Posted by Rick Denney on April 25, 2003 at 13:55:34:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: auditions and BAT's posted by Thanks Joe on April 25, 2003 at 13:31:40:
I have heard musical high-schoolers, and unmusical but technically proficient high-schoolers. I can find little correlation between what I've heard and where I've lived. I grew up in Texas, and now live in Virginia. My niece grew up in Texas, but moved before her junior year to Michigan, where she is the principle bassoonist in the All-State Orchestra. That's the breadth of my experience.
I have also heard musical orchestras, and unmusical but technically proficient orchestras, with no apparent correlation by region when you consider the entire breadth of the repertoire. I think European orchestras have a different sound concept, and I like that sound concept for Romantic works (with some exceptions). American orchestras can do later 20th-century stuff with more clarity and focus, it seems to me. Exceptions to these generalities abound.
I once asked a well-known orchestral musician which trait was more important, technique or musicality? He said, "Yes."
Musicality stands on the shoulders of technique. If you can't play the notes, you can't make the music. But playing the notes does not make the music. Playing the music makes the music.
Depending on the committee, I suspect that anyone who shows up with a musical "vision" that is more clear and more effectively presented than anyone else will be in the running for the gig. If their technique isn't top-notch, then their musicianship will find no voice.
Now, here's a real opinion: I don't think you can make these assessments if you are still talking about having heart attacks before the age of 30. You'll laugh at the opinions of your 20's when you are in your 40's, believe me.
Here's another opinion: Music is hard to teach. Technique is relatively easy to teach. Thus, more people will succeed in learning technique that those who will succeed in learning to be musical. And it is not unlikely that the muscality aspects of that are based on talent as much as training, while technique is a physical skill that can be learned my most folks if they are constructed properly and if they work hard enough. Of course, it's hard to separate the two completely--some technique is impossible without the musical understanding of it.
Rick "who thinks clarity was not the problem" Denney