Making performance in the orchestra: The role of orchestral competencies

Abstract

Although the violin section is the most numerous and requested in orchestral practice, Flesch (1930) had already observed that little is studied about the peculiarities of these musicians' performances. Undergraduate courses generally prepare violinists for solo performance, but the reality of a professional orchestra is very different from solo practice. The article delves into questions about the training and performance of orchestral violinists. I discuss the support of the theory of autopoiesis (Varela, 1979), one of the foundations of the enactivist paradigm of contemporary cognitive sciences, for the argument proposed here, as well as discussing the set of principles of action in orchestral performance, which Wulfhorst (2012) called orchestral modes. I argue, therefore, that in addition to the skills that refer to the development of the violinist's sensorimotor practice, others only develop through collective performance over years of professional performance. To include the latter in the violinist's training pedagogy, it is necessary to have a deeper understanding of the skills that underlie the principles listed by Wulfhorst.