourage the audience to clap and react to the music whenever they want! Don’t force them to suppress emotional reactions.

2) Have audience members right next to, or interspersed in, the orchestra. Put them right in the middle of the action.

3) Have the audience do Dalcroze Eurhythmics with the music. Get them to move to music, like kids.

4) Team up with a local theater group and do a historical re-enactment of a performance famous for audience interaction (e.g. Rite of Spring)

Conductor/ Musical

A) Talking sometimes an insufficient means of rehearsing-------------Implement eurhythmics (movement) in rehearsals.

B) Bar lines are distracting – fragments music at times-----------------Take them out entirely, put them in only where the phrases are, or put them in where the hypermeter is. Allows the players to visually see where the natural phrases in the music are.