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18 - Economy of Gesture, Cueing, Use of the Left Hand

from PART THREE - The Conductor's Hands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2013

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Summary

The conductor Fritz Reiner was famous for making very small gestures, forcing musicians to keep him in their sights every second. He had the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on a hair trigger, with remarkable results. When one of his students tried the same minimal technique at a competition, the orchestra didn't play at all and the poor man was thrown out. In despair, he telephoned his teacher. “What do you do, Dr. Reiner, when you conduct and the musicians don't play?” “I fire them,” replied the sardonic Reiner.

Some people are more demonstrative and flamboyant than others. Nobody wants to stop a conductor from being himself or expressing what's in his heart, but controlling the size of gestures does have many advantages. It makes an orchestra “come to you” instead of you throwing everything at them, creating better concentration and closer rapport. Otherwise, they're forced to “filter out” half of what you're doing. From a practical point of view, it's hard to hear what's going on if you thrash about too much, because air is rushing past your ears and you'll probably get out of breath. Big gesturing is often rhythmically inaccurate; it encourages everybody to play loud so the audience only hears the brass and percussion. For much of the time, good orchestras play together by listening and sensing what to do, as in chamber music. A conductor needs to capitalize on this skill and not thrash it out of existence. Conductor Antal Dorati made this scathing comment: “Useless and exaggerated conductorial gesturing is especially disgusting because it is unnecessary.”

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Inside Conducting , pp. 86 - 91
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2013

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