Presto

AN OLD PROBLEM
IN A NEW DRESS
In the East this year public and critics are much exercised
over the seating arrangement of the symphony orchestra. Leopold
Stokowski who has probably garnered more headlines than any
other conductor alive, is harvesting a new crop now by reason
of his recent bold challenge to tradition. He has picked up the
string section and transferred it bodily to the back of the stage,
bringing forward in its stead such long-hidden instruments as
flutes, oboes, clarinets, horns, trumpets, trombones and even
percussions.
Experiments in the seating arrangements of the orchestra are
an old story, but such experiments have usually been carried on
in such a way that basic traditions have not been disturbed. These
basic traditions require that the small strings—by far the most
numerous, most used, and most important orchestral family—
should be down front in close touch with conductor and audience.
These traditions require also that brass instruments and double
basses should be kept in the background and compelled to perform
their relatively small tasks in obscurity.
Past experimenters, instead of challenging the soundness of
these general ideas, would merely change the position of violas or
second violins within the string section or shift whole small choirs
(the wood wind, for example) from one part of the platform
to another. In comparison with these conservative changes Sto-
kowski's action is as radical as that of a football coach who
should decide to place all of his backs slightly in advance of the
line.
A glance at the diagram of the orchestra conducted by Arturo
Toscanini will acquaint the reader with the conventional seating
arrangement and will demonstrate the fact that this conventional
seating arrangement is not absolutely rigid. Frederick Stock,
conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Toscanini
agree on major points but disagree on several minor ones. The
former likes the cellos bunched cozily in front of him; the
latter puts them to his left, behind the first violins. The former
keeps his brasses to the extreme right; the latter has them directly
in front of him.
Even the most perfunctory study of the diagram of the Phila-
delphia orchestra will serve to establish the fact that Stokowski's
ideas differ radically from those of his colleagues. The concert-
master (principal first violin), who traditionally occupies the place
of honor at the front of the stage and right under the conductor's
left hand, now must peer at his chief thru rows of clarinets and
flutes. The cellists, who in other days could actually go thru
life without ever seeing a bassoon, now find that instrument di-
rectly in front of them.
This is Leopold Stokowski's radical rearrangement of the Philadelphia
orchestra. Brasses and wood winds are down front, strings back.
Advantages of Nezv
Arrangement
The advantages of the new arrangement are as follows:
It brings forward flutes and clarinets—which are soft of tone
and few in number—and permits their tone to reach the audience
without having first to cut its way thru the great mass of strings.
It gives people who come to concerts to look as well as to listen
(and this includes virtually every member of the audience) an
opportunity to get acquainted with other instruments besides
strings.
It reunites the strings after generations ot separation. The
string basses have always stood along the back wall, and in Sto-
kowski's arrangement they continue to do so. Now, however, their
proud cousins—violins, violas, cellos—have at last come back
to join them.
Disadvantages Of Nezv Arrangement
And here are some disadvantages of the new system:
It banishes the most important sections of the orchestra (the
strings) to positions back of the wood winds and endangers
the rapport between the conductor and his hardest working men.
And of course it banishes the concertmaster along with his
lesser fellows.
The audience will see much idleness—for brasses, wood winds,
and percussions rest frequently and for long periods—and a sus-
picion may conceivably arise that a full money's worth is being
withheld.
The brass instruments whose tone does not always blend easily
with that of the rest of the orchestra even in the conventional
seating arrangement, are apt to be more difficult still to control
when those instruments are at the front of the stage.
But there is too much theory in all the above and too resolute
an avoidance of an important factor in orchestral seating. The
factor is the shape and the acoustics of the hall in which the
orchestra habitually plays. Mr. Stock has arranged his orchestra
by ear, as it were. If a certain position gives the best tonal result
in Orchestra Hall, then that position is the best.
The present seating arrangement of the Chicago Orchestra
represents the results of decades of experimentation. Three years
ago an important change took place when the percussion instru-
ments were moved from the right rear to the left rear in order to
get them away from other highly sonorous instruments such as the
heavy brasses. The tonal weight of the right rear (in the old
arrangement) made proper balance almost impossible.
The Chicago Orchestra once tried an experiment almost as
novel as Mr. Stokowski's present one. All of the strings were
put on the right side and all of the wind instruments on the left.
This looked logical enough, but it just didn't sound right.
This is another version of the traditional seating arrangement. The sym-
phony orchestra conducted by Arturo Toscanini keeps its strings forward.
PAGE THIRTY
In reference to the problem of orchestral seating in general
Mr. Stock recently said: "We have found that the present ar-
rangement of the orchestra is best suited to the acoustical prop-
erties of Orchestra hall", and that is that.
PKESTO MUSIC TIMES
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