JAVS Fall 2005

QUARTET COACHING STRATEGIES

they arc roo loud when reheru·sing in a room. Facing ourwru·ds means that they are nor projecting their sowxl direcdy at their poor cellist col leagues so much. I have a slight preference for searing d1e viola between the 2nd violin ru1d cello. lt follows the score order and unites the 2nd violin and viola, who have to work so closely together. Bur in mis arrangement tOO d1e viola player shOLLid sir pretty much squru·e on rad1er thru1 symmetrically at an angle. Sitting further back than the cel list you need d1e whole belly fac ing the audience. And d1e cellist will want ro ru1gle our for the same rea son I've described for d1e viola. It can be a chall enge to get the members of some groups to look at each other enough. You often find one player looking over at another whi le the other's eyes are stuck in the music, as if each note has to be read a note at a time. T llis is not primari ly a matter of d1eater - groups char make a show of it and smile knowingly ar each other ca n eas ily distract from the content of the music. But to have a musical dialogue in "real time", as opposed to just doing what has previously been rehearsed, is much better served by each player giving the others the feel ing that they can do unplanned things, magical little inflections, bursts of energy, I i nger ings, changes in intensity. An involuntarily raised eyebrow, a cloud corning over the face, a sud den impish look - these are littl e,

by Roger Tapping

life, that the human ear is most readi ly drawn to higher frequen cies, and we do have a challenge. There are plenty of things we can do; but, after years of playing

Coaching a good chamber group is a tremendous luxury. You can help them to mold a piece, free of the actual difficulties of playing it yourself. And you can't fail to learn more about a piece whi le coaching it - I sometimes think that one shouldn't get up on stage to play any piece without first having coached it. Here are a few thoughts abou t the issues I find come up most when coaching quartets. Balance is one of the things a coach can most valuably help with. Tt never really stops being an increasingly wel l-informed guess ing game when you're in the thick of it, dealing with your own and your colleagues' anxieties about it, and good balance is one of the most important aspects of mal<.ing a performance which will engage an audience and bring a piece to li fe. One can help students ro find rhe melodic thread as it weaves its way amongst them, mal<.ing sure that ir is passed from one to anoth er with an equivalent in tensity. The type of sound you malce is of rhe utmost importance and this brings me to a subject which is not, it seems ro me, given enough thought. The viola is, of course, quite a variable beast, but in gener al, as we know all roo well, its melancholy, soulful beauty comes at a price: it is less acoustically effi - cient than rhe violin or cello. Add this to the other fact of acoustical

VOLUME 2 1

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