Good morning,
“For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.” -- Rudyard Kipling, The Second Jungle Book (1895)
I received the above quotation from Adam Torson. It seemed like an appropriate epigram to begin today’s Musing about conductors, the wolf who orders and leads the pack to much more than the sum of its parts…
One of the most popular current movies, likely to do well in the Oscars, is Maestro. It is about the great Leonard Bernstein, told primarily through the story of his marriage and its infidelities. This Bradley Cooper opus, in which he stars and directs, peeks into the world of conductors, as did the recent fictional Tar, starring Cate Blanchett. Both show the conductor as immensely talented, an absorbing presence, larger than life, and more than a little bit narcissistic and self-destructive. As one watches either movie, one is transfixed by the talent and the power of these individuals.
Some people, often those who mimic conducting while listening to their favorite classical piece in their living room, think they could do it. But to take music on the page, as may be interpreted by multiple individual musicians, and create a common interpretation—emphasizing the appropriate notes, encouraging greater or lesser participation from each player through the piece, and putting one’s signature on it is hardly child’s play. Most conductors are experienced at multiple instruments. Many have composed some of their own music. Bernstein himself was responsible for a number of meaningful works, including the light opera Candide, as well as Mass and Kaddish. Conductors are not merely metronomes. They are not merely reference points. They are drawing upon the talents of the multiple musicians to create a performance that is shaped by the ear and the talents of the conductor.
We have a strange fascination with symphonic conductors—even among those who don’t regularly attend the symphony. There is something about the ritual of a concert’s beginning that is both routine and yet exhilarating. Musicians wander out on the stage and begin warming up. It is a wall of sounds clashing with each other. Then the concertmaster comes out, bringing the cacophony of instruments down when he raises a hand to instruct an oboist to play an “A,” against which the other instruments tune their instruments to that note. But even the tuning, while more focused, also is disorderly and unruly. That is, until the conductor takes the stage, shakes the concertmaster’s hand and steps up to the podium. He or she lifts their arms and with a downward stroke, order is achieved and music is made.
The fascination with the symphony found its way into cartoons—first with Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer conductor in Fantasia. It is not an accident he was a sorcerer. After all, the conductor conducts a bit of sorcery by bringing all the disorganization of individual instruments to order. Later, many of us were exposed to classical standards through Loony Tunes and other Saturday morning fare!
If you haven’t seen Maestro or Tar, try to see them both.
BERNSTEIN’S GREATNESS
Candide is a great work of theatre and a great work of symphonic music. This recording of its Overture affords the listener the benefit of the London Symphony Orchestra’s talents, but also their accomplishments under Leonard Bernstein himself. This video expresses the maestro’s genius in ways words cannot:
For a different side of Mr. Bernstein, here he is with the introductory speech to the first “Kennedy Centers Honors” in 1978. It’s only a little over a minute long. The man had grace and presence:
Bernstein Kennedy Center Honors Intro
Have a great day,
Glenn
No mention of Westside Story???