Word: orchestras
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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HARL MCDONALD: Two HEBRAIC POEMS (Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting; Victor). Short, agreeable impressionistic pieces by a steadily developing younger U. S. composer...
...systematically trained and systematically advanced in their careers. The neophyte, having mastered several musical instruments and taken a complete course in musical composition, enters a conductors' class at the konservatorium, where he studies the symphonic and operatic classics and learns how to shake a stick at an orchestra. Then he graduates. But that is only the beginning. Assigned to the staff of an opera house, he spends years rehearsing choruses, teaching singers how to sing their parts, helping conductors whip scenes into shape. Eventually, if he shows talent, he is allowed to conduct an opera or two. Only after...
...full-fledged conductorships almost never. U. S. audiences, long accustomed to judging other types of musicians impartially on their merits, still flock more eagerly to hear a fourth-rate foreign conductor than to hear a fairly well-equipped and conscientious native maestro. Boards of directors of U. S. symphony orchestras, sometimes influenced by socialite patronesses, usually demand colorful or famous personalities. Current in orchestral circles is the remark of a well-known pianist's wife:* "When a conductor in Europe has a love affair, the result usually is a child; in America an entire orchestra...
...compete with full-fledged & experienced European rivals, many U. S. conductors have not only studied in Europe but have launched their careers there. European opera houses will occasionally take on a U. S. student for odd jobs. Second-rate European orchestras can usually be hired for concerts. But hiring a loo-man orchestra to practice on is a luxury that only a very liberally financed maestro can afford...
...Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner, such impressionists as Claude Debussy, learned many a trick of the trade. Erratic but forceful, Composer Berlioz, an original in his day, was insatiably concerned with orchestral instruments. He studied them all, speculated on their possibilities, wrote a book about them, dreamed of gigantic orchestras with platoons of trumpets and battalions of violins. When he composed he often wrote for large combinations of instruments. One such work is his Requiem, which demands a tremendous orchestra and a large chorus, not to mention four brass bands distributed in the four corners of the concert hall...