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This essay is part of an ongoing series on the Art of Rehearsal. It is also a lightly edited excerpt from an article published in the Journal of the International Conductors Guild, vol. 35 (2024) pp. 1-8. Please get in touch if you’d like to receive the rest.
Introduction
Many conductors have careers involving work with a diverse range of ensembles, including large orchestras, school and youth orchestras of various sizes, opera companies, professional new music ensembles, university ensembles, bands, and choirs. These contexts represent significant differences in musician expertise and require different approaches in rehearsal.
Imagine two of these ensembles in separate rehearsals, each presented with the dynamic marking pppp in their respective repertoire, and take for granted competent physical conducting.In the case of the professional new music ensemble, I could ask the string musicians to play as softly as they would expect to play in Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question, as one approach.Our mutual literacy in the repertoire would create a basis for appropriate adjustment. Meanwhile, with the youth orchestra full of students presumably less skilled and less familiar with Ives, I might need to spend more time teaching the mechanics of the bow, asking for a change of bow speed, weight, contact point, or tilt in order to achieve the desired sound, and I may use some pedagogical language mixed with age-appropriate humor to help deliver the remedy.
This scenario produces a question: if it would have been true to say on a given day that,“I enjoyed last night’s rehearsal with the youth orchestra, and tonight I have a rehearsal with the professional new music ensemble,” in what sense is the word rehearsal used to indicate the same fundamental activity?
Mei-Ann Chen refers to a slowed-down repetition of a passage the "yoga version." Alsop and Chen both sometimes use the strategy with professionals, albeit without a moniker.
This structuring question stayed with me in my prior university role when I was confronted with the prospect of training a classroom full of junior music education majors to lead rehearsals. I was astonished to find out just how few pedagogical resources exist. I believe that this lack of pedagogy stems from a limited theoretical literature. To develop this literature, additional primary research should be undertaken.
In service of that aim, the following exploratory study interviews three elite conductors about their views on the topic of rehearsal technique. It serves as one approach to the kinds of research which would aid in developing theories with explanatory power, practical value, and pedagogical utility.
I interviewed conductors Marin Alsop, Mei-Ann Chen, and Leonard Slatkin. Each conductor provided their perspective on rehearsal methodology based on their experiences leading elite orchestras, experience which is central to the study. The interviews were conducted between late February and late March of 2023 and lasted between 40-95 minutes each. When it would be helpful to deal in concrete examples, I asked each conductor to refer to Brahms, Symphony No. 2, Op. 73 as a starting point. I identify the points of consensus that surfaced through analysis, corresponding to an emerging body of principles by which a framework might be developed. I conclude by discussing implications, prescribing further research, and grounding my findings in a larger body of interdisciplinary literature.
Definition
The term “Rehearsal Technique” is vague and contested. To limit the scope, the following definition of rehearsal technique will serve to inform the way in which the following discussion unfolds.
Rehearsal Technique. For present purposes, “rehearsal technique,” “the rehearsal activity,” and “rehearsal skills” more narrowly refer to the discrete skill set and accompanying knowledge required of a conductor to effectively lead an orchestra in the preparation of repertoire for orchestral performance during a rehearsal. Physical conducting technique, score study, and other musicianship skills, all critical prerequisites to effective rehearsal, are excluded from “rehearsal technique” as discrete bodies of knowledge which have historically received considerable scholarly, pedagogical, and creative attention.”1
Findings
Each conductor provided a unique perspective which is a function of their personal experiences with the specific orchestras they have led, their training, their generation, and their other unique qualities. They provided many aligning points of view which suggest that there may exist a certain number of conventional principles of orchestral leadership, or that there may exist a limited number of practical approaches which have proven effective. Proposing a complete hierarchical theory is beyond the scope of this paper; accordingly, findings are provided alphabetically by topic.
Ability to Triage
Using rehearsal time wisely involves understanding what performance concerns warrant the use of rehearsal time. As Slatkin put it, “there are places, as you kind of hinted at, where you have to say, ‘Okay, I'm gonna let this go. Because I would rather spend my time on this [other detail].’” Alsop described this by reference to a change in approach depending on the repertoire and the sheer length of the composition or duration of the program: “When you do a Mahler symphony as opposed to a Brahms symphony, it's just so much longer that you have to let more things go.”
Marin Alsop in Rehearsal with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. Link.
According to the subjects, a knowledge of which performance elements are the most critical to a successful performance is context-dependent. Each composer creates music in an envelope of style, in which different musical elements might take precedence. A conventional melodic line is not important in music by Varèse, whereas orchestration in the modern sense is present but less central to music by Bach than is counterpoint. Effective triage takes these stylistic differences into account.
Alsop revealed that key to triage is the experience of the conductor to recognize the types of rehearsal problems that require the conductor to allocate valuable rehearsal time to the issue, and the types that do not: “what I've learned is that many, many things fix themselves. But how do you assess that as a young conductor? That's very difficult to assess.” Slatkin emphasized the value of structural analysis, in that recurring themes can often be rehearsed just once with the expectation that they be played with the same style in subsequent appearances: “…maybe you find some things where a repeated element keeps recurring. And you can say, ‘I'm going to do it this way, every time.’”
Context: Place/Time
Many British and American orchestras rely on as little as one rehearsal for many programs, while many German and Scandinavian orchestras will have six to eight rehearsals for a typical concert. Each conductor discussed the way in which more rehearsal time requires a fundamentally different level of detail and skillfulness. Alsop described having an extensive number of rehearsals as an opportunity for, “taking the elevator down another level.” In these cases, the conductor might have the time to talk about matching vibrato, bow speed, internal balance within a section, etc. to a much greater degree. Chen described it as learning to “slow-cook,” the meal.
Context: Musician Expertise
Chen, who has a deep background across the widest possible range of orchestras by ability level, warned that not all teaching techniques that are appropriate for student orchestras are transferrable to professionals. As one example, she mentions that at times, a conductor might ask a student orchestra to perform a “yoga version” of a passage, by which she means playing more softly and slowly, to work out a certain technique without as much physical or mental effort required. Meanwhile, she contends that such a method would be viewed as disrespectful by a professional orchestra. However, Alsop utilizes slowed-down repetitions of difficult passages to help develop facility in the case of a work that is unfamiliar to the orchestra, as observed in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s preparation of Christopher Rouse’s Symphony No. 6. This would suggest that new, unfamiliar, and unorthodox pieces may open up a wider array of potential rehearsal techniques than would be appropriate in the case of standard repertoire. Implicit in these distinctions is an underlying similarity in structure common to the two contexts…
Those are the first three topics that emerged from my interviews with Chen, Alsop, and Slatkin. If you’d like to read the paper, please get in touch and share something about yourself - I’d be happy to send it to you.
1. Jordan Randall Smith, “Rehearsal Technique: A Critical Review of Selected Literature,” CODA Journal 15 (2022): 75–107; Alyssa N. Grey, “Conducting and Rehearsal Skills in Preservice Music Education: A Review of the Litera-ture,” Journal of Music Teacher Education, April 19, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1177/10570837221091223; Rachel A. Sorenson, “Error Detection in Music Education: A Review of Literature,” Update: Applications of Research in Music Education 40, no. 1 (October 1, 2021): 54–62, https://doi.org/10.1177/87551233211020989.