Showing posts with label Conducting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Conducting. Show all posts

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Richard Strauss Quotes

QUOTES
WRITTEN BY STRAUSS
It's a funny thing, Alice, 
dying is just the way I composed it
in "Tod und Verklärung."
Richard Strauss to his daughter-in-law
as he lay on his deathbed in 1949
*********
Never look at the trombones;
it only encourages them.
I may not be a first-rate composer,
but I am a first-class second-rate composer.
Richard Strauss
*********
The human voice
is the most beautiful instrument of all,
but it is the most difficult to play.
Richard Strauss
*********
I shall never be converted,
and I shall remain true
to my old religion
of the classics
until my life's end.
*********
The most terrible period
of human history
is at an end,
the twelve year reign of bestiality, 
ignorance and anti-culture
under the greatest criminals,
during which Germany's 2000 years 
of cultural evolution
met its doom.
*********
Of everything I have written,
it’s the songs I like best.
Richard Strauss
*********
Where does the kitsch end
and the opera begin?
Richard Strauss
*********
He'd be better off
shoveling snow.
Richard Strauss on Arnold Schoenberg,
the great innovator of the twelve-tone technique of composition
*********
No one wants to quit when he's losing
and no one wants to quit when he's winning.
Richard Strauss
*********
It is in learning music
that many youthful hearts
learn to love.
Richard Strauss
*********
I work very long on melodies.
Richard Strauss
*********
I have more skill,
but he is greater.
Richard Strauss about Sibelius
*********
The important thing
is not the beginning of the melody
but its continuation, its development
into a fully completed artistic form.
Richard Strauss
*********
In any narrative-epic,
dramatic, or musical-
every word or tone should be
like a soldier marching
towards the one, common, final goal;
conquest of the material.
The way the artist makes
every phrase of his story such a soldier,
serving to unfold it,
to support its structure and development,
to build plot and counter plot,
to distribute light and shade
to point incessantly
and lead up gradually
to the climax-
in short,
the way every fragment is impregnated
with its mission towards the whole,
makes up this delicate
and so essential objective
which we call FORM.
Richard Strauss
*********
Next time
I shall write a Mozart opera.
Richard Strauss after the first performance of Elektra
*********
Gentlemen,
there are no difficulties or problems.
This opera is a scherzo
with a fatal conclusion!
Richard Strauss-
to the orchestra at the first rehearsal of Salome.
*********
"Isn't this awfully long?"
Richard Strauss said to the first violinist
while conducting a performance of his own Der Rosenkavalier.
*********
I was able to compose it,
but I'm not able to conduct it yet.
Richard Strauss after trying to conduct a rehearsal of Elektra
*********
Here rests the honorable
and virtuous youth Guntram,
singer of love songs
who by the symphonic orchestra
of his own father
was cruelly stricken down.
Rest in Peace.
Richard Strauss
*********
I now comfort myself
with the knowledge
that I am on the road I want to take,
fully conscious
that there never has been an artist
not considered crazy
by thousands of his fellow men.
Richard Strauss
*********
What I'd like best of all,
time and again,
would be to set myself to music.
Richard Strauss
*********
I am not blessed
with long melodies
as Mozart was,
I only get as far
as short themes.
Richard Strauss
*********
The aria, after all,
is the soul of opera.
Richard Strauss
*********
Don't perspire while conducting -
only the audience should get warm.
Richard Strauss
*********
When I make my way up there
[heaven],
I hope they'll forgive me
if I bring this along too.
Richard Strauss while holding the score to
Die Liebe der Danae after the final dress rehearsal
*********
Richard Strauss:
TEN RULES OF CONDUCTING
This text was originally written
by Richard Strauss around 1922 as
"The Golden Rules
for the Album 
of a Young Conductor."
1. Remember that you are making music
not to amuse yourself,
but to delight your audience.
2. You should not perspire when conducting:
only the audience should get warm.
3. Conduct Salome and Elektra
as if they were Mendelssohn: Fairy Music.
4. Never look encouragingly at the brass,
except with a brief glance
to give an important cue.
5. But never let the horns and woodwinds
out of your sight.
If you can hear them at all
they are still too strong.
6. If you think that the brass
is now blowing hard enough,
tone it down another shade or two.
7. It is not enough that you yourself
should hear every word the soloist sings.
You should know it by heart anyway.
The audience must be able to follow without effort.
If they do not understand the words
they will go to sleep.
8. Always accompany the singer
in such a way that he can sing without effort.
9. When you think you have reached
the limits of prestissimo,
double the pace.
10. If you follow these rules carefully you will,
with your fine gifts and your great accomplishments,
always be the darling of your listeners.
RICHARD STRAUSS
CONDUCTING
QUOTES
WRITTEN ABOUT STRAUSS
"Dr. Richard Strauss, conductor."
entry in the telephone book of Garmisch,
Germany before World War II
*********
Richard Strauss
would never have become a great man
without [his wife] Pauline.
Manfred Mautner-Markhof
*********
Till Eulenspiegel is a noisy,
nerve-destroying,
heavy piece of work,
crude in color,
confusing in design,
and utterly unlovable.
Boston Gazette, 1896
*********
Till Eulenspiegel
casts into the deepest shade
the wildest efforts
of the wildest follower
 of the modern school.
It is a blood-curdling nightmare.
Boston Herald, 1896
*********
If Don Quixote is no music,
it may possibly be something else –
a big, huge, monumental, colossal joke,
a joke of such magnitude
as only a master and a genius
like Strauss is able to perpetrate.
I can see him chuckling
over his morning chocolate
as he reads learned essays 
upon the unaesthetic noises
made by the herd
of bleating mutton.
Musical Courier, 1898
*********
The greatest musical figure
who has lived in this century.
Glenn Gould describing Strauss in 1962
*********
One of the most
authoritative geniuses
of our era.
Claude Debussy
*********
The man
who wrote this
outrageously hideous noise
[Ein Heldenleben],
no longer deserving
of the word music,
is either lunatic,
or he is rapidly
approaching idiocy.
Musical Courier, 1899
*********
Salome is a detailed and explicit exposition
of the most horrible, disgusting, revolting
and unmentionable features of degeneracy
that I have ever heard, read of, or imagined.
Letter to the editor, New York Times, 1907
*********
His Majesty does not know
what the band has just played,
but it is never to be played again.
(on Richard Strauss' 'Elektra')
King George V
LINKS
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Friday, August 16, 2013

CONDUCTING: The Ultimate in Non-Verbal Communication



The conductor’s fundamental goal is to bring a written score to life, through study, personality and musical formation. But he or she makes music’s meaning clear through body motion.

“If you imagine trying to talk to somebody in a totally foreign language, and you wanted to express something to that person without the use of language, how would you do that?” the British conductor Harry Bicket said. “That’s really what you’re doing.”

A  HUMOROUS LOOK AT CONDUCTING WITH VICTOR BORGE:
RIGHT HAND

Traditionally (for right-handers, at least), the right hand holds the baton and keeps the beat. It controls tempo — faster here, slower there — and indicates how many beats occur in a measure. The baton usually signals the beginning of a measure with a downward motion (the downbeat). An upward movement prepares for the downbeat. Conducting manuals say the upbeat and downbeat should take the same amount of time, and that interval should equal the length of the beat. “The upbeat is the preparation for any event,” said Alan Gilbert, the music director of the New York Philharmonic.
Setting the right tempo for a musical passage is critical. No less an authority than the composer Richard Wagner, also one of the first modern conductors, said the “whole duty of a conductor is comprised in his ability always to indicate the right tempo.” Yet a conductor is not a black-coat-and-tails-wearing metronome. “One of the big misconceptions of what conductors do is they stand there and beat time,” Mr. Bicket said. “Most orchestras don’t need anyone to keep time.”

But the baton can also shape the sound. The nature of the downbeat — how abrupt, how delicate — tells the orchestra what kind of sound character to produce. The baton can smooth out choppy phrases by moving through the beat in a more sweeping way. A more horizontal motion can create a more lyrical quality, said James DePreist, the former director of orchestral and conducting studies at the Juilliard School. A downward stroke that imitates a violin bowing movement, Mr. Bicket said, can color the attack. Even when beating time through long-held notes, Mr. Gilbert said, the conductor should be trying to communicate the sound quality through the movement of the baton.

Some conductors prefer at times, or all the time, not to use a baton. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who becomes the music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra in September, is one. His training came mostly with choirs, for which batons are rarely used. “Basically the hands are there to describe a certain space of the sound and to shape that imaginary material,” Mr. Nézet-Séguin said. That imaginary  body of sound sits in front of the conductor, between the chest and the hands, he added. “It’s easier when there is nothing in one hand.” He started using a baton when he began guest-conducting at major orchestras, because they were more used to it.

A baton can work against a singing sound, he added. “Most difficult in conducting is to make the orchestra sing, and this is where both hands have to basically help wind or string players sing.” Hitting the air with a stick, he said, is like fencing: “I don’t think it helps the sound.”

LEFT HAND

The left hand, having turned over rhythmic duties to the right, serves a far more elastic purpose. Crudely put, if the right hand sketches the outlines of the painting, the left fills in the colors and textures. The right hand creates the chocolate shell of a bonbon, and the left hand fashions the filling. Its main practical use is to give cues to sections or individual players about when to enter and when to cut off, often with a pointed index finger. A pulling in of the left hand and a closing of the thumb and fingers can cause a phrase to taper away. A quick downward cupping clips off the sound.

Mr. DePreist ran through the sometimes inexplicable left-hand practices of others: William Steinberg would rub his fingers together, as in the universal symbol for money. Antal Dorati would make jabbing motions, as if he were “keeping a ball of sound up and floating.” Eugene Ormandy often kept his left hand curled around the lapel of his tailcoat while the Philadelphia Orchestra, Mr. DePreist noted, produced “torrents of sounds.”

At another Juilliard rehearsal Mr. Nézet-Séguin indicated entrances by making an O.K. circle or flicking open his index finger, for a lighter attack. A rising index finger with each beat indicated more volume. At loud chords, he cupped his hand upward. A downward cupped hand called for a sustained line. Pounding martial chords yielded a fist. A flat hand, palm downward, called for smoothness. Repeated entrances came with pistol shot motions.

Mr. Gilbert notes that professional musicians do not have to be told when in the measure to come in. He often prepares for a cue by looking at a player ahead of time, to establish a connection and to build energy. The purpose of a cue “is to have people join in at the right time in the right way, in the flow,” Mr. Gilbert said.

FACE

After the arms the most important part of the conductor’s arsenal is the face. “I feel as if my face is singing with the music,” Mr. Nézet-Séguin said. Engaging the musicians with a look can relax and encourage them. On the other hand, some conductors, like Fritz Reiner, kept their expressions unchanging, and his recordings are “completely electrifying,” Mr. Bicket said. Remaining without expression can be helpful for musician morale.

“To editorialize facially your displeasure or your frustration is not helpful to anybody,” Mr. Bicket said. Yet raised eyebrows can be subtle conveyors of dissatisfaction. The face becomes all the more important when the hands are otherwise occupied, as when a conductor simultaneously plays a keyboard, a common practice of early-music specialists like Mr. Bicket.

The eyes themselves “are the most important in all of conducting,” Ms. Zhang said. “The eyes should be the most telling in musical intent. The eyes are the window of the heart. They show how you feel about the music.”

A squint, for example, can convey a distant quality to the music, Mr. DePreist said. One trick to creating a good orchestral sound is to look at the players in the back of the string section. “You’re getting them in the game,” Mr. Nézet-Séguin said.

Excerpts from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/arts/music/breaking-conductors-down-by-gesture-and-body-part.html?pagewanted=all
Connecting Music and Gesture: 

The Art of Conducting 

Legendary Conductors of a Golden Era 

"Conduct Us"
A New York orchestra pitched up on a street corner and simply put a sign up saying 'Conduct Us', and then filmed the results.  We put a Carnegie Hall orchestra in the middle of New York City and placed an empty podium in front of the musicians with a sign that read, "Conduct Us." Random New Yorkers who accepted the challenge were given the opportunity to conduct this world-class orchestra. The orchestra responded to the conductors, altering their tempo and performance accordingly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_cbnBak8RI

Bugs Bunny Conducts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX1ljYx3g3k

 Conducting Gangnam Style
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lEzSUzUBRs
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