'Tis the season for pops concerts, at least around here. The Lubbock Symphony performed with the New York Voices. This past weekend, I played with the Big Spring Symphony. It seems to me that more often than not, the pops concerts are actually more difficult to prepare than the standard classical "masterworks" concerts. Here's why:
Despite these difficulties, pops concerts usually get short shrift as far as rehearsal time goes.
Regarding the first point, pops concerts are usually better attended because people know this music. At the LSO concert, we performed jazz standards ("Orange colored sky," "Sing, sing, sing," "Cloudburst," etc.) as well as more "popular" songs by Joni Mitchell, Simon and Garfunkel, and others. The audience knows this music and expects it to sound a certain way (even if they don't know the arrangements by New York Voices). This isn't to suggest that Beethoven or Mahler is unfamiliar; rather, it seems to me that the performer-driven popular music is less open to interpretation than the composer-driven classical repertoire.
Pops music is often full of tempo changes and key signature changes. Again, so is classical music, but not with the same frequency (or perhaps density) of pops music. On the Big Spring concert, we did medleys from Grease, The sound of music, Jesus Christ superstar, The music man, and Les miserables. These medleys contain anywhere from four to eight selections from the show, and each one is in a different key (some even change key within the number) and a different tempo. Having six to ten tempo and key changes within ten minutes of music raises the potential for disaster quite a bit. This would be no problem if most pops concerts had a week of rehearsals like the masterworks concerts. Both the LSO and Big Spring Symphonies did the pops concerts on two rehearsals (one without, one with soloists).
The music generally looks easy on paper (at least the bass parts do!). I'm not going to spend hours practicing pizzicato "root-fifth-root-fifth" followed by a page of whole notes in half position. But maybe I should. For the reasons mentioned in the previous paragraph, this music requires more rehearsal than it does practice (that is, ensemble practice as opposed to individual practice). This might not be an issue in orchestras that employ the exact same musicians all the time and play together regularly. But in an orchestra that hasn't played together in a month and a half and consists largely of substitute musicians, the ensemble practice is even more crucial.
Related to the final point, in some cases the arrangements are proprietary (as was the case with the New York Voices) so this is not music that any of us had ever seen before, nor would we have been able to get our hands on it early in the season to practice. This further complicates the preparation of these concerts, since this isn't music that we've spent years preparing in the conservatory.
Consequently, many pops concerts I've participated in have had some very scary moments. I'd almost rather shave some rehearsals from the masterworks concerts and add them to the pops concerts. That way, I could have an extra day to practice the difficult licks that appear in masterworks concerts, thereby being better prepared for those and allowing more ensemble rehearsal time for pops concerts.
The music is very well known and needs to be prepared to a higher level
The music is full of tempo and key signature changes
On paper, the music looks easy
Despite these difficulties, pops concerts usually get short shrift as far as rehearsal time goes.
Regarding the first point, pops concerts are usually better attended because people know this music. At the LSO concert, we performed jazz standards ("Orange colored sky," "Sing, sing, sing," "Cloudburst," etc.) as well as more "popular" songs by Joni Mitchell, Simon and Garfunkel, and others. The audience knows this music and expects it to sound a certain way (even if they don't know the arrangements by New York Voices). This isn't to suggest that Beethoven or Mahler is unfamiliar; rather, it seems to me that the performer-driven popular music is less open to interpretation than the composer-driven classical repertoire.
Pops music is often full of tempo changes and key signature changes. Again, so is classical music, but not with the same frequency (or perhaps density) of pops music. On the Big Spring concert, we did medleys from Grease, The sound of music, Jesus Christ superstar, The music man, and Les miserables. These medleys contain anywhere from four to eight selections from the show, and each one is in a different key (some even change key within the number) and a different tempo. Having six to ten tempo and key changes within ten minutes of music raises the potential for disaster quite a bit. This would be no problem if most pops concerts had a week of rehearsals like the masterworks concerts. Both the LSO and Big Spring Symphonies did the pops concerts on two rehearsals (one without, one with soloists).
The music generally looks easy on paper (at least the bass parts do!). I'm not going to spend hours practicing pizzicato "root-fifth-root-fifth" followed by a page of whole notes in half position. But maybe I should. For the reasons mentioned in the previous paragraph, this music requires more rehearsal than it does practice (that is, ensemble practice as opposed to individual practice). This might not be an issue in orchestras that employ the exact same musicians all the time and play together regularly. But in an orchestra that hasn't played together in a month and a half and consists largely of substitute musicians, the ensemble practice is even more crucial.
Related to the final point, in some cases the arrangements are proprietary (as was the case with the New York Voices) so this is not music that any of us had ever seen before, nor would we have been able to get our hands on it early in the season to practice. This further complicates the preparation of these concerts, since this isn't music that we've spent years preparing in the conservatory.
Consequently, many pops concerts I've participated in have had some very scary moments. I'd almost rather shave some rehearsals from the masterworks concerts and add them to the pops concerts. That way, I could have an extra day to practice the difficult licks that appear in masterworks concerts, thereby being better prepared for those and allowing more ensemble rehearsal time for pops concerts.