Debate: The Orchestral Musician’s Artistic Identity

– In record time I’ve got to know other string players really well, much better than if we’d been rehearsing a Haydn quartet for a week, says one of the workshop participants. – Unexpected situations arose, and the interaction was great fun. It’s been ages since I experienced such interaction in an orchestra or chamber ensemble. Practising improvisation in a group gives you transferable skills in terms of ensemble play.

– Creating something together with other musicians can arouse strong feelings irrespective of genre, says Ingvill Hafskjold, clarinettist in the Oslo Philharmonic and an experienced performer of contemporary music. She thinks that a key skill for a musician is being able to read the people around you and listen to their language, such as observing the tempo at which a co-musician joins the phrase.

Sverker Rundqvist is a classical double bass student at NMH and participant at the Free Classical seminary. – That strong feeling of creating something together can have more to do with whom you’re playing with than what kind of music you’re playing. You need to be extremely careful to listen to each other when you perform improvised music. That’s true for composed music as well, but it’s easy to forget it because you become so absorbed in yourself, in doing it right or in what the conductor is doing. The key to playing written music is listening to each other and creating something together. I think improvisation makes it easier to maintain that attitude when you play composed music as well.

Recent tuba graduate Magnus Løvseth, one of the teachers on the Musikk på Majorstuen programme, points out that it is important to distinguish between improvisation as a genre and as something that has value in itself: – Improvisation is an important genre, but it also has enormous instrumental value. You’re forced to make decisions and to push the boundaries. When you’re working on your sound, say, you suddenly find yourself having to make hundreds of decisions. You might discover a timbre you didn’t know you had rather than strive for an ideal sound. All of the new sounds you discover have their own identity and value.

As well as standard repertoire, The Norwegian Wind Ensemble (DNBE) has been dedicated to improvised music for years, something which has been challenging for many of its members. Oboist Ingunn Lien Gundersen talks about her experience when the ensemble started to perform improvised music. – I almost couldn't play anything. It was a really strange experience. I knew the scales up and down, but playing around within those scales was just impossible. I had to start from scratch, practise different patterns, practise the different opportunities that lie in just a single note such as articulation and dynamics. I’ve felt that I’ve had to go back to the beginning on the oboe.

When asked what her training lacked that could have helped prepare her for her role as a professional musician with the DNBE, she says: – I would’ve needed more practical harmony and aural skills directly linked to my instrument. And I would’ve wanted my teacher to take away the music and ask me to play with the instrument sometimes.

– It’s interesting that NMH empowers you to do pretty much anything you want, but in order to do that you have to accept that you’ll be seen as slightly weird, says horn student Siri Storheim. – On the classical programme it feels like we’re on an orchestral programme, but that’s not the case. There’s a massive orchestra focus. To many, getting a job with an orchestra is their big goal and the ultimate confirmation that you've made it.

– Often in your instrument lessons you hear ‘that’s nicely played, but don't play like that at an audition’, Siri continues. – It feels as though you’re expected to be a master at auditioning but also to be able to squeeze into a mould.

A classical freelance musician in the auditorium raises their hand: – I finished studying a few years ago and wanted to improvise for my exam. My teacher told me he felt it wasn’t a good idea, because they’d be unable to assess me. It felt as if I was being pushed back into the mould. I think students should be pushed to play and improvise, not the other way round.

Jon Helge Sætre comments on the attitudes the debaters are referring to. – Perhaps teachers are conservative, and perhaps they’re conservative because they feel that the orchestras are conservative. Teachers often say that it’s the students who are narrow-minded, that they’re the ones who want an orchestra job, and they just try to help them as best they can. One key problem here is that we’re being too simplistic, pedagogically speaking. We think that if we’re going to reach quite a narrow goal, such as becoming a master of our instrument, then we have to take a narrow approach. But that’s not necessarily the case. Some people in classical circles seem to think that those who get involved in improvisation have given up their quest, that they’re ‘freaks’. But what if we see improvisation as the very path to reaching the top level?

Sverker wonders where this prejudice stems from: – When you think about your big idols, you might think that their way to the top was just a matter of practising a lot. Yet when I’ve met some of them in person, I’ve discovered that they’ve done improvised music, composed a bit, played in jazz ensembles, run their own festivals – a lot of things you wouldn’t guess by seeing them on stage. It turns out that this particular musician is really wide-ranging, but they’re also the best in the world at what they do.

– You can be lucky or unlucky with your teacher, and for me it was a match, says Elin Kleppa Michalsen, violin student at the University of Stavanger and one of the initiators behind the student ensemble Sonore. She also attended the Free Classical seminar. – I've never dreamt of becoming an orchestral musician, but I’ve felt the pressure around me to become one. Working as a freelancer is simply not seen as being successful. When I got a new teacher, I discovered something new: she and I were totally in tune. Every teacher should open up to the student they have before them.

It’s with a glint in his eye that Geir Lysne says views are different in jazz circles: – At the radio big band in Hamburg where I’m chief conductor it’s the exact opposite. The people with the most ‘cred’ are in fact those who don’t play with institutional orchestras but are ‘good enough’ not to have to take up a permanent position.

– When we talk about teachers pushing their students in different directions, I feel that it’s good for the student to step up, Ingvill argues. – When you’ve graduated from the institution it’s your responsibility to decide how to live off your music. You don't necessarily become a good musician by getting an orchestra job, it’s just the start of a career. Defining yourself as a musician isn’t something you do just once in your lifetime, it’s one of the most exciting things about being a musician. And to be honest, you owe it to your teacher to become better than him or her. Why limit yourself?

Educator and researcher Brit Ågot Brøske has followed Geir and the DNBE for some time and has written about them in the article «Crossing the Line» for the anthology Expanding the Space for Improvisation Pedagogy in Music. – If we think that a single instrument teacher has to meet all of our needs, then it won’t work. We mustn’t get lost in the idea that one person will fix everything. We have to value the knowledge of individual teachers while also building structures to offer the students a well of opportunities.

One NMH student attending the debate asks: – Should the institution train artisans or artists? Personally, I find that my classical study programme is designed as a study of the craft. I don’t feel I’m being trained to become an artist. I’d like to see something more substantial when it comes to the thinking. I think it was Pablo Casals who had a star pupil sign up for lessons, but Casals said: ‘no, I don’t want you as my student because you haven't read enough books.’ That’s not where we are right now.

– The word craft almost sounds a bit negative in this context, a young freelance musician in the auditorium pipes up. – Ideally, it should be a combination. You shouldn’t learn to play an instrument without being able to think for yourself. But you can become a very good master of the craft who also makes your own artistic decisions.