{"id":569,"date":"2007-12-07T10:55:10","date_gmt":"2007-12-07T18:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/12\/07\/stage-atlas\/"},"modified":"2013-02-07T18:23:13","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T02:23:13","slug":"stage-atlas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/12\/07\/stage-atlas\/","title":{"rendered":"stage atlas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Hovnanian, of the erstwhile CSO Bass Blog (now just the Bass Blog due to some flap over whether he can use the CSO name in a blog), has just published a great post on the habitual nature of the orchestral musician and the troubles it can cause<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In most orchestras, the way you see the orchestra on stage is the way they play every day, every week, every year. Year in and year out, until a new music director comes along to change the set up. In the Oregon Symphony under James DePreist we used to sit like this:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

When Carlos Kalmar came we changed our configuration to this:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And we had one guest conductor (I don’t remember who) who came before we hired Carlos who had us set up in the manner that Michael Hovnanian talks about in his post:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I remember the page turning thing being a bit strange, just as Michael relates. I think that we might have adopted the seating system that those on the left (audience) side of the stage use, in which the principal player sits on the right (as opposed to on the right side, where the principal sits on the left side of the desk). I think shortly after this arrangement, there became a policy that the orchestra retains its layout in music director format no matter who is on the podium.<\/p>\n

That’s how most seemingly idiotic or arbitrary work rules come about: something is done without consulting the orchestra or giving them enough warning (we are habitual personalities, after all) and then a rule is put in place which prohibits whatever caused the fuss in the first place. Common sense doesn’t really play a part in this stuff (if it did, our contract would be one page long).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Hovnanian, of the erstwhile CSO Bass Blog (now just the Bass Blog due to some flap over whether he can use the CSO name in a blog), has just published a great post on the habitual nature of the orchestral musician and the troubles it can cause.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[115,2],"tags":[86,55,3666,62,3660],"class_list":["post-569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-conductor","tag-orchestra","tag-oregon","tag-symphony","tag-viola"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-9b","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":279,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/04\/16\/adam-flatt-to-newport-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":569,"position":0},"title":"adam flatt to newport symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Click for photo: Adam Flatt It's always gratifying to hear of a great musician and person who manages to succeed in this tough business. I just learned that my old buddy Adam Flatt (who was a conducting apprentice here in Portland just after I arrived) has been appointed as the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1284,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/10\/16\/pesky-string-players\/","url_meta":{"origin":569,"position":1},"title":"pesky string players","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Bassist Michael Hovnanian, member of a Major Midwestern Orchestra With a Notably Loud Brass Section, wrote a hilarious description of guest conductor Jaap van Zweeden rehearsing Bruckner's Fifth Symphony: The Dutch violinist turned conductor spent more rehearsal time than normal dealing with the strings; in a work such as the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "bloggers"","block_context":{"text":"bloggers","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/bloggers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12482,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/02\/20\/a-legend-steps-down\/","url_meta":{"origin":569,"position":2},"title":"a legend steps down","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Chicago Symphony has announced that its principal horn for the past 47 seasons, Dale Clevenger, will retire effective June 30, 2013. From the orchestra's press release: Concluding a distinguished career of nearly five decades as principal horn with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Dale Clevenger will retire from the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "french horn"","block_context":{"text":"french horn","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/instruments\/french-horn\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"clev2","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/clev2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6131,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/04\/10\/gestures-in-chicago\/","url_meta":{"origin":569,"position":3},"title":"gestures in chicago","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 I love the musings of Michael Hovnanian, who is a double bass player with a Major Midwestern Orchestra (in Oprahtown). He has written yet another gem of a post, which has one of those paragraphs that I simply had to share: Dutoit stayed for another week to lead us\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4470,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/04\/18\/kalmar-gets-positive-reviews-in-chicago\/","url_meta":{"origin":569,"position":4},"title":"kalmar gets positive reviews in chicago","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"John Von Rhein - Chicago Tribune The standard orchestral fare \u2014 Spanish and French works written for the dance or later appropriated for the ballet \u2014 that surrounded the Cerrudo premiere didn't promise much. But Kalmar, who was making his subscription series debut as a replacement for Esa-Pekka Salonen (who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/kalmar_original.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":459,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/10\/04\/web-ticket-offer-from-oregon-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":569,"position":5},"title":"web ticket offer from Oregon Symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This will be a great concert, and for $10 - c'mon, it's a steal! $10 Friends and Family offer Spanish Splendor with the Oregon Symphony October 13-15 Carlos Kalmar, conductor Patricia Risley, mezzo-soprano Join us for an evening filled with mystery and surprise\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 love, passion and seduction. Featuring the cheerful,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/10\/oslogo.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}