Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- PART ONE The Conductor's Mind
- PART TWO The Conductor's Skills
- PART THREE The Conductor's Hands
- PART FOUR The Conductor and the Musicians
- PART FIVE The Conductor and the Instruments
- PART SIX The Conductor, the Composer, and the Score
- PART SEVEN The Conductor and the Audience
- PART EIGHT The Conductor and “the Business”
- PART NINE Inside the Conductor
- 46 Concentration
- 47 Control and Power
- 48 Ego
- 49 Languages
- 50 Nervousness
- 51 Our Heritage: Some Ancestors and My Links with Them
- Suggested Reading
- Musical Example Credits
- A Note on the Illustrations
- Index of Conductors
46 - Concentration
from PART NINE - Inside the Conductor
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2013
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- PART ONE The Conductor's Mind
- PART TWO The Conductor's Skills
- PART THREE The Conductor's Hands
- PART FOUR The Conductor and the Musicians
- PART FIVE The Conductor and the Instruments
- PART SIX The Conductor, the Composer, and the Score
- PART SEVEN The Conductor and the Audience
- PART EIGHT The Conductor and “the Business”
- PART NINE Inside the Conductor
- 46 Concentration
- 47 Control and Power
- 48 Ego
- 49 Languages
- 50 Nervousness
- 51 Our Heritage: Some Ancestors and My Links with Them
- Suggested Reading
- Musical Example Credits
- A Note on the Illustrations
- Index of Conductors
Summary
I was very impressed by something the trumpet player Philip Jones told me when I was twenty-two: “I know dozens of young trumpeters who play much better than me. But do you know what I've got that they don't have? Concentration.”
Good conductors use an intensity of concentration needed in very few other jobs. This enables them, often in an uncanny way, to project thoughts and feelings to the musicians. Arthur Nikisch had a reputation for mesmerizing an orchestra. Someone who played for Arturo Toscanini told me he sometimes felt a strange sensation, like a hand pushing down on his head, when the maestro wanted him to play more quietly.
It's infectious—the players are drawn to concentrate as deeply as the conductor. I remember a violinist telling me after a rehearsal in Holland that he worked as a part-time hypnotherapist. “So you may be interested to know,” he said, “that when you conduct, you put the orchestra into a light trance.” I was somewhat taken aback, but in the end I decided it was probably a compliment.
An audience picks up a conductor's concentration and involvement. People sense that something important is going on and want to be part of it. If they don't feel that way, they'll get very little out of a concert and become restless or even noisy.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Inside Conducting , pp. 235 - 236Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2013