“FINDING MUSIC IN AUDITION EXCERPTS”
as seen in the ‘DIE BRATSCHE’
BY STEPHEN WYRCZYNSKI
It is normal to feel high anxiety when first confronted with a standard orchestra audition list. The repertoire usually ranges from Beethoven to Wagner, a plethora of styles. The task at hand is to perform these excerpted masterworks displaying one's best musical, technical, and professional range. This is a complex goal made more acute by the fact that there is an impending time restriction looming in the form of an audition date.
Often one's first instinct is to dissect the audition list into technical categories: "Is this a speed test?", "Is this the spiccato excerpt?", "Are they testing my rhythm?", "Can I play in high positions?" This is a good beginning to organizing a practice routine, however many do not see past these mechanical agility tests. The time will eventually come when this one dimensional approach will bring the auditioner to a practice plateau.
The most important aspect of a successful audition experience is a total understanding of the audition music. Orchestral excerpts are by their nature truncated passages or parts of movements. It is the performer's job to find the music of the entire work in the required excerpt. When one starts to find musical markers like small phrases within larger ones, orchestration changes, and polyphonic voicing just in the viola part, one can greatly improve ones technical capabilities. These are times to take a breath, reset/rebalance the bow, or release the left hand before a shift.
Two perennial selections on audition lists are the Scherzo from Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream and the section solo from the first movement of Symphony #5 by Dmitri Shostakovich. The Mendelssohn Scherzo is historically flagged as the "spiccato" excerpt. Tensions flare and tempos tear during some unfortunate audition renditions. What is regularly forgotten is that the word "scherzo" means a game or sport. The character of the performance needs to reflect this immediately. The tempo indication is "Allegro Vivace" which means lively allegro not "Allegro Molto," very allegro, or "presto" extremely fast. Again the word vivace seems more like a character indication which one would perform in the style of Mendelssohn, a classical period composer.
The normal passage requested from the Scherzo starts at rehearsal letter C. (See example #1)
The entire excerpt is basically divided into 4 bar phrases with each 4 bar phrase divided in half. A common problem is rushing, especially during the third measure of letter C where there are just eighth notes. Here the first half phrase ends on the B-flat (the tonic) which is the second note. We need to phrase away from the B-flat since it is on a weak beat and group the F with the next half phrase. By dividing this second measure this way, we then have more control of the pacing because we are not playing all three-eighths in the same manner. Furthermore, having phrased away on the B-flat (by using less bow), one can rebalance your bow on the F to start the next half phrase. By rebalancing I mean to remake contact with the string by starting the F from the string rather than from the air. This subtle phrasing will aid in navigation when changing from continuous sixteenths (first measure) to solid eighths (second). Musical nuance such as the one just described can aid in all sorts of fast passage work. Know which notes belong to which because mostly they do not correspond to bar lines.
The viola section solo in the Fifth Symphony of Dmitri Shostakovich is another case where musical planning can take the anxiety out of technical hang-ups.
(See example #2)
The character of this passage could be described as plaintive or prayerful. In the orchestra accompaniment of the viola section one finds a pulsating rhythm of two-eighth notes followed by a quarter note. Constant awareness of this figure is crucial for a couple of reasons. First, it is the heart beat of the whole passage underscoring the plaintive melody with harmony changes. It keeps the pulse without pushing or dragging. Second it is important to know where this figure finally stops and the viola section is left to play alone.
The character of this excerpt needs to be the guide to certain technical choices. The large and varied interval changes in the first seven measures must be executed not as jumps or slides but as smooth, even connections, with the shifts of the hand in keeping with the overall mood of the music. Just a successful landing on an in tune note is not the goal. The shift must be released and connected.
When one arrives in the second measure of rehearsal number 16, you have reached the end of the first part. The downbeat is where the accompaniment figure stops temporarily. It is the correct place for a musical breath thus giving one time to release before the downward shift from the high C to the F. The orchestra again plays the accompaniment beginning on the second F ending again on the downbeat of the next measure on the B-flat. This is another place for a musical comma before one finishes with the two-eighth note quarter note figure now as the melody in the viola section. This excerpt is ultimately divided into three sections giving both breadth and space for solving technical issues with musical solutions.
Overall most orchestral viola audition excerpts can be approached in similarly thoughtful ways. I say most because occasionally one finds an excerpt on an audition list that defies logic or reason and smells of sadism. Preparing audition repertoire from a purely technical perspective meets only half of the challenge. What remains is the highest artistic goal, which is making beautiful music. Find the character, know the style, unlock the structure, uncouple the phrases, and soon you will already have overcome some common impediments to a successful audition.
Often one's first instinct is to dissect the audition list into technical categories: "Is this a speed test?", "Is this the spiccato excerpt?", "Are they testing my rhythm?", "Can I play in high positions?" This is a good beginning to organizing a practice routine, however many do not see past these mechanical agility tests. The time will eventually come when this one dimensional approach will bring the auditioner to a practice plateau.
The most important aspect of a successful audition experience is a total understanding of the audition music. Orchestral excerpts are by their nature truncated passages or parts of movements. It is the performer's job to find the music of the entire work in the required excerpt. When one starts to find musical markers like small phrases within larger ones, orchestration changes, and polyphonic voicing just in the viola part, one can greatly improve ones technical capabilities. These are times to take a breath, reset/rebalance the bow, or release the left hand before a shift.
Two perennial selections on audition lists are the Scherzo from Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream and the section solo from the first movement of Symphony #5 by Dmitri Shostakovich. The Mendelssohn Scherzo is historically flagged as the "spiccato" excerpt. Tensions flare and tempos tear during some unfortunate audition renditions. What is regularly forgotten is that the word "scherzo" means a game or sport. The character of the performance needs to reflect this immediately. The tempo indication is "Allegro Vivace" which means lively allegro not "Allegro Molto," very allegro, or "presto" extremely fast. Again the word vivace seems more like a character indication which one would perform in the style of Mendelssohn, a classical period composer.
The normal passage requested from the Scherzo starts at rehearsal letter C. (See example #1)
The entire excerpt is basically divided into 4 bar phrases with each 4 bar phrase divided in half. A common problem is rushing, especially during the third measure of letter C where there are just eighth notes. Here the first half phrase ends on the B-flat (the tonic) which is the second note. We need to phrase away from the B-flat since it is on a weak beat and group the F with the next half phrase. By dividing this second measure this way, we then have more control of the pacing because we are not playing all three-eighths in the same manner. Furthermore, having phrased away on the B-flat (by using less bow), one can rebalance your bow on the F to start the next half phrase. By rebalancing I mean to remake contact with the string by starting the F from the string rather than from the air. This subtle phrasing will aid in navigation when changing from continuous sixteenths (first measure) to solid eighths (second). Musical nuance such as the one just described can aid in all sorts of fast passage work. Know which notes belong to which because mostly they do not correspond to bar lines.
The viola section solo in the Fifth Symphony of Dmitri Shostakovich is another case where musical planning can take the anxiety out of technical hang-ups.
(See example #2)
The character of this passage could be described as plaintive or prayerful. In the orchestra accompaniment of the viola section one finds a pulsating rhythm of two-eighth notes followed by a quarter note. Constant awareness of this figure is crucial for a couple of reasons. First, it is the heart beat of the whole passage underscoring the plaintive melody with harmony changes. It keeps the pulse without pushing or dragging. Second it is important to know where this figure finally stops and the viola section is left to play alone.
The character of this excerpt needs to be the guide to certain technical choices. The large and varied interval changes in the first seven measures must be executed not as jumps or slides but as smooth, even connections, with the shifts of the hand in keeping with the overall mood of the music. Just a successful landing on an in tune note is not the goal. The shift must be released and connected.
When one arrives in the second measure of rehearsal number 16, you have reached the end of the first part. The downbeat is where the accompaniment figure stops temporarily. It is the correct place for a musical breath thus giving one time to release before the downward shift from the high C to the F. The orchestra again plays the accompaniment beginning on the second F ending again on the downbeat of the next measure on the B-flat. This is another place for a musical comma before one finishes with the two-eighth note quarter note figure now as the melody in the viola section. This excerpt is ultimately divided into three sections giving both breadth and space for solving technical issues with musical solutions.
Overall most orchestral viola audition excerpts can be approached in similarly thoughtful ways. I say most because occasionally one finds an excerpt on an audition list that defies logic or reason and smells of sadism. Preparing audition repertoire from a purely technical perspective meets only half of the challenge. What remains is the highest artistic goal, which is making beautiful music. Find the character, know the style, unlock the structure, uncouple the phrases, and soon you will already have overcome some common impediments to a successful audition.