The story is told of a Consultant who, sent to assess an orchestra's performance of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, wrote this report:
1. For considerable periods, the 4 oboe players had nothing to do. The number should be reduced, and their work spread over the whole orchestra, thus eliminating these peaks of inactivity.
2. All 12 violins were playing identical notes. This seems an unnecessary duplication, and the staff of this section should be drastically cut. If a large volume of sound is really required, this could be obtained through an electronic amplifier.
3. Much effort was expended in the playing of demi-semi-quavers. This seems an unnecessary refinement and it is recommended that all these notes should be rounded up to the nearest semi-quaver. If this were done, it would be possible to use trainees and low grade operators.
4. No useful purpose is served by repeating with horns the passage that has already been handled by the strings. If all the redundant passages were eliminated, the concert could be reduced from 2 hours to 20 minutes.
5. If Schubert had attended to these matters, he probably would have finished this Symphony.
No comments:
Post a Comment