Telopractice: A Symphony Orchestra as it Prepares for a Concert

Telopractice: A Symphony Orchestra as it Prepares for a ConcertAuthor(s): Max KaplanSource: Social Forces, Vol. 33, No. 4 (May, 1955), pp. 352-355Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2573006 .

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352 SOCIAL FORCES

efficiency, are expected to have lower morale than any other comparable unit.

Inspection of Table 1 shows conclusively that the data conform to these theoretical expectations. The mean percentage of squadron personnel with high morale in Type A sites (High efficiency-high leadership perception) is 56 percent, higher by 18 percentage points than the squadron type with next highest morale, i.e., Type B (High efficiency -low leadership perception). Those squadrons in which leadership perception and efficiency are both at a low level (Type C) have correspondingly the lowest mean morale of any of these types-16 percent. Squadrons of mixed leadership perception

efficiency type (Types B and D) stand inter- mediate between these extremes, with respect to site morale. The differences in morale between these types of squadron are all statistically significant at the .01 level or beyond, with the single exception of the difference between Type B and Type D squadrons (X2: 1.85 1 d.f. n.s).

These findings all support the conclusion that unit operating efficiency is a factor associated with morale independent of human relations leadership but standing in a mutually reinforcing relationship to morale produced through such leadership. How universal is this condition of mutual rein- forcement as between human relations leadership,

efficiency, and morale, and what are the conditions under which it obtains? These are certainly the next questions to be answered, and several alter- nate hypotheses suggest themselves for investiga- tion. The first is that unit efficiency and unit morale are mutually reinforcing only when some tangible reward or symbol of achievement is given to those units which operate at high efficiency. This would not appear to have been the case in the AC&W population, since in all the divisions from which the test squadrons were drawn, official policy discouraged inter-squadron com- petition or special recognition, in favor of bringing all squadrons up to as nearly a uniform level as possible of acceptable operating efficiency.

A second hypothesis is that the condition of operating at a high level of efficiency brings its own rewards, morale-wise, in any unit so operating.10 This would be a most difficult but also an extremely interesting hypothesis to test. For if unit efficiency were found to be an intrinsically morale-producing factor, then it would appear that administrators need not concern themselves with the maintenance of morale in work groups as an end in itself, to the extent that the human relations theory of leadership implies.

10 See D. Katz and H. Hyman, "Morale in War Industries," in Newcomb and Hartley, op. cit., p. 445.

TELOPRACTICE:* A SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA AS IT PREPARES FOR A CONCERT

MAX KAPLAN

University of Illinois

E VERY student of social groups is aware of categories which call attention to such characteristics as their composition,

permanence, functions, interests, structures, co- hesiveness, sanctions, and the like.' These cate-

gories, and in essence many of the analyses re- lated to them, stress the static nature of group life inherent in the familiar term structure. Yet, a group is more than structure. As a dynamic "synthesis of social roles,"2 interrelationships

* I am indebted to Dr. Erich Werner, the eminent musicologist, for the suggestion that the term "telo- practic" might be applied to such groups, for the Greek reference here is to something which carries through. Its opposite, then, would be atelopractic group.

1 Among some basic discussions: L. Wilson, "Sociog- raphy of Groups," Twentieth Century Sociology (eds., G. Gurvitch and W. E. Moore), chap. VII; E. Sapir, "Group," Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, vol. 7,

pp. 178-182; C. P. Loomis, Fundamental Concepts of Sociology (New York: American Book Co., 1940); R. M. MacIver and Charles Page, Society, An Intro- ductory Analysis (New York: Rinehart, 1949), chap. 10; American Journal of Sociology, XLIV, No. 6 (May 1939), passim.

2 Florian Znaniecki, "Social Groups as Products of participating Individuals," American Journal oj Sociology, XLIV (May 1939), 799-811.



TELOPRACTICE 353

within the group may change so sharply that a substantially new type of group emerges. This dynamic process of transformation goes on in a family as children and parents grow older, as someone leaves the home, as father loses his job. In the church congregation, new members come in, others leave, ministers come and go. Yet in both cases, family and congregation, a new direction or goal is not sought; change is inevitable, but it is not consciously embodied as a desirable aspect in respect to more or less specific ends.

There is another kind of group whose function is not just to survive, but whose whole activity is consciously geared to a future event, experience, or even a crisis. A military unit drills for antici- pated battle; an athletic team looks ahead to its "meet"; a workers' union directs its energies toward negotiation or strike; and a group of actors rehearses for its public performance. The matter goes further than general preparation. Often, the "enemy," the "public," and the "opponent" are known in detail, and plans are shaped accordingly. Indeed, the very day and hour of the "crisis," "meeting," or "show" is often known, if not arbitrarily selected. These facts color such aspects of group life as the selection and training of members and the presence of objective criteria for evaluating success.

It is evident that a fast distinction between these types of groups is difficult, yet clear enough so that research can be focussed to explore these differences. By way of examining the second, or the more directly goal-minded type of group, two hypotheses were examined: (1) As this type of group approaches its "goal," a significant change takes place in the social roles of its members; (2) A significant change takes place in relations between members.

The group selected for observation was a university symphony orchestra during four rehearsals, just after one concert had been played and another was to be given. The writer, a participant, kept a record of time spent in play and talk, as well as general content in each. Only two rehearsals are reported, the first and last.

REHEARSAL I

Opening remarks by conductor: He thanks group for a good concert last week; notes possibility of im- provement as semester advances; plans to select fuller orchestrations to give woodwinds and brasses more to do; would like to do more sight-reading, but is limited by shortness of semester.

7:04-06 p.m.; Asks for Weber's Jubel Overture. Players- find music.

7:06-20: Straight playing; no stops. 7:20-22: No comment on the playing. Makes an-

nouncement on the storing of school-owned instruments.

Asks for another reading of Overture. 7:22-31 p.m.: Play Overture at a faster tempo. 7:31-40: Conductor comments on Overture as

"somewhat corny," but it might be used. General conversation by members; conductor asks

for Haydn's Drum Roll Symphony. 7:40-8:10: Play through entire symphony, with

slight pauses between movements. 8:10-12: Asks for re--reading of first movement;

some conversation. 8:12-25: Play first movement. 8:25: Conductor comments on the symphony.

Closes rehearsal. DISCIPLINE: GROUP: Very noisy; Fairly noisy; little

noise. CONDUCTOR: Attempted much control; Attempted

some control; Attempted no control.

REHEARSAL IV

Opening remarks by conductor: Raps with baton; oboe sounds A; group tunes; Calls for last movement of Haydn Symphony; Appeals for attention through- out rehearsal.

7:07-52 p.m. Rehearsal of last movement. First stop after 8 measures. Explains accents.

At 7:15 Has covered no more than 16 measures. At 7:20 Rehearses celli and basses alone. At 7:24 Goes back to beginning. Intensive rehears-

ing, stopping now even for single notes and small phrases.

Discipline to this point, excellent. Does considerable singing to explain desired effects. Considerable detailed emphasis on phrasing. Enters into explanations on relations of phrase to

phrase, instrument to instrument. At 7:34 About half through movement. At 7:39 Some evidence of restlessness. He appeals

to group with tapping of baton and one "please." Again, detailed work with celli and bass. Asks to play it straight through from beginning;

Seven stops as he goes through movement. 7:52-55 Talking, tuning, at end of movement. 7:55-8:22 Rehearsal of 1st movement, Haydn

Symphony. Repeats first 8 measures at a slower tempo. Much talking among second violins. Analyzes phrase structure. Announces second movement; excuses some players. 8: 26-50 Intensive rehearsing of second movement.

DISCIPLINE: GROUP: Very noisy; Fairly noisy; Little noise.



354 SOCIAL FORCES

CONDUCTOR: Attempted much control; Attempted some control; Attempted no control.

INTERPRETATION: ROLE CONTENT

Reviewing this material, it is evident that members participate on a dual level. As social persons they are recognized as university students, known to each other as "John," "girl," "sopho- more," etc. As technical persons these members are completely identified with the instruments they play. For example, the first and second clarinet "parts" are played in a relationship of pitch, time, nuance, etc., which is prescribed originally by the composer and conveyed through symbols in a music score. No consideration is given, ideally, to the fact that the persons reading them are a banker's daughter or a coal-miner's son. When Jim and Sue exchange comments about the weather they relate themselves as social persons; when they discuss how best to phrase a musical passage, it is as technical colleagues.

For "social" and "technical" we shall employ E. T. Hiller's concepts, "extrinsic" and "intrinsic," respectively.3 'What is evident is that, as the concert approaches, intrinsic roles assume dominant importance. Members increasingly "tend to business." In the first rehearsal we noted a "very noisy" group, and "no control" attempted by the conductor. By the fourth rehearsal this had changed to "little noise" and "some control."

This change is to be expected. An approaching crisis becomes a close reality in the dimensions of time and awareness. In the process, discipline may be more rigid from the authority above, but it may also be self-imposed by the group. For instance, approach of battle brings tensions which combine various elements, such as repressed fear, mental numbness, "jitters", and the like.4

The leader approaches the crisis as a climax to a time-growth during which he has attempted a dual task:

a. He learns to know his members both in their intrinsic and extrinsic roles and to effect a recon-

ciliation between the two. For instance, note that the orchestra conductor opens his first rehearsal by promising the "woodwinds" and "brasses" that later he will select music which demands more playing of them. Here he is speaking to persons qua persons who want to play as much as possible, and not to clarinets et al who have no right to argue his intentions or the orchestrations of composers.

b. The conductor purifies the normative systems within his organization as time goes on, deliberately minimizing his concern with extrinsic aspects and concentrating more upon the intrinsic elements of the situation. This reaches a point where, if some person made a nuisance of himself as a person and thus interfered with the musical results of the whole group, the conductor might replace him with a substitute in order to solidify his technical personnel. Which aspects of the situation he chose to ignore, friendship or musical results, would depend on the seriousness of the performance and his own assumption of the conductor's role as educator and friend or as musician.

INTERPRETATION: COMMUNICATION BETWEEN

INTRINSIC ROLES

A second observation relates to changes in the types of communication and integration between persons in their intrinsic roles as musicians.

Three vehicles of communication exist in the orchestra: speech, gestures, and music itself.5 Speech consists of three kinds: (1) ordinary conversation, such as "Let us play the X Symphony"; (2) metaphorical or poetic expression to describe a desirable conception, such as, "It portrays a sick man, fighting for life with Death, and in delirium recalling his childhood, youth and manhood" (Strauss, "Death and Transfiguration"); (3) terms to define more exactly such interpretative concepts or technical procedures as "retard," "senza sordino," "vibrato," and similar terms.

It is evident, from the time chronology in the rehearsals above, that more time was taken in talking by the conductor as the concert ap-

3Ernest T. Hiller, Social Relations and Structures (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1947), chaps. 13 and 14.

4 For a study of attitudes incident to approaching battle, see Richard T. La Piere's Collective Behavior (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1938). He uses the term "regimental behavior" to discuss a system designed to "accomplish the same ends under exigent conditions as institutional and conventional patterns do under normal circumstances." (p. 105)

I Considerable material already exists on language as a dynamic symbol of such factors as sex, occupation, military membership, age grouping, criminal lingo, etc. The orchestra provides an obvious (but unstudied) laboratory for experimental or empirical observations to relate types of symbolic communication. For instance, a schema of "anticipatory," "expressive," and "arbitrary" symbolization might prove suggestive for an orchestra study.



TELOPRACTICE 355

proached. While in rehearsal iv there were frequent stops and corrections, from a total of 90 minutes in rehearsal i, fully 70 percent of the time went into playing. Further, the nature of speech em- ployed by the conductor was at first increasingly technical, but when the orchestra had overcome details, increasingly imaginative.6 These develop- ments might vary from one orchestra to another. However, the change in language provides an observable datum for close observation.

Beyond word-of-mouth communication, the conductor uses motions of his body or face, and more directly, of his arms and hands. It must be understood that until the nineteenth century the contemporaneous Toscaninis did not wave hands or batons. Among the Germans and Italians the general practice was to conduct from the harpsi- chord. While playing on this instrument, the leader pounded out the rhythmic patterns, mean- while filling in with harmonies of players who were temporarily lost. He communicated his directions to the head violinist, who became known as the "concertmaster." This division of authority led to confusion; the latter then took on delegated authority for numerous details, but not in the actual beating of time.7

Not only was the noise eliminated in the new practice of waving the hand, but new subtleties in direction developed; it is fair to say that from a change in forms of communication between conductor and orchestra, there developed the modern organization which is capable of amazingflexibility and synchroni- zation.

Last, music itself is the most important communication between members of the orchestra group. The written integration exists in symbols- notes, dynamic markings, etc.-all of which appear on the stands placed before persons who have been trained in: (1) an understanding of these printed symbols; (2) a conception of how these symbols are performed on instruments; and (3) a conception of how one instrumental sound is blended

with another. Little deviation is permitted from these -aesthetic (culturally produced) norms. There is no room for charisma, producing "free expression" of Tiger Rag while others are in the thick of a Beethoven Symphony. Weber's comments on the inherent antipathy between charisma and discipline holds true here.8

One of the three systems-speech-gives way entirely at the concert. Integration of the musical activity becomes increasingly a matter of meaning- ful gestures and of reliance on fitting one's part into an aural pattern. It is the latter which is all-important as the group becomes more proficient, so that it is commonly accepted among profes- sional musicians that a first rate symphony orchestra will sometimes play well in spite of a poor conductor. In the dance band the leader is almost entirely a "front," and unnecessary to the group's functioning.9 In summary, as the goal of performance approaches, relationships between communicative systems and norms change.

APPLICATION TO OTHER GROUPS AND ISSUES

Among the theoretical problems which are suggested by the approach used above, the most important is that of relating group functions to internal synthesis of roles. Other applications can be made to the formulation of concepts for the study of "morale"; to the observation of "performance" functions within such groups as the family;'0 to the impact upon personality of long- continued association with these goal-oriented groups; and to the transformation of a group from one type to the other. Certainly, the problems involved have to await a more adequate con- ceptualization.

6 A content analysis of speech heard in artistic circles (for example, at an art gallery, during concert intermissions) reveals a jargon in which "technical" and "imaginative" referents are both present, are used with a high degree of subjective synonymity and be- come important symbols of "upward culture."

7 Sociologists interested in this art should know the writings of John H. Mueller, especially his The Ameri- can Symphony Orchestra: A Social History of Musical Taste (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1951).

8 H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (ed. and trans.) From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1946), pp. 262-64.

9 There have been attempts at conductorless or- chestras even on the symphonic level. This was tried in Russia, shortly after the Revolution, but shortly discontinued. An American orchestra, NBC Symphony Orchestra, is trying it.

10 In a larger time-sense, the family goes through periods or stages, and these are to some extent expected and planned for. For example, Willard Waller's The Family: A Dynamic Interpretation (rev. by Reuben Hill [New York: The Dryden Press, 1951]), is or- ganized around concepts of progressive stages: "Mate Finding: Established Relationships," "Marriage: The Established Status," "Parenthood: Imposing Rela- tionships," etc.



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Telopractice: A Symphony Orchestra as it Prepares for a Concert