What Goes On At Orchestra Rehearsals?

You might be interested to hear something about what actually goes on at rehearsals. I think I know a thing or two about this, having spent thousands of hours in rehearsals myself as a performing musician.

The conductor is much more than just a time beater. Keeping the orchestra together is an important part of the job, but there are countless other details which need to be taken care of. I covered what conductors do in an earlier post, but here is a description of what actually happens in rehearsal.

Each musician is responsible for his or her individual part, but the conductor has to make a thorough study of the full score, which shows all the different parts together, with woodwinds at the top, then brass, percussion, and strings at the bottom. Works for large orchestras can have 30 or more lines going on at the same time! And the conductor has to have studied it thoroughly, or else he or she has no business conducting in the first place!

Some famous conductors, such as Toscanini and the Greek Dimitri Mitropoulos, had amazing photographic memories, and could look at a score, memorize the whole thing, and point out any mistake at rehearsals on the part of musicians!

The conductor is there to co-ordinate everything, rather like the director of a movie. He or she will start a rehearsal, which is usually planned so that each musician knows which work on the program is being rehearsed, in case he or she is not playing that piece on a particular program. Not every musician is needed for every piece.

At the first rehearsal, some conductors will just run through a work without stopping, unless something goes wrong and things just break down. Then, he or she will go over different sections, pointing out mistakes, fixing problems with intonation, or playing in tune (very important), adjusting balances, that is making sure that instrumental lines can be heard clearly, and that the brass are not too loud, which can be a serious problem.

Like a movie director, a conductor will often explain how he or she would like the music to be played in terms of expressive character and phrasing, and tone quality, to get the precise effect he or she would like. Musicians don't generally like the conductor to hem and haw, using flowery language such as "Play it like the sun coming up at dawn!". However, they do appreciate pithy language and humor. And they hate conductors who just keep talking and talking, thereby wasting time.

There are so many details. The concertmaster, or principal violin, and the section leaders of the other string sections, decide how the sections should bow, up or down, for uniform bowing, and other details of string playing, but the conductor, particularly if he or she is a string player, may ask for changes during rehearsal, if the bowings are not quite right to him or her.

The musicians will sometimes ask the conductor to give a clearer beat in certain spots of a piece to help in clarity. The conductor will often give cues for musicians to come in at certain areas, such as solos, as the music can be rhythmically complex and knowing exactly when to come in can be difficult. The conductor often has to give gestures showing when exactly when the musicians should cut off and stop playing after entrances.

Professional orchestral musicians have been known to be very naughty at times. When a conductor is new to the orchestra, they have been known to make deliberate mistakes, such as wrong notes and playing out of tune on purpose, just to test the conductor's abilities! This is something like the way kids in school will tease a substitute teacher.

Conductors who don't beat time clearly and have a solid technique make life very difficult for orchestras. But certain famous maestros such Russian Serge Koussevitzky and German Wilhelm Furtwangler, were able to make illustrious careers through sheer willpower and force of personality despite deficient baton techniques.

So basically, what musicians in an orchestra want is a conductor who really knows the score, has a solid technique beating time, rehearses efficiently and inspires them during performances. It's all in the rehearsal; the actual performance depends on what goes on beforehand.

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