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The old Greek story of Orpheus and his journey into the Underworld to rescue his wife opens some interesting commentary when that name is applied to a chamber group that works without a conductor.
As the old myth goes, Orpheus is allowed to leave the Underworld with his love in tow. She will remain behind him out-of-sight, but only if he never looks back to see if she is there or not.
That being said I have also wondered about how the music group Orpheus organize concerts and make decisions about the music. From a recent article at The Wall Street Journal we gain some insight.
…an elected executive committee of players assigns the position for each work; the concertmaster then chooses the leaders and co-principals of the other sections, who form the so-called core. At core rehearsals, the broad themes of interpretation, tempo and phrasing are hashed out ahead of tutti rehearsals, in which each player is encouraged to speak up. Everyone is expected to know the entire score. During rehearsals, players take turns walking out into the auditorium to check for sound and balance and then report back to the ensemble.
(More.)
This article also brought back to memory a classic conductor joke:
Q. What is the difference between a symphony orchestra and a freight train?
A. The freight train needs a conductor.
[Extracted from a “Random Monday” article, 2021, JE]
