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    Planning a Concert

    Every concert needs to be well planned if it is to be successful. Playing the music properly is not enough.

    Every concert needs to be well planned if it is to be successful. Playing the music properly is not enough.

    Reasons for Public Performance
    Presentation and Deportment
    Selection of Music
    Concert Strategy 

    In theory, secondary school concert bands should not exist for the sake of performance - music education is a far more important goal! Even so, there are very good reasons why public performances should be encouraged.  A few of these are set out below:

     
    • Motivation: More conscientious and concentrated practice results when students know they have an opportunity to perform. As a general rule of thumb it is probably true to say that a band that does not perform at least once a semester is a band in decline.
     
    • Support for the music programme: It is a sad fact - in Singapore at least - that many principals view the school band more as a means of enhancing the reputation of their particular educational institutions rather than promoting musical education for its own sake. The formal concert satisfies the demands of the local educational authorities for such a reputation enhancing event, while giving the band director the opportunity of gaining additional support from parents and other potential supporters of the music programme within the community.
     
    • Enjoyment: This, I think, is a laudable goal in itself. Unless things have gone particularly badly, most (if not all) band members really enjoy the excitement of concert and its immediate aftermath. For the band director there is also something immensely satisfying about receiving the praise of friends and colleagues while being able to look back on months of preparation with a sense of a job well done.

     


    Presentation And Deportment

    Although preparations for the concert will tend to focus - quite naturally - on the music to be performed, it is important to emphasise to band members that this is only part of the total effect. Non-musical aspects that require attention include the following:

     
    • Detailed plans should be prepared covering how the group will enter the stage and how they will exit if another group is performing.  Such logistics will also need to be rehearsed.
     
    • Band members should also be told what standards of behaviour (for example, no talking when on stage) will be expected during the concert.
     
    • Polished instruments, neat uniforms and good posture will also make a good impression on the audience before the band has played a single note.
     
    • Programme notes handed out to the audience should also be of good quality. After all, these are one of the few things most members of the audience will be able to take  home with them to remember the event.


    Selection of Music

    There are two principles to bear in mind here.

     
    • The first principle is to select a variety of music, including some pieces that are "fun" to play even if they have little aesthetic value.
     
    • The second principle is to select music that is well within the ability of the group. Selecting music that is too difficult will result long and tedious practice sessions while the ensemble struggles to master the work. It also risks an embarrassing breakdown during performance that could seriously damage the group's (and the band director's!) reputation while demoralising the band.

     


    Concert Strategy

    The best concerts usually begin with an easy piece well known to the band that also has the widest appeal to the audience.  The idea is to give nervous band members confidence while making a good first impression with the audience. Beyond that, however, the order in which prepared pieces are played is best illustrated by the following chart:

    • At the beginning of the concert, the level of audience attention is high. Longer selections (including multi-movement works) should therefore be scheduled in the first half. Intermission is a chance for the band to have a rest. Make the most of this time by dragging it out as long as possible without the audience being aware of what is happening. This can be done by scheduling an alumni band after the break, or getting the percussion section to put on a special performance.
    • The latter half of the concert is time when the attention of the audience is most likely to wander. Schedule special solos or humorous works - anything that will make the audience sit up and pay attention. Needless to say, the finale should be bright and exciting. It is imperative to have members of the audience go home feeling that somehow the concert was too short and they wanted more!
    • Many bands prepare an encore piece in advance as well, just in case the audience calls for one. An encore, if it is prepared, should also be a bright, upbeat work with plenty of opportunities for the band to show off its strengths. However, it should also be well within the band's ability. Band members may be in high spirits at this point in the concert, but they will also be tired. Be careful. A poor performance of a difficult work at this point could ruin the whole concert!
    • Encores can be overdone. There was a point in Singapore several years ago when just about every band prepared encore pieces for their concerts and were determined to play them - even to the point of arranging in advance for their supporters in the audience to demand one. This is OK for secondary schools. After all, it is part of the fun! But when more senior college and university ensembles followed a similar pattern it all began to look very false and contrived. True professionals do not play encores unless the audience, impressed by the quality of the performance, genuinely demands one.

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    A poor but talented Indonesian E-flat tuba player who wants to study music in Singapore's prestigious Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), is very close to realising his dream.

    An impossible dream?

    When Joe Darion wrote the lyrics to the famous melody written by Mitch Leigh for the 1965 hit musical Man of La Mancha, I don't suppose he spent much time thinking about the ambitions of E flat tuba players.

    Are musicians more moody and prone to suicide than other people?

     

    Many people believe that musicians are more moody and prone to suicide than other professionals, and that - as a result - a greater percentage of them end their lives in mental institutions or are fated to live emotionally tempestuous lives. Musicians are also commonly suspected of being over sensitive to criticism, having delusions of grandeur and other neurotic traits.

    The statistics fail to bear this out, although it is possible to find enough examples to make the case in front of those unfamiliar with Western musical history. Like actors, politicians and others obliged to face the public on a regular basis, musicians probably have their fair share of emotional problems. However, such problems do not constitute evidence of neuroticism.

     Musicians probably have their fair share of emotional problems. 

    Beethoven was known for his moodiness, but this was probably closely related to his growing frustration as he began to go deaf. Among the famous composers, only Schumann and MacDowell ended  up in mental institutions. Musicians probably have no more suicidal impulses than the rest of the population. But should a prominent musician decide to take his life, it is likely to get a good deal of publicity.

    Perhaps the most morbid suicide was planned by the pianist Alexander Kelberine, who arranged his last concert programme to consist only of works dealing with death. He then went home and took an overdose of sleeping pills. Schumann jumped into the Rhine, only to be rescued by a fisherman. Rezso Seress composed Gloomy Sunday, a work that was once banned in Europe because it triggered a wave of suicides by young people on Sundays. Seress himself committed suicide by jumping out of a window. The vast majority of musicians, however, die of causes that reflect the state of medical knowledge in the particular historical period in which they live.

    Some musicians certainly had sad lives. Mozart, perhaps the greatest of the composers in the Classical Period of music, died a pauper. The pianist Chopin, a Polish nationalist and tormented lover, was terrified of large audiences. He died of tuberculosis when he was 39. Bizet, a French composer who died when he was 36, was beset by crises of self-confidence and emotional upheaval. Unlike Chopin, his works only achieved widespread recognition after his death.

     Wagner had the emotional maturity of a spoilt child. 

    George Gershwin only had a short life, but it was a good one. He died of a brain tumor when he was 39 after a rags to riches story that made him one of the most well known composers of popular music in  the United States.

    Others lived long and had much success, despite treating others abominably, including many of their friends. Wagner considered himself a genius as a playwright, poet, stage director, and philosopher as well as a composer, and was not shy about letting others know it! Although not particularly handsome, his personal magnetism was such that he had numerous affairs, usually with married women, despite the fact that he was married himself. His biographers describe him as having the emotional maturity of a spoilt child, complete with tantrums if he could not get his way. He died at the age of 70, widely acclaimed as one of the greatest composers of his time.

    The pianist Franz Liszt's dashing good looks enabled him to have numerous affairs with many woman. He died of pneumonia at the age of 75. Contrast this with the fate of Schubert, who was short, fat, bespectacled and naturally shy. He died of syphilis at the age of 31 after his friends encouraged him to visit a brothel. Those who knew him well described him as having a warm and friendly nature. Somehow, it doesn't sound fair.

     The life of J.S. Bach must have been very boring. 

    The majority of musicians now and in the past lead fairly quiet lives. Edward Elgar, a largely self-taught musician, rose from humble origins to become the first English composer in 200 years to gain international acclaim. He had a stable marriage, and was regarded by many as a typical English gentleman. He died at the age of 77. Sergei Rachmaninov, the Russian composer, also had a good life despite being out of step with his country's politics and music. He died at the age of 70.

    The life of J.S. Bach must have been the most boring of all. He spent almost his entire life in the same small region of Germany where he was born. And nobody took much notice of him either. It was not until about 80 years after his death that his works attracted the attention they deserved.

     

    Concert Nerves

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