Musical conductors are individuals that help direct a musical performance. They will ensure that the band is in the right tempo and that each section of the ensemble enters the performance at the correct time. The conductors may use hand gestures or a baton in order to guide the band. Many people believe that musical conductors are beneficial and help improve a band’s performance. However, Russian composer Igor Stravinsky disapproves of the usage of musical conductors as he believes that they are useless. Through comparisons and sarcastic language, Stravinsky criticizes the egotistical personalities and deceitful nature of musical conductors.
Stravinsky addresses the artificiality of conductors through comparisons. In the introduction of the passage, Stravinsky
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They often make empty promises in order to gain popularity and votes from the public. Stravinsky believes that conductors, like politicians, exist only to satisfy their audience, not to express their own perspective of the music. At one point, Stravinsky draws a comparison between anglers and musicians. While a conductor might be a “incomplete musician”, Stravinsky believes that a conductor must be a “compleat angler”. Angler is another term to used to describe someone who fishes. In order to catch a fish, a fisherman must first lure fish with bait. Similarly, the conductor’s movements act as bait and lure the audience, making the believe that conductors are more knowledge about music than they actually are. Furthermore, Stravinsky discusses the attitudes of musical conductors. He notes that a conductor’s ego “grows like a tropical weed” over time. Weeds are troublesome plants that are often removed to make room for other plants to grow. Stravinsky believes that, like weeds, the conductor’s attitude is also irritating and unnecessary.
Stravinsky explains how he feels that conductors are untalented musicians that are an unnecessary part of a musical through the presence of diction. In the opening paragraph of the passage, conducting is expressed as a field in which a conductor can be a “incomplete musician” but must be a “compleat angler.” The passage conveys a negative view of conductors in which the most important talent they should have is exploiting their audiences’ lack of understanding of good music while needing very little actual talent in order to become successful. Conductors have an “ego disease” that encourages them give off an “egotistical, false, and arbitrary authority” ...
Conductors are seen as the leader of an orchestra or band and are given most if not all the credit for the music played. For such a simple task that consists of counting the beats, showing the mood for the music, and giving people cues to enter, conductors are as good as their orchestra or band, not by their talent. In this passage by Igor Stravinsky, Stravinsky discusses that the work the conductor puts in is negligible to the work the orchestra it self and that concerts should be about the complex qualities of the music played instead of how the conductor impacts the performance.
Felsenfeld described his “passion for this ‘other’ kind of music felt like the height of rebellion: I was the lone Bolshevik in my army” (pg. 626). He further defined his description by stating how “[r]ebels sought to break the mold, to do something that was exclusively ‘theirs,’ to be weird by way of self-expression,” and compared this idea of a rebel to himself: “... since I [he] was the only one I knew listening to symphonies and concerti, operas and string quartets, I felt I was the weirdest of them all; …,” signifying that he feels much like a rebel in his own musical vibe (pg. 626). Taking this feeling of rebellious passion and amazement of classical music, Felsenfeld “... decided, with little prior experience or interest, to become a composer,” ultimately changing his way and mood of life for the better by working in a career with music that he most irresistibly loves and people who share similar feelings to his own in contrast to the work he took up in piano bars and community theater orchestra pits where the music he felt were utterly dull and lifeless (pg.
Composers effectively reflect and communicate how universal human experiences can explicitly modify an individual’s understanding and acceptance of one’s sense of identity and maturation. Goldsworthy’s novel Maestro, Don McLean’s song ‘Vincent’ and Baz Luhrmann’s film Australia all inter-relate within the deeper realisation of the impact the appreciation of art, and the development of understanding the concept of love acting as a compelling emotion can create towards one’s self-image.
Dmitri Shostakovich, born on September 25, 1905, started taking piano lessons from his mother at the age of nine after he showed interest in a string quartet that practiced next door. He entered the Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg, later Leningrad) Conservatory in 1919, where he studied the piano with Leonid Nikolayev until 1923 and composition until 1925 with Aleksandr Glazunov and Maksimilian Steinberg. He participated in the Chopin International Competition for Pianists in Warsaw in 1927 and received an honorable mention, after which he decided to limit his public performances to his own works to separate himself from the virtuoso pianists.
In the passage by Igor Stravinsky, he uses not only comparison and contrast, but also language to convey his point of view about the conductors of the time and their extreme egotism. Stravinsky believes that conductors exploit the music for their own personal gain, so rather, he looks on them in a negative light.
...ir arpeggios and staccatos that they forget the deeper aspects of the music they are performing. (1077)
Born as Jan Václav Antonin Stamic and later Germanized as Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz, he was an influential composer and violinist. He was born on June 19, 1717 in Deutschbrod, Bohemia, now called Havlíčkův Brod, Czech Republic. Stamitz received a musical education from his father from a young age, and attended the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Prague for the academic year of 1734 – 1735, and shortly thereafter left the university to become a violin preformer. In 1741, he was employed as a string player in the court orchestra of Mannheim, Germany. Stamitz went on to marry Maria Antonia Luneborn on July 1, 1744, the couple had 5 children, two of which died in infancy. One of their children, named Carl Phillip Stamitz went on to have a successful musical career. By 1745, he was appointed as the concertmaster of the court orchestra at Mannheim, with a role as the conductor and lead violinist. In the years of 1754 – 1755, he travelled to France to conduct for the Concert Spirituel and the Concert Italien, which were the two most important concert series of 18th – century Paris. He returned to Mannheim in 1755, his health rapidly deteriorated and he died in Mannheim on March 27, 1757 at the age of 39. The entry of his death contains the following quote: “March 30, 1757. Buried, Jo'es Stainmiz, director of court music, so expert in his art that his equal will hardly be found “. Overall, he was an accomplished individual and died at a very young age.
Ostlere, Hilary. “Taming The Musical.” Dance Magazine 73.12 (1999): 84. Expanded Academic ASAP. Westfield State College Library, MA. 15 April 2005.
These phrases baffle the audience, and so as the end of the play approaches they become interested to find out what they mean.
Furthermore, mentioned Bernstein dealt with persons typical attitude towards homosexuality; the behavior was considered shameful, reprehensible (159-164). Serge Koussevitzky; developer of musical programs at Tanglewood, emphasized in his lectures to the conducting students like Bernstein the importance of feeling clean before the conductor mounts the podium. Feeling clean meant, at the very least, feeling heterosexual. Bernstein was treated like he was another, that he wasn’t human.
As a famous twentieth century composer, Igor Stravinsky shares his expertise on the music industry and its "worst obstacle"- conductors. He harshly criticizes the conductor's overrated role in music productions with rhetorical devices such as vicious diction, strong imagery, and figurative language. He uses vicious diction to convey his frustration with conductors compromising the integrity of the vary pieces composers like himself write. Moreover, Stravinsky uses figurative language to demonstrate how these conductors infiltrate the music industry like politicians with their charismatic personalities. In addition, he uses figurative language to establish a direct comparison between conductors and actors by accentuating the similarities between their "performances." Stravinsky wholeheartedly believes that conductors possess no measurable talent and seem to relish in their fame.
“I find little in the works of Beethoven, Berlioz, Wagner and others when they are led by a conductor,” says Franz Liszt, a renowned composer. This quote depicts conductors in a negative light, as if they’re a superfluous part of a greater whole in the profession of music. Music, an art purely dependent on interpretation, is a form of entertainment to the general public whether it’d be a live concert or a recording. Those that attend the live concerts witness the breathtaking silence as well as the intrinsic beauty of the music conveyed by the orchestra, all of which lie within the baton of the conductor. Igor Stravinsky like Liszt, however, captures a largely unseen side of conducting, one which he perceives with disdain as well as disrespect.
Lloyd Webber’s widely regarded masterpiece Phantom Of The Opera uses key motifs and themes throughout the musical to establish its characters and scenes in an effective manner. Throughout the production the motifs, themes and songs all develop to reflect the changes their respective characters undergo. This is particularly evident when analysing The Phantom, his motifs and songs, and how they develop throughout the story.
is a warning to them if they bother to listen. The basis of the play