Learn and practice the basic principles of running an effective music ensemble rehearsal. Techniques and strategies are applicable to a variety of ensembles, including bands, orchestras, choirs, and chamber groups.
An Orchestral Perspective: String Articulation and Bowing
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Из курса от партнера The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Fundamentals of Rehearsing Music Ensembles
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Articulation, Balance, and Tone
Module 4 begins with perhaps the most crucial task a conductor undertakes: score study. Score study is the umbrella term for the process of thoroughly learning a score-- not just knowing how to sing the melody or memorizing phrases and meters--but learning every aspect of the music that may come to bear on our ability to interpret, conduct, rehearse, and perform it. Unlike many grammatical aspects of conducting, score study is a time-consuming, immersive activity for which it is normal to develop one’s own process, assuming the end result is a deep understanding of the work.
After score study, Module 4 moves back to the grammar of conducting, particularly technique for conducting articulations. Please note that this week also contains a very brief introduction to the three types of fermatas. In Module 5 we’ll cover them in detail. These are topics for which regular practice and self-evaluation will be necessary to develop gestures that are clear to the ensemble and second-nature to the conductor.
Finally, we will return to “The Rehearsal Toolkit” and explore strategies for rehearsing articulation, balance, and tone. This final topic includes a video on using the piano to demonstrate harmonies and other musical features to the ensemble. Particularly in educational settings, it is important for the conductor to do more than treat the ensemble as his personal musical instrument. Instead, find opportunities to lead ensembles to an understanding of the music it is performing, a goal that only score study makes possible.
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Dr. Evan FeldmanAssociate Professor & Wind Ensemble Conductor
Music
[MUSIC]
We're often talking about, getting clarity and rehearsal for
a singer, it might mean an issue of diction.
For a or percussion player, it might mean tonguing technique or mouth technique.
For string instruments, we're often talking about bowing and bow technique.
Wondering if you can talk a little bit about how, bowing
interfaces with articulation, which interfaces with
phrasing and those sorts of issues.
>> Well, this is, again, something that,
I think has changed historically over the centuries.
Bowings as slur marks.
Have been written, all the way back to the Baroque era.
You look at Bach manuscripts, he has very clear slurs where
he wants things played in one bow, and then everything else separate.
You look at Mozart, very clear in the same way.
Beethoven also.
Once you start to get into the 19th century,
then things start to get a little more, more complicated.
Because slur marks start to be used as phrase marks, not only as bowing marks.
By the time you get to Brahms and Vagner, you've got slurs
that are sometimes four to eight bars long that shape an entire phrase.
But obviously, you can't play those all in one bow which is normally a slur.
Mark means for the stream player.
So, then, decisions have to be made.
>> And, just to intro for a second.
But, if you can show physically because this basically means that.
>> Yeah.
>> You.
You just run at it.
>> Essentially, there's, just.
You're going to run out of steam.
There's only so slowly, that you can move the boat before you reach the tip.
And, you're on a boat, and you've gotta change direction.
>> And, that's articulation when you take the risk.
>> That's, that's an articulation in a certain way.
Right.
>> A great player can make bow changes, virtually inaudible but
it's difficult, and sometimes I'll ask my orchestra, I'll say, look,
we've divided the bow in this passage here, but, I want
you to make it sound as if it's in one bow.
Make the change as smooth, and inaudible as possible.
So you have to make decisions in this repertoire as to how are
you going to achieve the long line that the composer has written musically.
As a long phrase.
But practically speaking, where are you going
to change the direction, whether it's down
or up bow in order to come out right at the end of the phrase.
Not to make it too choppy, but not to make it feel constricted.
If they don't have enough bow to use.
And so, these are things that have to be
planned out in advance and tried out in rehearsal.
Depends on your players and see if it works.
If you don't get enough sound you may have to change more often.
If it's too choppy you may have to ask them to try to use less bow.
More slowly and that change less often.
>> So the basic concept you're talking about
here, which is basically called Breaking the Slurs,.
>> Yes.
>> So, right, instead of having a 20 foot bow,
>> Mm-mm.
>> And do that so you break, >> Mm-mm.
>> The slurs, >> Mm-mm.
>> You state that within the slurs.
>> Yes.
You may break it sometimes at the end of two
bars or at the end of one bar or in the
middle of a bar if that's where the melodic line
rhythmically feels right for like, an internal subdivision of the phrase.
You have to use musical judgement for that.
And you may want to think about where do you want
to be in the bow at the end of that long slur.
So that it comes out right.
If you've got only three changes, you may end up at the wrong direction.
For the next passage that is notated.
So this is all, there are many variables that go into
deciding how to break that long slur to make it work.
>> What about in terms of, up bows and down bows?
In terms of making those decisions?
>> Well, again, the.
>> Just sort of, it's it's longer than we, with more, it's a longer
topic than we have time to dis, discuss now, but it isn't over for us.
>> Well, it is, but again, the up bow and the down bow have very.
Very different attack qualities.
Generally, if you want something with a firm
attack to start a piece, you're going to come down.
It's at the frog; it's got more energy.
It's got the weight or the bow, and if
you want a gentle, gentler attack, something you, you feel
like maybe sneaking into something more, you're going to start closer
to the tip or in the middle and move upwards.
And you're going to get less of an accent.
So that's a very sort of simplistic way of thinking that
down is more accented than up, but there are exceptions to that.
And there are sometimes cases where people will end on an up bow
and go dee dup, and make actually an accent on, on the up bow.
And then I have to remind them that, Please don't accent the up bow.
Release, of a phrase if the last note of a phrase.
And so, in some ways you're also making compromises with, we're not
always taking it as they say, as it comes, down, up, down, up.
Sometimes we might have to, just as we break
a slur, he might do two upbows in a row.
>> You might do that.
>> Or a series of strong down beats.
You might have subsequent down beats
>> You might have many bows, down bows in a row, exactly.
Way.
This is all part of the bowing process that is, done by the section
leaders in consultation, sometimes with the conductor
to get the musical effect that is desired.
And we'll talk about that more when we
talk about bowing in greater detail, I'd say.
But that's the basic premise of it.
And so when we have these long slurs that we have to figure out
how to make them sound long and
still comfortable for the players without overly articulating.
Even with separate notes sometimes you may want
to do a bunch of separate short notes on
all up, ba, ba, ba, ba, bas for a
certain lightness if the players are capable of it.
That's harder to do for less experienced players, and for professionals.
Sometimes just as it comes, which means down, up,
down, up, and sometimes the successive down buzz are
very good for harsh repeated cords and, mankato things
you know, like ripe Spring and things like that.
>> Yeah, a great resources for this would be Elizabeth Green's
book on bowing, which kind of delineates some great rules about bowing.
>> Yes.
>> But we'll talk more about bowing in other videos.
So often times, we might be a non-string
player, working with strings, what are some bowing techniques
or bowing issues or bowing terms that might
be useful for us to know to communicate effectively?
>> Well of course, we've we've talked briefly
already about the very basic up and down
and, and, and what they imply and the strength of a down bow gesture and stroke.
And the, corresponding lighter attack that you get with
an up bow, but that's only one of many things.
We've used the term as it comes, and when a string player uses that term
it means alternating bows down and up, down up, just on, every note.
Where there is no slur.
If there's a slur, that's all in one bow.
The next slur might be another bow.
So you'd have three or four notes slurred down, three or four
notes up, that's still as it comes because we haven't altered anything.
Once we start to alter what's printed.
Let's say if we divide the bow, there were four notes
under a slur, but we decide we'd rather have two and two.
Then we have to mark that in the part, and it's no longer as it comes.
>> So as it comes for a, say, wind player would mean that
every time that wood player would tongue something, we have a bow change.
>> Exactly.
>> Or every time a singer would use a constant,
>> Yes.
>> There's a bow change.
>> Yeah.
>> That's basically what >> Yeah.
>> That's basically what
>> Yeah.
>> As it comes means for strings.
>> Exactly.
>> Okay.
>> Yeah.
Then we have of course the idea of bow usage.
What part of the bow are we playing in.
Are we in the middle?
Are we at the tip?
Are we in the lower half?
These all produce a different kinds of sound that
may be useful for certain character and certain passages.
There's also the idea of bow pressure: how heavily are you pressing?
Bow speed, if you want a really quick chord that
goes shuh, like this, the entire length of the bow.
It gives a big ring and resonance to it,
rather than just using a few inches and going ruh.
Which is a little bit constricted and cut off.
So, you may ask in certain cases for faster
bow speed in order to get a certain effect.
Some of these things are most comfortably discussed
with your section leaders, with your concert master.
And, of course, you hope that your ensemble has an experienced player
sitting in that first chair, because they can be the most invaluable.
Person in the entire orchestra for our conductor.
Somebody that can, relate to the strings,
guide the strings, communicate for the strings.
And ideally, in the ideal world, a great
concert master can pretty much read the conductor's
mind as to what kind of sound and
styling and interpretation the conductor is trying to achieve.
We come to the rehearsal, with our preconceived
notion of the ideal interpretation of our piece.
And, it's not quite sounding the way we want.
And we can turn to our concert master and say, you know,
I'm not getting enough sound in this crescendo in the slow movement.
And they may say, okay, let's split the,
split the sir, the slur and divide the bow.
Instead of doing, you know, four notes down bow, let's do two down and two up.
The very fact of dividing the bow,
and changing the direction, you're going to use more
bow, you can use more pressure, and you can get a better crescendo that way.
That's a very simple.
The thing to do in order to get more sound out of a
slow passage, use more bow changes even,
if they aren't originally printed that way.
>> And then is that the more bow you use, essentially there's an air stream.
You can create more sound.
>> Exactly.
>> More space also >> Exactly.
>> If you want more sound, you could create more space.
>> Exactly.
>> So split to separate both.
>> Yeah.
>> This was the idea.
>> Much less constricted.
Everybody feels a lot freer.
They can give more sound and the, the
crescendo can build much more rapidly that way.
So, that's one thing they can do, but
the concert master can suggest many other things.
They can suggest let's do this passage at the tip.
To get a light sound and to just use a few inches of bow at
the very lightest part of the bow for a, more of a majero character in something.
Concert master of course, can do more than just suggest bowing
usage, they can suggest fingerings that may help solve a very difficult.
Technical passage, playing in a different position, on
a different string, may solve an internation problem.
You can turn to your concert master and say, can we
get something here that will help them play better in tune.
And they'll say, okay, why don't we use the
third finger here, and do this and shift here.
And it's solved.
That's the kind of thing that a conductor
who's a non-string player just can't get into.
There, they're not going to have that much.
Technical knowledge.
I think non-string conductors can certainly
come up with bowings, can suggest
bowings, or best yet is just turn to your concert master and
say, can you help us get a different quality here, I want
more marcato, I want more attack, or I want less sound here.
And they'll say okay, let's not do two slurs here,
let's put this all in one and we'll get a
quieter passage so, you'll find that concert masters
are very skilled at understanding what the conductor is trying to achieve.
Their main role is to take the conductor's musical conception.
And translated it into a practical solution, a technical solution, that
will make the strings sound the way the conductor is envisioning.
And this holds true not only for the first violins, it
will carry over to the seconds who often play in octaves or
accompanying in that way, and the rest of the strings, if
there's a passage where all the strings are doing similar rhythmic activity.
They're going to want to coordinate their bowings
so that they all have the same, usage.
They look the same visually and they feel they've got the
same stresses of verses down and up and all of that.
Section players behind the leaders have
the responsibility of watching the leaders.
If you're in a great orchestra, you will see, that all of the players.
Are using the same part of the bow and the same amount
and the same direction and they're following what the leader is doing.
It means keeping your eyes open.
It also means being able to see the person sitting
in the first chair and if they're, if the first chair
player is playing at the tip, you shouldn't be playing down
at the frog because you're going to be producing a different sound.
That will not mesh with the rest of the section.
So, those are some important things that you can think about in terms of bowings.
I remember we had a, Conductors Guild
conference in San Francisco a few years ago.
And we had a panel discussion
among concertmasters of various orchestras to discuss.
What their role was as a concert master in relation to the conductor.
I believe we had five concert masters.
I know we had the concert master of the San
Francisco Opera, and of the Oakland Symphony, and Sacramento Philharmonic.
We had one woman up there who was
concert master of three orchestras in Northern California.
A community based group, and a professional group, and one other.
And she said, she often plays the
same repertoire with the three different orchestras.
She'll do three completely different sets of bowings
for the three orchestras because they have different needs.
And that's a very important thing to think about.
There is no one bowing that suits every orchestra.
What the New York Philharmonic can do may be
terribly sophisticated and, and awkward for a community orchestra.
A conservatory orchestra is going to
have different pullings than a highschool orchestra.
So, you need to have understanding of the capabilities of your string players.
And, particularly, your section leaders need to know the capabilities of the
players behind them, and sometimes it's a very good idea to have
as many rehearsal, sectional rehearsals as possible, where you take all the
first violins in one room and the seconds in another, and the violas.
They work things out, the section leader often
by themselves, or sometimes here we faculty leading sectionals.
They'll see what works best.
And they'll see, okay this bowing is really good, for about half the section.
But the people back there are having trouble with it.
Let's try something different.
So adaptability is very, very important.
Adaptability for your particular ensemble, that
particular repertoire, and that conductor's conception.
Tempo has a lot to do with bowing also.
A slow tempo is going to demand a different bowing than
someone taking the same dante movement at a faster tempo.
The variables are all over the place.
>> So maybe, to summarize quickly in terms of how a non
string player may work with a string ensemble to work with a concert.
For the most experiences, experienced ensembles we can almost
trust that the musical conception of the conductor is going to
be interpreted into a physical idea for the string
players to put a dash and to create the sound.
>> That's the ideal.
>> On the other end of the spectrum, with varying experienced players,
>> Mm-hm.
>> We have to be a little more proactive.
>> Yes.
>> In perhaps suggesting the big picture ideas.
>> Yep.
>> Perhaps let's use more bow here for more sound.
Or more pressure.
More sound, or when we start on, on the tips
so we get a better crescendo going down towards the five.
And talk about big picture ideas, to kind of
collaborate with somebody's specific skills that they need.
And then maybe, in between, well it's sort of
in-between, where we might just suggest to the concert master.
Well, we need a more articulate >> Right.
>> Sound here.
What are, we >> Yeah.
>> Can't trust them necessarily.
>> Right.
>> To know, and to be able to read our minds.
>> Yep.
>> But at the same time, they know some of
these ideas so we can rely on them to suggest
>> They can quickly find the solution.
>> So,
>> And of course, the question of what to do with printed
bowings is also a complicated one because sometimes you get parts that have.
Printed bowings that were put in by the composer and other times you get parts
that are heavily edited and the printed bowings
are put in by some anonymous editor, and
then you get parts that have been,
if maybe you've borrowed them from somebody or
they're on rental, it may have bowings in
there from some previous ensemble that used them.
Some of them may be perfectly usable and
appropriate, some of them may need to be erased.
And, try something different.
So that's also part of the topic we will get into about preparation materials.
But there's a lot to bowing that sometimes what you see
in front of you may not be what you end up doing.
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