Watching the Symphony

A few evenings ago I attended a concert presented by our area symphony and their guest performers. I often listen to orchestral music, but I don't very often get to watch it being made! Arriving early, I saw the members of the orchestra come in a few at a time and take their places. They began to warm up their instruments and their fingers (and also their lips for those playing wind instruments). Some played scales, some went over parts of the musical score—every man or woman for him/her self. As the stage filled with musicians, there was a cacophony of sound, not really unpleasant but not very melodious either.

Just before the hour when the concert was to begin, the concertmaster made his entrance. The audience applauded him, and he acknowledged us with a bow. Turning to the orchestra, he signaled to the first player in the oboe section, and the oboist sounded a clear, beautiful note (an A, in case you're interested, and it's the oboe because it has the most reliable pitch). Then every player sounded the note and tuned any off-key instrument. The oboe sounded the note again, and then a third time while all the instrumentalists checked their pitch carefully. I noted that although the conductor had yet to appear and begin the performance, the orchestra was creating harmonious sound under the leadership of that one person.

The program of music which followed was simply wonderful, and the guest performers dazzling! I kept watching as well as listening. All those violinists make their bows go back and forth at the same time, and the other stringed instruments are handled that way too. How do they do that? I have since learned that the concertmaster, who is the principal player in the first violin section, is the one mainly responsible for establishing the appropriate bowings for the string section, which affects their musical technique as well as the "look" of the ensemble.

The concertmaster sits in the "first chair" next to the conductor's podium and customarily plays the violin solos that occur within the orchestral pieces. Glenn Dicterow is concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, one of the world's premiere symphony orchestras. In an interview several years ago, he stated that perhaps the hardest aspect of being a concertmaster is to be part of a sea of sound—and then come out as a soloist for ten seconds, and then again be part of the complex sound. "It's a challenge," he said. "You have to learn how to be not just a stellar player, but how to play with other people—how to meld in and not stand out, how to be part of the team and help that team along." When Dicterow goes on tour as a soloist with other orchestras, and if he performs early in the program, he sometimes sits with the second violins in the back after the intermission. It is harder to play in the back of a section than in the front, and he empathizes with the people who sit back there, twenty or thirty feet from the conductor and the concertmaster's cues and near the brass and percussion. So why am I telling you all this?

• Christians can't do their own thing. We need a Leader, and we need those who are commissioned by Him to help us give consistent evidence of His grace.
• We need to tune to the "A" note that Jesus sounded. We won't be exactly alike, just as violins and trumpets have different voices. But we all need to find the pitch that resonates with His.
• We have some written instructions, the Word of God, just as the string sections in the orchestra have a score with notes to play and technique to follow.
• Leaders who have a highly visible ministry must never forget how hard it is to be "just" an usher, the snack-preparer for children's church, or the parking lot attendant.

Keeping these things in mind, we can make beautiful music together!

MaryMartha
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Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com