Andre Jones

The Complete Conductor

Chapter 13:

One of the most interesting thing in this chapter was the mention of the American style
of reference to bands and orchestras versus the European style. According to the book,
a musician is typically a member of an orchestra or band in America and not so much a
wind ensemble, or chamber group if that were the case.
Avoid limiting your abilities based on previous conducting experiences. A wind ensemble
and or orchestra should not be treated too much differently than a choir or vocal
ensemble.
The English refers to their orchestras by the conductors name. for eg. Richerts Band
The string body is an orchestras primal force.
Orchestral score order: Flutes- oboe- Clarinets- bassoon English horn- bass clarinet
brass (French horn (who is usually voiced with wood winds)- Trumpet- cornet-
trombones bass trombone- tuba violin 1 violin 2 viola-cello- violincello-
contrabass- harp/celesta- piano and percussions
When considering the seating for a band or orchestra, the prime consideration should
always be that of acoustic balance.
As a conductor, one must make the study of instruments, their qualities, their strengths
and their weaknesses a life long study.

The overall purpose of this chapter seems to have been stating the difference between an
orchestra and a wind ensemble or a band, and explaining the difference in reference
terminologies between Americans and the English. Towards the end of the chapter, there
was some advice to the conductor when preparing for auditioning and seating the students
after an audition.

Take students to their limits in an audition

Provide a problem of tuning and ask the students to resolve it.
The audition repertoire must challenge sight reading and musicianship
Develop a criteria for which musicians will be graded on. Be prepared.

Chapter 14:
This chapter covers the history of conducting of music that dates back to the late Renaissance
and early Baroque. A brief history was given on the life and works of the brief works of Giovani
Gabrieli followed by one of the pieces he composed along with some observations that were
made of the piece. In the observation of the excerpt, the author pointed out the phrases in
each instrumental line, the instrumental choices and the texture of the of the piece, Sonata
Andre Jones

pian e forte. In this piece, the author did mention however, the string of unrelated melodic
phrases that followed each other throughout the piece which he stated resembles a Point-of-
imitation structure.
The author goes on to further discuss the major and minor characteristics of this late
renaissance piece of music and also point out that this piece was written and scored for two
choirs of instruments which I would describe as a high brass and low brass ensemble based on
the scoring I see.

This chapter basically looks at the scoring of pieces of music from the time periods mentioned
before. It discusses the part writing techniques employed when composing, which members of
the chords are most likely to left out and which are more likely to doubled. This chapter can be
condensed into the topic of species and part writing in the early baroque period and voicing
preferences for some conductors.

Chapters 15 and 16 provide perspectives on the music of late Baroque, early and late classical
and the 20th century time periods along with suggested tips and hints on timbres of particular
instruments for each time period. I do not find the suggestions to be of interests as I have
played a piece a few times under different conductors and they have often asked for something
different than the previous conductor. And again, the discussion of the voicing for each period
is reminiscent of music theory class. What I do find helpful however, is the suggestion to do
research on the composing and the background of each piece as they do a lot to tell the
character of the piece music being performed and what the conductor should be demanding
from the ensemble, whether orchestra or band.