Serebrier on Stokowski's "Sound"

[kishnevi]

A short essay by Jose Serebrier, who served as Associate Conductor under Stokowski for five years, on Stokowski's re-arrangements of orchestral seating patterns and other elements of the so-called "Stokowski Sound"

Stokowski's Sound

The sound of the orchestra would change within moments of the first encounter with Stokowski.  There was nothing he had said or done to make such an obvious change, other than to start rehearsing after a minimal greeting.  One explanation could be that Stokowski has a special sound in his mind, and his gestures and facial expressions had the ability to communicate this sound to any orchestra.  This was not a talent unique to Stokowski, and we have noticed it also in different conditions.  It is not unusual for the sound of a professional ensemble to acquire some of the characteristics of a student group after it had spent some time working under the direction of a school orchestra conductor.  This had nothing to do with the technical aspects of performance.  It has to do with the sound the conductor has in his ear, and the conductor's ability to produce that same sound quality from any orchestra.  Almost every conductor has that ability.  The degree to which that produces a dramatic influence is related, partially, to the sound  that has become imprinted in the conductor's memory....

[here follows a rumination on why orchestras used to sound different but now sound much more alike,  with no reference to Stokowski, before returning to his actual topic]

Stokowski's idea of sound was unmistakable, and so special, that it remained with the Philadelphia Orchestra for many decades after Stokowski's departure. It became known as the "Philadelphia sound".   In fact, with Eugene Ormandy,  this sound continued in the same tradition, but naturally acquired some changes over the many years.  Part of what Stokowski did to obtain his kind of sound must have been unconscious, a reflection of his gestures and approach.  But he also made conscious efforts to request specific playing from his orchestras to shape the over-all sound.  One of his most famous habits was to demand that the strings play with free bowings.  When guest-conducting, this request caused orchestras the greatest grief and displeasure.  I remember Stokowski's rehearsals with some famous orchestras, both in the United States and Europe, and the resistance he encountered when requesting each stand of strings to play with opposite bowings, and not to write bowings down.   Orchestras such as the Philadelphia, and later on the Houston and the American Symphony,  which played all the time with Stokowski, understood the principle and learned to use this technique to advantage.  Stokowski's explanation was rather simpler than the fact, but it helped the string musicians to realize there was a method at work.  Because bows naturally lose in power as they descend, and similarly gain in power as they ascend, combining bows simulataneously in both directions would in principle produce a more even sound.  In my opinion, Stokowski carried this good idea too far, using it in every instance rather than for specific effects or particular passages.  In any case, it did play a great part in obtaining a lush, powerful, and unmistakable string tone.  Balancing the woodwinds was another Stokowski landmark. As Rimsky-Korsakov had noted in his orchestration book, a flute or an oboe have a hard time competing against sixty strings.  Stokowski experimented with changing the traditional placement of woodwinds to try to enhance their volume, and to make the performers more visible.  He felt having to play behind the large body of strings, the winds were hidden to the audience, and their sound had to pass across the string barrier.  For a while Stokowski experimented by placing the woodwinds to his right, in place of the cellos or violas.   This drastically changed their sound, and the over-all balance.  Sometimes Stokowski lined up the basses at the back of the stage on high podiums with the horns directly in front, to produce a soundboard for the horns and the entire orchestrra. It also gave basses an organ-like quality. Stokowski would constantly make the brass softer than indicated in the score, in order to balance the strings and winds.  This, added to his specifications not to use podiums for the brass, contributed in large measure to form the smooth "Philadelphia sound", with a glorious string tone and audbile woodwinds.  Stokowski made sure the sound had beauty, sometimes by rounding the edges.  There was logic to everything he did to obtain a rounded, warm tone from the orchestra.  Some of it can be explained, but much of it can only be called magic.

Jose Serebrier, in the liner notes to Wagner--Stokowski Symphonic Syntheses (Tristan und Isolde-Parsifal-The Ring)  Naxos 8.570293
copyright dates on this section of the notes are given as 1997/2005/2007

typos and errors should be presumed to be those of the transcriber and not Serebrier

[david johnson]

i enjoyed reading that.  thank you.