Volume I, Number 1 / Fall 2005
Conductors lead their ensembles in their own way. Some conduct with their hands; other rely on a baton. Some make grand gestures, physicalizing the music (think Bernstein), while others let (or better, make) the musicians pay strict attention to the littlest detail (think Leinsdorf). Everyone is capable of producing great music with his or her ensembles. So who are we to tell you, the conductor, how to conduct?
The answer is that everyone could use a pointer now and then. In future issues of the Orchestra Newsletter we will give some of our favorite tips (or send in yours!). For now, however, we will just give some general reminders for learning a new score.
* READ YOUR SCORE IN A QUIET SETTING WITHOUT DISTRACTIONS.
Don?t read for the details just yet. Get an overall sense of the music, both as it sounds and how it looks on the page.
* READ IT AGAIN; UNLESS YOU HAVE PERFECT PITCH, DO SO THIS TIME AT A PIANO.
Play it through if you can, but at least get an aural sense of the melodic lines (or lack thereof), the harmonies (or lack thereof), the rhythmic pulse, and so on.
* GO THROUGH IT YET AGAIN, THIS TIME MAKING NOTE OF ANY CHANGES IN KEY, METER, TEMPO, DYNAMICS, AND ANY OTHER SIGNIFICANT ENTRANCES.
Many conductors mark their scores with colored pencils or markers so they can refer to them during the actual rehearsal or performance, while others mark things lightly in regular pencil as a reminder until they can memorize the score.
Some conductors make no marks at all. If you use the color approach, beware: Some colors wash out under the bright lights of a performance, especially if the lights have ?gels? on them the same color as your marking! Be sure to use darker colors (black, green, blue) that can still be seen.
Then go through the score again. And again....
Featured Writer: CLARK McALISTER
To say that Clark McAlister is a man of many talents is an understatement:
Gifted composer, arranger, conductor; insightful editor; businessman; even a
oenophile with impeccable taste.
Dr. McAlister holds a DMA in Composition and Conducting from the University of Miami,
where his mentors included Alfred Reed and Frederick Fennell.
McAlister, the recipient of a Fellowship in Composition from the Florida Arts Council,
has been Music Administrator and Assistant Conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra of
Florida, Music Director at Palm Beach Community College, instructor at Canford Summer
School of Music, U.K., Music Director of the Deerfield Beach Symphony Orchestra, and
Composer-in-Residence at the University of Montana at Missoula. He has written for a
wide variety of genres and has many works performed, published, and recorded. In
addition, Clark McAlister is Vice President of E.F. Kalmus and Masters Music.
For a list of Kalmus & Masters Music works composed or arranged by Clark McAlister,
go to the Kalmus website (see “Hyperlinks”) and do a search on
“McAlister.”