Ask An Expert: Conductor Prep
This week's Ask An Expert question comes from Cinda Yager, who asks:
Q: How far in advance of rehearsals/concert does a conductor begin preparing/studying the scores? Is most of the preparation done at the piano or on the road?
This one, clearly, is right up Sarah's alley. So here she is, live from Seoul (and somehow still awake!)
Sarah's Answer: It really depends on the situation (and on the conductor! For the ease of answering, I'll speak for myself and not for all of conductor-kind, although most people I know have similar score-preparation philosophies.)
For repertoire I know well (and that I've performed fairly recently - say, in the couple of years,) I probably only need a couple of hours over a few days before the first rehearsal. For less familiar repertoire, I'll push up the preparation so I start looking at the piece a week to 10 days before, maybe spending 8-10 hours total on it. Pieces that I've studied but not conducted require a different kind of preparation, because I may understand them from an analytical and theoretical standpoint, but I may need technical preparation to get my ideas across clearly to the orchestra. Any piece that I don't know requires a LOT of work - I'd say 10-20 hours for every hour of music, at least, to really understand it. I try to start at least a month out.
Much of my work is at the keyboard, because I find it much easier to score read (i.e., look at a full orchestral score, reduce it in my head, and play it at the piano) than to simply visualize or try to hear things in my head. Of course, there are times when I'm on the road and don't have access to a keyboard, which makes things difficult. I have a very easy time hearing melodies and standard harmonic progressions, but I find complicated chords and extremely chromatic harmonies difficult, so I really prefer a keyboard if at all possible.
Memorizing a score is a whole other topic and requires it's own timeline!
I tend to start preparation very early, because I find it easier to digest information if I take in smaller pieces over a longer period of time. Osmo has told me he often will wait to really delve into a score because if he starts too early, he begins to second-guess decisions he has made. He goes through an enormous amount of repertoire a year, and with his schedule, there really is no time for second guessing!
Q: How far in advance of rehearsals/concert does a conductor begin preparing/studying the scores? Is most of the preparation done at the piano or on the road?
This one, clearly, is right up Sarah's alley. So here she is, live from Seoul (and somehow still awake!)
Sarah's Answer: It really depends on the situation (and on the conductor! For the ease of answering, I'll speak for myself and not for all of conductor-kind, although most people I know have similar score-preparation philosophies.)
For repertoire I know well (and that I've performed fairly recently - say, in the couple of years,) I probably only need a couple of hours over a few days before the first rehearsal. For less familiar repertoire, I'll push up the preparation so I start looking at the piece a week to 10 days before, maybe spending 8-10 hours total on it. Pieces that I've studied but not conducted require a different kind of preparation, because I may understand them from an analytical and theoretical standpoint, but I may need technical preparation to get my ideas across clearly to the orchestra. Any piece that I don't know requires a LOT of work - I'd say 10-20 hours for every hour of music, at least, to really understand it. I try to start at least a month out.
Much of my work is at the keyboard, because I find it much easier to score read (i.e., look at a full orchestral score, reduce it in my head, and play it at the piano) than to simply visualize or try to hear things in my head. Of course, there are times when I'm on the road and don't have access to a keyboard, which makes things difficult. I have a very easy time hearing melodies and standard harmonic progressions, but I find complicated chords and extremely chromatic harmonies difficult, so I really prefer a keyboard if at all possible.
Memorizing a score is a whole other topic and requires it's own timeline!
I tend to start preparation very early, because I find it easier to digest information if I take in smaller pieces over a longer period of time. Osmo has told me he often will wait to really delve into a score because if he starts too early, he begins to second-guess decisions he has made. He goes through an enormous amount of repertoire a year, and with his schedule, there really is no time for second guessing!
Labels: ask an expert, conductors and conducting, score study
posted by Sam at
12:02 PM
1 Comments:
Thank you, Sarah! I had thought the preparation for a concert began much earlier, and perhaps for some pieces it does, but it's helpful to know that the work is probably constant anyway, preparing one concert after another during the year. I hope Seoul goes well!
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