An Orchestral Perspective: Intonation

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En provenance du cours de The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Fundamentals of Rehearsing Music Ensembles

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The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Fundamentals of Rehearsing Music Ensembles

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Learn and practice the basic principles of running an effective music ensemble rehearsal. Techniques and strategies are applicable to a variety of ensembles, including bands, orchestras, choirs, and chamber groups.

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Accompanimental Conducting and Intonation

Module 6 (our final week!) begins with a brief discussion about planning rehearsals, moves to techniques for accompanimental conducting, and then dips into the Rehearsal Toolkit for intonation strategies. The intonation section includes an introduction to overtones, harmonics, and temperaments. These are acoustic concepts for which at least a basic understanding is useful for knowing how to achieve good pitch. It’s a fascinating topic, and a great example of how we can apply science to art. The final few videos cover a miscellanea of rehearsal topics, including protecting one’s ears, the use of a podium, and set-up issues.

Additional Rehearsal Techniques for Improving Intonation: Part I5:19

Additional Rehearsal Techniques for Improving Intonation: Part II15:15

Additional Thoughts About Intonation4:49

A Choral Perspective: Intonation11:48

An Orchestral Perspective: Intonation6:24

Rencontrer les enseignants

Dr. Evan Feldman
Associate Professor & Wind Ensemble Conductor
Music

[MUSIC]

Find intonations and issues of technique and also an issue of mind's

ear, hearing intonations, how do you,

encourage orchestras and string players particularly?

Play in tune.

>> Well, you know, it's, it's a big problem.

Orchestras have a specifically large problem

because tendencies of instruments are different.

String tendencies are different from wind tendencies, you know?

Some tend to go sharp at some point, others flat at certain

point, depending the temperature and weather and the key and all of that.

So, sometimes I wonder, it's a miracle that, that an

orchestra can ever play in tune with itself, you know?

There's so many.

Challenges.

The first step, obviously, is that each player needs

to be able to play in tune with themselves.

Can they play a scale in tune, with proper interval, recognition?

If they can't play in tune on their

own instrument your battle is much greater, obviously.

>> Hm.

>> So that's one of the reasons I like to ask.

String players to play scales for me in my auditions.

I ask them for a three octave scale up and down.

I tell them I don't care what speed it is.

I don't care what bowing you use.

I'm, just going to listen for the pitch and see

if they have a, decent intervallic relationships and by

you know, the time they get up to the

third octave, sometimes it's way out there and some other.

Planet, but

>> Terms are important, its pretty happening if you ask

Zeal what his top thing would be, rhythm rhythm, rhythm, rhythm.

>> Yeah.

>> His next five or six might be, pitch.

>> I would think so because that

orchestra also played incredible intonation over the years.

So, that is one thing, obviously the individuals have

to be able play in tune on their own instruments.

Then we do have to counter the tendencies of whose going to be

sharp on certain notes and certain chords and whose going to be flat.

strings, I find, one of the easiest things to do

is just to isolate them and have them play a passage.

alone.

I'll just say, first violins, let's just take these eight bars under tempo.

Then I'll listen and say the F-sharp in the

third beat of that second bar is out of tune.

You know, just be aware of that.

And, if you do that a couple of times it falls into place.

You hear them do it alone and you make them aware of where the problem is.

You can't single out one person and say you were that one that's

sharp when you've got you know, 18 or 20 people in the section.

But, you make them aware and if you do it

slowly you can hear the tendencies where they are, and then,

it may come where they concert master may suggest hey

let's try a different fingering here to solve that intonation problem.

And that will work, and sometimes I'll have all the strings

play something together, just to listen to the, intonation among themselves.

With the winds and brass I just have to, I, I don't take chords apart.

I will sometimes hold the chord, and just say, okay, hold it, and tune it.

Listen to each other, adjust.

Sometimes when we have faculty members running sectionals here

for our winds and brass, I've gone in and

listened, and one of our colleagues, as soon as

he says, be aware of your pitch, it fixes itself.

A lot of it is awareness, and making them aware of where the problem is.

And they'll start, to do it.

I will find that doing things slowly sometimes helps

for everybody, doing things in unison helps, and holding chords,

and just tuning them at a certain key spot when

we did the consecration of the house overture of Beethoven.

Just opens with, this, four or five spaced chords with huge rests in between them.

I would just have them hold the chord, not so forte, until it was in tune, and

then the next one, and then we would play

them in tempo and they were like 200% better.

Without having to single out people or say, all right lets hear

these octaves now and now put in the fifth and all that.

I know people do that, it's time consuming, its

tedious and sometimes you don't always get it right either.

I remember vividly, of course this applies to a professional situation.

But, we had a, conductors skill conference in Houston one year and

one of our panelist was the principle clarinet of the Houston symphony.

And, one of the conductors asked him.

How do you deal with, intonation issues?

or, or how do you want the conductor, to deal with intonation at the wings?

And he said, the first thing he said was, don't, take

the chord apart note by note and try to tune it.

He says first of all you'll be wrong half the time, secondly that's our job.

Make us aware of where the problem is, we'll fix it.

But, good intonation is a long term process.

He said we just hired a new second clarinet a year and a half ago.

Plays with us 52 weeks a year, eight

services a week, he's just starting to fit in.

I sit next to the principal bassoon for 26 years.

I know every note on his instrument, he know's every

not on my instrument that's how you get good intonation.

Obviously we can't do that in an academic

situation, you can't do that in a community orchestra.

But you can raise people's consciousness and awareness of, intonation issues.

>> And, and to connect with some of our other videos in

terms of kind of the spectrum between professional and less experienced players.

With the professional player, they have control over their instructions.

>> Exactly.

>> You can just tell them the problem.

>> Yep, they'll solve it.

>> They'll figure out how to fix it.

For, intermediate players, you might have to break it down.

Mm-hm.

>> To give them the.

To illu-,

illuminate the skills that they need.

>> Exactly.

>> And the problems that they were there.

>> Yep.

>> And at the beginning level, you might really have to micro manage it.

>> Right.

>> But really, micro managing is inefficient in the long

run, because there is, thousands of notes in the piece.

>> That's right.

>> And people have to take their own responsibility.

>> And you have limited time to rehearse.

And it's also very tedious to be, getting to that

level of detail in a general rehearsal, where everybody is present.

And then a lot of people have to sit

around for ten minutes while you're tuning one chord.

That's why it is best done in sectional rehearsals.

>> Right.

>> And why when we do have sectionals I really would

like our wind and brass faculty to focus on intonation because

that's something they can really nail, with eight or 12 people

present and not waste the time of a large string section.

>> So it's about facilitating the group to take personal responsibility.

>> Yes.

>> For the issue of intonation.

>> It is.

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