Our Orchestras and Their Purpose

...The form of the symphony, according to Bekker, "was fixed by P. E. Bach, the symphonists of Mannheim, and, finally, Haydn...

...The income from the sale of tickets is almost neverenough to cover the cost of putting on the concert...

...Alexander Scheel in Philadelphia...

...it is only in music that the civilization that developed in Western Europe, which we, justifiably or not, consider our heritage, has gone far beyond all others, and in no form of music is this more evident than in the symphony orchestra...

...The orchestra of the Prince of Esterhazy, for which Haydn wrote many of his more than one hundred symphonies and which therefore played a central part in the development of symphonic music, was quite small, with only twenty-five to thirty musicians, and the orchestras for which Mozart and Beethoven wrote their masterpieces were not much larger...

...Like most of the better things of life, good music "doesn't pay...

...His driving temperament, always directed by the strictest artistic discipline and devotion to the spirit and letter of the composition (both are more identical than is usually believed) brought the work, by the most exacting rehearsals to a purity of presentation which for me still stands as the peak of perfection of performance of works for orchestra...

...this has led to much misunderstanding, long, drawn-out union negotiations, and, in a number of cases, to strikes...

...If such an institution, with all that it has come to mean for the order and higher aspirations of Western man is not worth saving, then our civilization may not be worth saving either...

...and thoroughly competent musician...

...Managers and music directors no doubt seek the advice of the musicians, but however much they may be consulted, the musicians are not recognized as having any responsibility for the basic artistic decisions affecting the orchestra: choice of conductors, soloists, and programming...

...Many orchestras have a "screening committee" made up of players, which auditions candidates for membership in the orchestra, but the final decision is made by the music director...

...If looked at realistically, this whole arrangement would appear utterly absurd: the trustees are not employers, as properly understood, and the musicians are not employees...

...and while they make no claim to playing with the virtuosity of one of the leading orchestras, they bring good music to their communities and enrich the lives both of their members and of those who hear them...

...so was the understanding of the nature of sound, doubtless another necessary element in the creation of symphonic music...

...The affairs of the organization are entrusted to a professional manager who, with the approval of the trustees, usually employs the conductor or music director, who, in turn, is directly responsible for the artistic affairs of the orchestra—guest conductors, programs, soloists, and employment of musicians...

...The first conductors and most of the players came from Germany or were German trained—Leopold Damrosch in New York...

...There are also several chamber-music groups associated with the orchestra who play publicly and provide innovative and imaginative performances for the schools...

...A symphony concert, it should not be forgotten, is also more than playing and listening to a program of music...

...Paul Bekker, in his Story of the Orchestra, says much the same thing...

...Such orchestras usually have a professional conductor, rehearse regularly, and bring in leading soloists...

...According to Richard Strauss, who, if anyone, should know about such things, "The origin of the symphony orchestra is tobe found (besides in Bach's fugues for organ), in the string quartets of Haydn and Mozart...

...No less a rationalist than Descartes, in 1618 at the age of twenty-two, published one of the early studies of acoustics and the aesthetics of music, but for the basic work in the scientific study of sound we are indebted to Joseph Sauveur (1653-1716) who, although born nearly deaf, was the first to devise an accurate method to measure the frequency of vibration of sounds...

...a recording is fixed forever, and therefore, in a sense, artificial, but a performance, like every true work of art, is unique and related to its time and place...

...The instruments of the modern orchestra—the strings, brass, woodwinds, and percussion—are the result of an artistic and technical development of a high order...

...had in the past—no one begrudges then that—but because by severely restrictini the flexibility of the orchestra and, in turn its usefulness to the community, the presen employer-employee relationship endanger: the orchestra's future...

...A Place for Orchestras...

...There are now probably more orchestras in the United States than in any other country, ranging from the self-styled "Big Five"—Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, and Philadelphia—through excellent orchestras in such cities as Minneapolis, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and Detroit, which offer their players year-round contracts, to orchestras in such smaller cities as Indianapolis, Kansas City, Rochester, and New Orleans, which are all professional, but play for only part of the year...

...One such orchestra, the St...

...Has not the symphony orchestra become an anachronism, as far removed from our world as the eighteenth century courts where it originated...

...As Rafael Druian, who has served concertmaster of the Dallas, Minneapolis Cleveland, and New York orchestras, put i in a recent article, "The orchestra is no there to pay musicians...

...The Boston Symphony was founded in 1881, but like the Philadelphia Orchestra, continued a much earlier tradition...

...In addition, there are several hundred orchestras made up of people who love to play, many of whom play with professional competence but make their living in some other way...

...As all the larger symphonies are presently organized, responsibility for the selection of the manager and the music director, and therefore for the artistic direction of the orchestra, lies solely in the hands of the trustees...

...Every aspect of the musicians' employment is set out in complete detail—the duration and number of concerts and rehearsals, the number of players in each section, the terms under which the orchestra may give special concerts or be used for radio, TV, and recordings, etc...

...The trustees are usually people interested in civic affairs, some ofwhom may have a particular interest in music, but more often than not they are selected on the basis of what they can contribute financially to the orchestra, or raise from others...

...One who has never had the experience of taking part in the performances of great music can have no conception of what it means to those who do...

...for those who want to hear the classics, excellent recordings are available...

...Such an orchestra, and there are many like it in our country, demonstrates that great music need not be an artificial art confined to the museumlike atmosphere of the concert hall, but can still play a vital part in the life of the community...

...when the orchestra spent a week at the University of Illinois and a few students slipped into a rehearsal, the union demanded that the players be paid the additional amount required for an extra concert...

...Structural Problems The typical American professional orchestra is organized as a non-profit corporation, administered by a board of trustees, and supported largely by contributions from private sources...

...consider what the raial quotas and "affirmative action" pro-rams the Department of Health, Education nd Welfare has forced down the throats of De colleges and universities would do to a ymphony orchestra...

...If a flutist also plays the piccolo during a concert he must be paid an additional $25...

...The orchestra is no there to provide ego satisfaction for conduc tors...

...income from ticket sales was $35,000,000, and government support amounted to $8,000,000...

...It is worth mentioning, perhaps, that in contrast to the modem orchestra of a hundred or so musicians, a size now considered essential, the Meiningen orchestra managed with fifty-five...

...The New York Philharmonic, for example, was founded in 1841, and the predecessor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Germania Orchestra, in 1856...

...The virtuoso orchestra as we know it, the orchestra, that is, with salaried players on a professional basis, a conductor...

...With a budget of less than $45,000, of which about 40 percent comes from ticket sales, the Elkhart orchestra, by making it possible for many people to hear great music and to take an active part in making it, makes a substantial contribution to the cultural life of the community...

...Of von Billow's musicianship and the Meiningen orchestra under his direction, Strauss had this to say: "There was never a trace of arbitrariness...

...The orchestra is there to make music And only if that function is carried out a the highest possible level of achievemen can answers be found for the problems tha develop in trying to achieve that end' (Symphony News, June 1974...

...The full orchestra of some eighty players rehearses weekly during the season, and gives six to eight public concerts each year...

...We can make no claim to having produced composers comparable to Beethoven, Brahms, or, coming closer to our time, Richard Strauss, but in the performance of music we began early and have established a solid tradition of excellence...

...When Hans von Billow, in 1886, invited Richard Strauss who was then twenty-two, to come tc Meiningen as his assistant, the Meininger orchestra had become the leading orchestrE of its time...

...The contract between the musicians union and the Orchestral Association of Chicago, which is typical of all such contracts, must be seen to be believed...

...As a practical matter, the present ar rangement with its union contract is not tc be condemned because it has brought th( musicians much higher incomes than the...

...The total budget of the twenty-eight major American symphony orchestras in the 1972-73 season was $75,600,000...

...Whatever else we may lay at the door of the age of rationalism, it seems reasonable to say that we have it to thank for the instruments of the orchestra and the understanding of the nature of sound, two of the essential elements which culminated in the music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven...

...Is it any wonder, then, that they consider themselves, and behave, as employees...

...Open rehearsals" are defined as "rehearsals before an audience of members of auxiliary groups of the Association" and only four are permitted each year...

...to organize a symphony orchestra on the same basis as a factory makes no sense, and is completely contrary to the artistic purpose for which it exists...

...A year or two ago the Elkhart orchestra gave an inspiring performance of Beethoven's Ninth symphony...

...It is not too much to say, therefore, that the symphony orchestra represents one of the greatest and most characteristic achievements of our civilization...

...Budget Problems The one thing that all these orchestras—and there are more than a thousand—have in common, besides dedication to good music, is difficulty in balancing the budget...

...If the government upplies money, its bureaucrats will soon iiscover means to find self-fulfillment by ssuing orders and regulations...

...One of the most important and perhaps least understood functions of a great orchestra is to maintain standards, and in a time when all standards—standards of conduct, of workmanship, of integrity—are disintegrating in the face of the attack on the destructive element that is present in any society, this function becomes all the more important...

...Last fall in Chicago, for example, negotiations were deadlocked for weeks, with musicians parading back and forth in front of Orchestra Hall carrying fhe aggressive, self-righteous signs which have become customary on such occasions, and which serve no other purpose than to exacerbate matters still further...

...we can only say that we are fortunate that it happened, and should regard it as an indication that God is kindly disposed toward man...

...While there may appear to be some justification for such an attitude, the symphony orchestra has a far more important role in modern life than to play a few concerts a week to a limited audience...

...The salary scale in the other comparable orchestras will be about the same, but considerably lower in the orchestras in smaller cities, where playing in an orchestra must be accepted as a part-time job, as it used to be also in the major orchestras...

...If those •o attend the concerts are not willing to )ver their costs, why should others, and specially the taxpayers, be asked to do so...

...Embattled trustees facing ever-rising deficits, dream of gov ernment subsidies, but that would be no olution, only the source of a host of new nd worse problems...

...There are many extras, it should be mentioned, and the principals are paid substantially more...

...To work out a structure which recognizes the proper relationship of the trustees and musicians to the purpose of the orchestra would not be easy, especially with the pres...

...Writing much later of Meiningen experience and its influence or his artistic development, Strauss describer conducting one of his early compositions with no less a figure than Johannes Brahms in the audience, and Brahms' comments after the concert...

...The decisive factor . . . was . . . the transference of the constructive principles of the piano and quartet sonata to the orchestra, organized as a quartet choir, its dynamic effects completed by the gradual addition of winds...

...The trustees give their time, and usually money, thereby making it possible for a group of musicians to exercise their talents and professional skills, all for the purpose of keeping a great art alive and providing the community with good music...

...Rather than keep a structure which puts management and musicians on opposite sides of the fence, it would seem more reasonable to work out an arrangement in which the proper role of each in the ultimate purpose of the organization—good music—would be recognized...

...To all this the musicians v,,,uld reply, and with considerable justification, that if they are treated like employees they will act like employees...

...Little or no music is being composed for symphony orchestras these days that more than a handful of people want to hear...

...The program for the coming season includes Bach's Christus lag in Totesbanden , Rossini's Stabat Mater, and a concert performance of Verdi's Tosca...

...everything came by necessity out of the form and content of the work itself...

...The budget of the Chicago Symphony, which will be quite representative of the orchestras in the larger cities, for the season 1973-74, in round figures looks about as follows: Income: Ticket sales and related income, home concerts $1,885,000 Touring and out-of-town concerts 606,000 Recording and TV 196,000 Endowment and special grants 1,098,000 Hall and Building 210,000 Total Income $3,995,000 Expense: Orchestra $2,285,000 Chorus 97,000 Related music and concert expense 790,000 Touring 331,000 Recording 148,000 Administrative, fund raising, general 1,100,000 Hall and building 606,000 Pensions, social security, insurance 408,000 Total Expense $5,765,000 All of which leaves a deficit, to be raised from private sources, of $1,770,000...

...Their perfection derives from the application of the most skillful craftsmanship to a specific artistic objective, and this combination of artistry, craftsmanship, and rational analysis is the expression of a quality or attitude that is uniquely Western...

...The violin, viola, cello, and bass had been brought to their present form by the end of the seventeenth century, and although the brass and woodwinds were further developed in the nineteenth century, by the time of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven the instruments of the orchestra were available in substantially their present form, with performers capable of meeting the demands the composers placed upon them...

...What such deficits portend for the future is made depressingly evident by the decision last spring of the trustees of the Dallas Symphony to discontinue their orchestra...

...If the delay exceeds five minutes, then overtime will be paid for the entire period of thedelay...

...It was the scientific analysis of sound and the determination of the mathematical relationship between the frequency of vibration of the different notes of the scale which led to the tempered scale and the understanding of the elements of harmony...

...regular rehearsals, and public performances, began to develop in the 1830s, one of the first being the orchestra sponsored by the Duke of Meiningen...

...In view of all the problems that beset the rofessional orchestra, it is fair to ask Thether there is really any place in modern Dciety for the highly organized, costly, and ether artificial institution the big symhony orchestra has become...

...Whether there is a causal relationship or not, it is interesting to note that it was during the age of rationalism that the instruments of the modern orchestra were developed...

...The minimum basic salary of a musician in the Chicago Symphony for the 1973-74 season was $350 per week...

...Such orchestras, it should be noted, were not organized on any sort of permanent basis, but were simply brought together to play a specific program, which was often organized for the benefit of the composer...

...Solti is no doubt paid more for conducting one concert than Mozart received in a year of the most overwhelming creativity, but our time produces no Mozarts, and must seemingly content itself with the Soltis, whom we treat more like reigning princes than musicians...

...and if such delays occur on more than five occasions during any contract year, then overtime shall be paid for each occasion in excess of five, whether or not the delay exceeds five minutes...

...The merchandise we buy may be shoddy, the officials we elect corrupt, our judges venal, our teachers incompetent, our repairmen careless, our theatre and literature obscene, our press hypocritical and self-serving, but when one of our good orchestras plays one of the great classics of music we can still be reasonably sure that the per-formance will be dignified, and as nearly faultless as it is humanly possible to make it...

...By now the players are usually American born and trained—many Americans, in fact, now perform in European operas and orchestras—but for conductors we seem still to be dependent on Europe, Leonard Bernstein being one outstanding exception...

...The emoluments of the big international conductors, on the other hand, who rush by jet plane from one concert to another, are something else again, but this is at least partly a matter of supply and demand—there are not many Soltis or Karajans...

...SYMPHONIC MUSIC has become so generally available, even commonplace, through records and radio, that it is easy to take it for granted, to overlook what a magnificent instrument a fine orchestra is and the long development that made it possible...

...ent absurd organization and appalling union contracts as a starting point, but if the symphony orchestra is to survive as the creative and positive influence which is itE only reason for existence, a start must be made...

...The deficit to be raised from private sources came to $32,600,000, but after the most strenuous efforts a net deficit of $2,800,000 remained...

...In all the other arts, earlier civilizations have done as well or better than ours...

...Louis Philharmonic, was founded in 1860, and is therefore one of the oldest orchestras in the country...

...For the fact that all this should have occurred in time for such creative geniuses as the Bachs, Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart to make use of it, who were themselves the result of a long artistic development, there can be no rational explanation...

...The members of nearly all the professional orchestras are members of the musicians union, which is usually a condition of employment, so that the relationship of the trustees to the musicians is that of employer to employee...

...Recordings have their place, but they are no substitute for a live performance...

...The musicians in the larger orchestras are not underpaid, but considering the professional skill and long years of training required, and the demands made on them, their compensation is relatively modest...

...Theodore Thomas and Frederick Stock in Chicago...

...The following clause will give some idea of the spirit of the union contract: "If the playing of a concert during the subscription season has concluded within the maximum time limits for the concert, and applause at the conclusion of the concert delays the time at which the Members are excused from the stage beyond the maximum time limits, then overtime will not be payable if the delay does not exceed five minutes...

...Does all xis—the super-star conductors, the profes;onal managers and public relations exerts, the musicians who seem more inffested in squeezing out the last penny for vertime than in music, the prestigeDnscious trustees, the women's boards and ll the rest—have anything to do with the music of Beethoven and Mozart...

...The orchestra is not there to be a prop erty of its board of directors and its man ager...

...The first American orchestras go back to the period during which the European orchestras were being organized as permanent institutions...

...Georg Henschel, Wilhelm Gericke, and Arthur Nikisch in Boston...

...The leading American orchestras rank among the best in the world, and there are many others of high quality which bring great music, played with proficiency, spirit, and understanding, to many people...

...It may be, as one of the most serious concert artists we have once put it, that it will be the poor musician, who has usually sat at the lower end of the table, who will be the last to uphold the traditional values of our civilization...

...The symphony orchestra is one of the great cultural achievements of our civilization...

...The Chicago Symphony was founded in 1891, about the same time as the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Cincinnati Orchestra in 1895...

...it is a social and cultural event, it brings people together for a higher purpose, and by offering them beautiful music, gives them a glimpse, as the Spanish philosopher Unamuno would put it, of the eternal, for which there is little enough occasion in modern life...

...We owe a cultural debt to Germany for the many well-trained German musicians who brought us good music and helped to establish a musical tradition, just as Germany is indebted to Italy for the many Italian musicians who contributed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to the development of German music...