Unicorns

Today, I talked to Itzhak Perlman about unicorns.

We were rehearsing the third movement of the Tchaik Serenade, and he was looking for some character words for us to evoke as we were playing. No one was really saying anything, and he wasn't happy with the adjectives being said. I kept saying "ephemeral" under my breath, and when urged by a section member to speak up I said it loud and clear. "Ephemeral". This got Mr. Perlman's attention. "Ok, ephemeral," he said, with a smile on his face. "But what time of day? What is the setting?" he asked. "Early morning," I replied. He seemed pleased with this. "Yes, I think that is the perfect time of day to describe this," he said. He urged the orchestra to come up with an action, and again there were some murmurs of things but no one really spoke up. "Unicorns!" I said, to the surprise of the orchestra and Mr. Perlman. "Unicorns?" he asked quizzically. "Yes. We are in a shrouded glade in a misty forest. We come around from behind a large tree, and there we see a unicorn - a mythical being we never thought existed." My whole body was shaking at this point, but I still spoke loudly and clearly from the back of the section. "Alright then, unicorns it is," he said and raised his baton. I didn't want to look around me for fear of the mixed looks of admiration and disbelief from my colleagues. We began the Elegie, and it sounded beautiful, ephemeral, and in search of something greater than ourselves.

Although I know that the mention of unicorns might have been a ludicrous image, I think that it made people think outside of mere the shape of the phrase, the intonation of the notes, and the rhythm of the notes. Sometimes stretches of the imagination open up new worlds of sound and feeling.

About 15 bars into the movement, Mr. Perlman said "I think we found the unicorn".




After the rehearsal, of course everyone could not walk by me without mentioning it. Some people just thought it was funny, but others thought the orchestra actually sounded better and more committed to the opening, which is very evocative. I'm not crediting myself with changing the orchestra's sound or musicality by any means. More than anything I am happy that I had the courage to speak up with an image that meant something to me, and I hope it at least resonated with some people.