{"id":176,"date":"2015-02-08T02:05:19","date_gmt":"2015-02-08T02:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lawrencedavis.org\/?p=176"},"modified":"2015-02-14T16:08:16","modified_gmt":"2015-02-14T16:08:16","slug":"the-virtue-of-rehearsal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/2015\/02\/the-virtue-of-rehearsal\/","title":{"rendered":"The Virtue of Rehearsal"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Originally published by Lawrence Davis on August 9, 2013]<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Music is both journey and destination\u2014rehearsal and performance.\u00a0 The perfect rehearsal is equal parts discovery, affirmation, and reinforcement. With musical collaborations there is also a social dimension to rehearsal. \"StephenThe merging of multiple points of view into a single stream of expression takes skill, certainly, but also time and patience. Preparation of a finished performance takes the time it takes, even if that time exceeds the amount allotted to it.<\/p>\n

As a musician, one of the first things you notice when you arrive in New York is that there is a lot less rehearsing, in general, than in some other areas of the country. I don\u2019t have scientific evidence but I do have the evidence of my own eyes and ears.<\/p>\n

It is easy enough to deduce why it may be true.\u00a0 It\u2019s expensive here.\u00a0 Rehearsal halls are expensive, hiring musicians is expensive, renting instruments is expensive.\u00a0 There are also a lot of very talented musicians in this area. Three of America\u2019s best conservatories are located in New York City and they are all turning out very capable and competitive musicians.\u00a0 In addition, a lot of musicians with big talents and big career aspirations still come to New York with the idea of \u201cmaking it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York music scene is a culture of capability, but something seems a bit out of balance. Financial pressures reduce the amount of paid rehearsal time creating a need for musicians with more facility.\u00a0 It\u2019s a wild spiral\u2014more and more skilled musicians and less and less rehearsal time. At its worst, It all leads to a music-macho attitude.\u00a0 Who needs rehearsal?\u00a0 Only wimps.<\/p>\n

I sometimes need to hire musicians to supplement my orchestra performances.\u00a0 I am amazed at the number of people who are prepared to step into a concert with no rehearsal at all.\u00a0 I am astonished at the number of professional concerts I go to which are under-rehearsed \u2014 even ensembles of highly skilled professional musicians.<\/p>\n

This past June we performed the Liszt Piano Concerto in E Flat Major, as I mentioned in a previous posting.\u00a0 The soloist was a very talented pianist who is a student at Bloomingdale School of Music, so we had the privilege of having 10 rehearsals with soloist and orchestra together.\u00a0 The performance was among the best our orchestra ever played.\u00a0 We had enough rehearsal to get it right, but we also had enough rehearsal to experience the growth of collaboration.\u00a0 As a performer and music lover, I wish that was always the case.<\/p>\n

Lawrence Davis<\/p>\n

______________<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the thirteenth essay that <\/em>Lawrence<\/em> posted on his blog \u201cReaching In.\u201d\u00a0 It originally appeared at lawrence-davis.blogspot.com.\u00a0 \u2013 <\/em>CHC<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Originally published by Lawrence Davis on August 9, 2013] Music is both journey and destination\u2014rehearsal and performance.\u00a0 The perfect rehearsal is equal parts discovery, affirmation, and reinforcement. With musical collaborations there is also a social dimension to rehearsal. The merging of multiple points of view into a single stream of expression takes skill, certainly, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reaching-in-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions\/182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}