Book Review: “The Score, the Orchestra, and the Conductor”
Meier, Gustav. Reviewed by Dr. Kevin McMahon
Comprehensive conducting texts are of great value to our profession. Some of the most recent works of this kind, written by well-known pedagogues, are Frederik Prausnitz’s Score and Podium (1983), Harold Farberman’s The Art of Conducting Technique (1997), and Gunther Schuller’s The Compleat Conductor (1997). Gustav Meier’s The Score, the Orchestra, and the Conductor is a welcome addition to this valuable list. Meier’s new book is a summation of a career, over fifty years in the making. Although there are some conducting texts that can be read and understood fairly quickly, Meier’s book, it should come as no surprise to those of us who have worked and studied with him, sometimes needs thoughtful reflection to gain fullest rewards.
The book begins by addressing the beat and follows with score reading, preparing the score for conducting, seating arrangements, and symbols for cuing. Ensuing chapters deal with sorting the orchestration, the “zigzag way” (identifying the instruments or sections needing the most attention), special techniques, and what Meier refers to as “additional concerns.” Highlights of the “special techniques” section include accompanying soloists, as well as opera, choral, band, and ballet, in addition to backstage conducting. He also discusses cross-rhythms.
The “additional concerns” portion includes ear training, memorization, specialization, cosmetics, attitude, and behavior. Meier also delves into the murky waters of orchestra musicians on probation, programming, auditions, rehearsals, intonation, bowings, and breathing for the conductor. The appendices include copious information with instrumental charts, notation of instruments, string harmonics including charts, and cross-rhythm charts. The segment on harmonics is particularly valuable and something not presented in any other conducting text of which I am aware.
As someone who has worked and studied with Maestro Meier, I will say that his actual method of conducting and teaching passages of music utilize space in a way that a book cannot altogether capture. Harold Farberman’s book is accompanied by a video of him talking and conducting excerpts and it would be wonderful to have this kind of resource with Meier’s book, particularly with respect to his “push away” gesture.
The book addresses short musical excerpts, though there is more substantial advice about repertory in the section on the “zigzag way.” There are instances in the book where the approach to an excerpt is enhanced by information later in the book. The section on non-durational preparatory beats is a good lesson.
Maestro Meier is excellent with phrasal scansion and the book could have gone even further with this type of information. While Rudolf, Farberman, Meier, and all of us, may do things quite differently technically, in regard to programming, or even with choice of editions, having Meier’s mind and approach is enriching.
Knowing Meier’s work as an operatic conductor, readers would be elated over Del Mar-type guides on conducting full operatic works. Ariadne auf Naxos and The Magic Flute, for example, are two works from his repertory that could have been featured here.
Another valuable opera topic, not in the book, is the subject of pulse subdivision. Recommendations about pulse patterns for opera conducting is an area Meier, in the future, could consider writing about. This would be a welcome expansion to the catalog of pulses per measure, and subdivisions, for major symphonic repertory that Benjamin Grosbayne wrote about in his Techniques of Modern Orchestral Conducting (1956).
As Robert Shaw and Margaret Hillis did for their performances of the major choral masterworks, Meier’s book provides opera charts, but only for the beginning of two works. Perhaps Meier should have included one complete chart that could have led to discussion of recitative, cuts, and handling appoggiaturas. That being said, the idea of what to do to make a chart is clear enough.
The section on opera also includes a voice chart, classifying roles by Fach, which is quite thorough. Categorizing operatic roles by Fach, however, is not always a simple and surefire procedure as certain voices and vocal roles defy definitive categorization. Some examples: the role of Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess is often cast as a tenor, but in Meier’s book, it is listed as a baritone/buffo baritone role; Schaunard, from La Boheme, is listed as a lyric bass, but a baritone often sings the role; and Leporello, from Don Giovanni, is often sung by a bass-baritone although it is listed here as a basso buffo role.
Although Meier gives some general recommendations for authors to read on harmony, form, analysis, and counterpoint, the book would be greatly improved by an annotated bibliography pointing us to actual books and articles, explaining what he recommends, and why.
In general, the layout and look of the book are fine, but there are several format issues that could have been better dealt with. First, the footnote number placement in the musical examples is not always ideal. Second, the text does not always reference musical examples in an ordered, helpful way. In “Appendix B, Notation of Instruments,” some pieces are listed as representative for particular instruments. Why not add a piece for each instrument? Similarly, under phrasing and articulation the keil, or wedge, is not shown in the book in a form any of us would recognize in most printed music
There are a few issues of accuracy. In the “Clefs Used In Today’s Orchestra” chart, there is no clef listed for Vibraphone. It should be treble. Harpsichord is redundant as it lists treble and treble/bass when only one is needed. Contrabass is listed as tenor and bass clefs, but Samuel Adler in The Study of Orchestration (Third Edition 2002) adds treble clef too. Should “R”s for rare be added for tenor and treble clefs? There is a note for English horn and Horn appended for those rare instances when the scores are in alto clef. The book says “Prokofiev 5, Barber scores, and others.” Why not define clearly which Barber scores and which other scores are intended?
Does this book accomplish the things it sets out and claims to do? In the main I would say yes, though the “orchestra” part of the title may be better represented through books like Christopher Adey’s Orchestral Performance (1998) or Norman Del Mar’s Anatomy of the Orchestra (1981, 1983).
Though Meier teaches more in person than is in the book, he does, subtly and masterfully, share the principles in the book with his students. The lessons within the pages of The Score, the Orchestra and the Conductor are highly useful.
It is a difficult task to put music into words. Just as difficult is fully capturing, in a book, the great musicality and personality of someone like Gustav Meier. To participate in his music reveals him. Within Meier’s book, as much as I commend it, his unique spirit is only partially captured. To fully appreciate a conductor of the stature, enthusiasm, and sublimity of Gustav Meier, one would need to experience him in such cherished topics as the tragedy and joy of Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, the overwhelming intensity of Mahler’s Symphony No. 6, the theater of the Oberon Overture, or the elemental energies of The Rite of Spring. Nevertheless, this book is a welcome addition to our library.
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Dr. Kevin McMahon is Music Director and Conductor of the Sheboygan and Wheaton Symphonies, Artistic Director and Conductor for the Maud Powell Music Festival, and Associate Conductor of the New York Repertory Orchestra. He studied conducting with Gustav Meier at the University of Michigan, attended his seminar at Tanglewood, and attended former ASOL workshops. As a violinist, he also performed under Meier at the University of Michigan and with the Lansing Symphony.
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