The problem with making conductorial convulsions the source of all musical inspiration is that they are often vague. The other night, my stand partner asked what I thought about the Maestro ‘glaring’ at us during a certain passage. I thought he had been smiling at that point, and so had aimed my toothiest grin back in the direction of the podium. Needles [sic] to say, after the performance I departed the concert hall more quickly than usual, just in case. Paradoxically, much of a conductor’s strength comes from that vagueness, in that it binds the musicians more closely to him – the source of confusion simultaneously its only solution.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve always wondered why conductors do (or don’t do) certain things that seem either idiotic or genius-y in the heat of the moment. Then I read this paragraph in Michael Hovnanian’s blog – I think he’s hit the nail on the head: The problem with making conductorial convulsions the source of all musical inspiration is […]<\/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":[299,2492,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conducting","category-double-bass","category-the-orchestra-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-1Ty","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1480,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/03\/why-so-many-bad-conductors\/","url_meta":{"origin":7288,"position":0},"title":"why so many bad conductors?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In one of his recent posts, Robert Levine asks why certain conductors or so over-payed in comparison to the average musician in their ensembles, and suggests that the answer might be found in the concept of scarcity: It is a core weakness of the orchestra industry world-wide that there are\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":2936,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/08\/03\/conducting-isnt-as-easy-as-it-looks\/","url_meta":{"origin":7288,"position":1},"title":"conducting isn’t as easy as it looks","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Violinist Ron Blessinger\/Photo: Absolute Images Violinist Ron Blessinger, who is a member of the Oregon Symphony as well as Artistic Director of the Third Angle New Music Ensemble, reports in a blog entry today about his experience at the Rose City Conducting Workshop last week.\u00a0 It's an interesting and entertaining\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"p_blessinger.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/p_blessinger.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13550,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2014\/09\/02\/haydn-go-seek\/","url_meta":{"origin":7288,"position":2},"title":"haydn go seek?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, that's what the great Leonard 'Lenny' Bernstein is doing here with the Vienna Philharmonic. He's employing a minimalist method of conducting - but he still\u00a0is conducting. He's using his most important conductorial attributes: his eyes and face. All the great ones do - and it's what makes for almost\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/oU0Ubs2KYUI\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14427,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2016\/12\/30\/james-depreist-conducting-in-1966\/","url_meta":{"origin":7288,"position":3},"title":"James DePreist conducting in 1966","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I just became aware of this video from the New York Philharmonic's Young People's Concerts. It was filmed in 1966. Leonard Bernstein introduces the conductor for Mussorgsky's\u00a0Pictures at an Exhibition - the young James DePreist (he was 30 years old at the time). It's amazing to see all the mannerisms\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/dB4jM3tlXgU\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":860,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/03\/17\/atlanta-re-ups-its-conducting-staff\/","url_meta":{"origin":7288,"position":4},"title":"atlanta re-ups its conducting staff","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Atlanta Symphony music director Robert Spano and principal guest conductor Donald Runnicles have both had their contracts extended - Spano's through the 2013-2014 season, and Runnicles' through the 2010-2011 season. Robert Spano (photo courtesy Kirshbaum Demler & Associates ) Donald Runnicles (photo courtesy San Francisco Opera) Not much of a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Robert Spano","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/spano-andrew-eccles.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2801,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/07\/02\/maazel-on-conducting\/","url_meta":{"origin":7288,"position":5},"title":"maazel on conducting","author":"Charles Noble","date":"July 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A great quote from an NPR story on Lorin Maazel and his music festival held on his 500 acre estate in Virginia, which you can hear here (and see photos from the festival). \"You don't talk; you do. And [you] do by having a hand which has been trained to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"phil-maazel-brahms","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/phil-maazel-brahms-400x450.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7288","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=7288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7288\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/iStock_000002018724XSmall.jpg?resize=425%2C282\" "\\"Conductor")
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