The orchestra and its instruments . ion wasa reasonable qualification to require. He supervisedall the rehearsals; and he had so nice an ear that fromthe far end of the theatre he could detect a violinistwho played a wrong note. And he would run upto the man and say, You did that. It is not in yourpart. The artists knew him and they tried to dotheir work well. The instrumentalists particularlynever dared to embellish their parts, for he would notallow any more liberties from them than he wouldfrom the singers. He thought it far from properthat they should assume a greater knowledge than hisown
The orchestra and its instruments . ion wasa reasonable qualification to require. He supervisedall the rehearsals; and he had so nice an ear that fromthe far end of the theatre he could detect a violinistwho played a wrong note. And he would run upto the man and say, You did that. It is not in yourpart. The artists knew him and they tried to dotheir work well. The instrumentalists particularlynever dared to embellish their parts, for he would notallow any more liberties from them than he wouldfrom the singers. He thought it far from properthat they should assume a greater knowledge than hisown and add what notes they pleased to their tabula-ture. If this happened he became angry and wouldmake lively corrections. More than once he brokea violin on the back of a man who was not playingto his taste. But when the rehearsal was over, LuIIywould send for the man, pay him three times the valueof his instrument and take him out to dine. This characteristic little picture well shows themethods of the conductor. 1 Romain JEAN BAPTISTE LULLY THE ORCHESTRA 165 Now these were neither ordinary men, nor ordinarymusicians, whom LuIIy was accustomed to strikewith their instruments. Some of them were indeedfamous in their art and friendships. It only proveshow supreme LuIIy was that they would submit tohis temper and rude treatment. Evidently it wasa distinction to play in LuIIys Orchestra. So theyput up with anything at rehearsals. Take, for instance, Descoteaux, one of the mostfamous flute-players of the time. Descoteaux wasa great friend of Boileau, Moliere and La lived to be very old, and Marais (the viola dagamba of LuIIys Orchestra) speaks of him in hisJournal in 1723 as follows: During the fetes I sawDescoteaux, whom I thought was dead. It was hewho carried the German flute to its highest pointand who brought to perfection the pronunciation ofwords in singing according to the rules of value of literature he understood better than any-body. He
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectmusicalinstruments
