The connection of the emotions : An inside look at the orchestral interpretation

Abstract: As musicians, our main goal when we perform a piece is to transmit something to the audience: emotion. And to get this emotion also while performing. It is our way to communicate. When we are soloists, we make our own interpretation of the piece to perform, and the cycle that the music does is from the composer, trough us, and then the audience. But what happens when we are in the orchestra? In an orchestra, we are 100 musicians, each one a very different type of performer, each one with their own mentality, ideas, minds, etc. And also, we have to add a very important level in the music cycle here: the conductor. When we perform a piece with the orchestra, we do not play our own interpretation, but the one of the conductor. So, what happens when you play an interpretation that is not yours among so many other musicians? How do we achieve and transmit this emotion? How can we work this out? Does the relationship between the musicians affects the result? To answer all these questions, I have based my thesis work in two basic pillars: first, literature and documentaries about the emotion in the music and its relation to the orchestral world; and second, a series of interviews with different professional orchestra musicians who have helped me to clarify all these interrogations and which have led me into a conclusion about how the view about these topics is from inside the orchestra. I have preferred to develop my thesis more like an essay to also express my opinion about these subjects we are talking about.