Is John Williams a tough Conductor?

[Composer_Fan 2]

That's a very valid reason.

~Tyler, who'd be nervous as well, mainly because the music is highly difficult at times.

[Miguel Andrade 1,263]

I'd never play for Williams because I can't play any musical instruments.

Same problem here...

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

What about playing this then?

[Miguel Andrade 1,263]

wow, that quiet an hard instrument to play LOL

[Composer_Fan 2]

Actually, one still has to be able to count and subdivide, even when playing the triangle.

I've had bad experiences with amateur percussionists who have no sense of rhythm.... :?

[ChrisAfonso 186]

And the difficulties don't end here, there are many triangle parts out there that require more technical skill. Case in point: Our youth orchestra concert last weekend. As the number of percussionists was ok for most of the piece (Wagner's "Meistersinger" prelude), at the end of it there was one additional player needed for the triangle. So the conductor said to the harpist "take this, play that few bars", as the harp had nothing to do at that point in the piece. And what can I say, she struggled immensely to get a simple rhythmic figure evenly out of that "simple" instrument, making it swing here and there uncontrolled when hitting it...

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I've had bad experiences with amateur percussionists who have no sense of rhythm.... :?

White boys, right?

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

I've had bad experiences with amateur percussionists who have no sense of rhythm.... :?

Rambo III

[SturgisPodmore 0]

Triangle can be hard to play at times because it twirls around on its string and it's often hard to get a perfect "jangle" out of it. Unless you're an immensely talented percussionist like me, of course.

~Sturgis, white-boy drummer and proud of it

[Ray Barnsbury 8]

Sturgis rocks the house as a percussionist!

Ray Barnsbury - who knows

[crocodile 8,017]

I think that he can be tough conductor. He has to be. He achieved great success and showed great quality many more times than practically any other film composer. He's obviously a perfectionist. I wouldn't believe that you can arrive to such spot in your life being at the same time "soft-spoken and endlessly kind and gentle".

Karol

[Ollie 1,059]

Although I have a feeling it would be alot smoother playing for Williams than it would be playing for Herrmann and Goldsmith.

[Foxfan 128]

I've heard mostly very positive things about Williams' conductor-personality from musicians who have worked with him. After his last concerts with the N.Y. Phil., several players pointed out that it was so refreshing to work with a man who was simply a musician, not a "maestro".

Are you referring to the NY April 2006 concert? But at that concert a section came in to early in A Prayer for Peace from Munich. It was after the big dramatic pause, well half of them came in a half a second to early while the other half came in on time (or so it sounded like) well end result, not pretty noise effect and one of John Williams stares that make me want to go into a nice corner. I was sitting far from the stage and I still saw it. Not pretty.

I'm trying to think how they would have messed this up. Is this piece written in duple meter? Maybe that would have caused problems. If it was written in 4, the deep low chord would have been on the third beat, so there was no way the violins could have mistaken it for the first beat.