![]() They can, if you have a terrific accompanist, then you inject a level of professionalism to an utterly, otherwise utterly amateur group, and the whole group will suddenly be elevated as a response. They can add a terrific amount of sparkle if the piano is in, is, conceived as an indigenous part of the performance. They can retrieve something that's otherwise unusable. Then, you know, a good accompanist, well, a good accompanist just solves a whole heck of a lot of problems. And say, well here's, we're shifting to the key of F, here's our C7, before you're about to sing it. > Either to find, and I would think that's usually to, to create a reference for a note that's being sung right afterwards. I learn where to, where I have to play something so that I've got an irretrievably correct thing, right there. > The reduction during your score study process. That's one of the things I do when I learn my little crunch chord out of tempo. And that's another one of those things that you said is a great skill to have as a conductor. Not necessarily all of the chords, or all of the notes, ever, anywhere. From a rehearsal stand point, it's terrific to have someone who understands that you want just the chord, in the voicing, at a certain place. And a good accompanist, you've got to be able to say, no, take all those notes out, replace them with this. So, for instance, in my choir, I don't really want the cello part, because it probably is doubling my bass or my baritone, so I really want what would have been the bass. ![]() And B, it would be such a cluttered sound that you'd have to decide which octave you're actually going to sound it in, and what sounds best for the ensemble that you're doing. In a lot of things, where the piano is a reduction of an orchestral score, and the cellos and the basses double each other on running 16th notes. > And, thirdly I think it's important to have a pianist who realizes that just because it's written on the page, doesn't necessarily mean it has to be precisely that. So, it's primary goal was, it could do both loud and soft, it was capable of both. and, and and if you're stuck with a piano, then the very first thing you have to figure out is, how to reduce the sonic capability of the piano because, after all, it's a technological advance over a harpsichord. And, it's interesting how, that changes, how profoundly that changes the texture if you use a harpsichord to do the Baroque piece, even though you're playing the accompaniment, the same. Not even a harmonic role, the harmonic role is likely to be in the cello, in the continuo. The sound of a harpsichord in, in a supporting, is by definition a supporting role, and primarily a percussive role. so, for instance, a really fatal error in using a modern piano to, to play a continuo for a baroque piece, is it was never intended to be that prominent in the overall texture. Second thing that I think you want to do wherever possible, is decide whether the accompaniment is an integral part of the event, or whether the accompaniment is something that is designed only to support the process, or to support the performance. In any event, that's a terrifically useful skill. > So, you're going to read it in one clef, and sound it in another clef and that's kind of bizarre if you're reading alto and tenor combination, because the tenor looks like it ought to be always higher than the. ![]() ![]() > Yes, and that's particularly true if you do certain kinds of music, because the tenor is written, to sound, it, it's written an octave above where it sounds. > To be able to play, soprano and tenor at the same time. If you don't have an accompanist, that's a really good skill for the conductor to have, too. So, I think if you're working with an accompanist, and you have the luxury of somebody whose quick, and just doesn't know what to do, the very first thing that you should tell them to do is to be isolate parts and combinations, so that they can teach that layered process that we described earlier. I will say this, that, the nicest thing about an accompanist who understand the learning process, is that they jump in on the reinforcing, before you have to stop and tell them to do that. So, I guess my conception of the problem was limited by my good fortune in some, in some respects. And, I've been fortunate, I've worked with wonderful people. > How do you deal with working with an accompanist? > Well, they're either, they either make your day or they ruin your day. And the second is essentially a surrogate for a full orchestra. Would you agree that an accompanist has two basic functions? One is to support learning notes, rhythms, tonality. I talked about this issue with my choral colleague, Daniel Huff. A unique aspect of working with choral ensembles is working with an accompanist.
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