I’ve always been of the opinion that many orchestral players have pretty low job satisfaction because they feel inherently powerless. They are told what to do by preening conductors, musically illiterate administrators and decrepit board members. One of the big advantages of playing in a chamber ensemble seems to be the measure of artistic control that individual players can have. But how do six very different people agree?
In eighth blackbird, most disagreements, major or minor (no pun intended), are settled with a vote. If there is a clear majority, the problem is usually solved.
An example. After performing Joe Schwantner’s new piece for us, Rhiannon’s Blackbirds (which, for some bizarre reason, the composer pronounces Rhian-NON’s) a few times in concert, we are now revisiting it in rehearsal, trying to concentrate less on just ‘playing the notes’ (which perhaps came from the fact that we decided to prepare the piece from memory) and inject some more personality into it – give it a little eighth blackbird charm. (Or in Aussie: chaaaam.)
As a result, after running the piece yesterday, we spent almost an hour rehearsing just eight bars. To those who say ‘micromanagement’, I say ‘eighth blackbird’! It turned out that Lisa and Matthew Duvall were ignoring one of the dynamic markings. They justified it logically; several other players gave reasoned opposition; it was put to a vote. The result? 4 to 2 against Lisa and Matthew’s change. Then the hedging began. Slight adjustments were made, then more slight adjustments, until the passage sounded almost the same as before. So the arguments were revisited. And again. Then we moved on. Undecided.
God bless the Democratic Republic of eighth blackbird.
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