So driving home on Friday I realized why the strings, and violins in particular, were having a difficult time counting rests. (Yes, these are the things I think about on my drive home. Shut up.) Strings, and violins in particular, do not count rests because strings, and violins in particular, are always playing. Wind parts in symphonic bands and wind ensembles have rests built in. It's just how composers write for winds. It's a physical necessity for wind players to get their instruments off their face. (In fact, we refer to any lengthy piece of music with little to no rest as being "on the face".) Strings don't have that limitation, and that's how composers write for strings. In orchestral literature the string parts do the heavy lifting. A trumpet part for a symphony might be 5 or 6 pages long. The first violin part for the same work will be 25-30 pages. (That's one of the reasons why you have stand partners - to turn all those pages!) And of course in string orchestra music, without the possibility of winds or percussion taking over the musical material, you will play almost constantly. Strings don't count rests well because they rarely have to! Winds do because you don't want them playing constantly. By the end of the piece the tone quality and intonation will be horrible and the wind players will be out of breath, as you have seen from me many times when I play along with you.
What does this have to do about vacation? My friend and mentor, Dan Durand, has told me many times that you can't go on vacation during rests. In other words, you're job isn't over just because you're resting. The music continues and you need to stay mentally engaged to successfully execute your next entrance. Don't space out!
Unfortunately, on Friday I missed my opportunity for my favorite way to sarcastically count rests...
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| One! One wonderful measure of rest! Ah, ah, ah... Two! Two wonderful measures of rest! Ah, ah, ah... Three! Three wonderful measures of rest! Ah, ah, ah... |
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