Patty Marx Conducts an Orchestra

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 27 December 2019

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Patricia Marx is a staff writer at The New Yorker, and has contributed pieces for thirty years. Still, it might not be too late to try out a new career. “There are some jobs and endeavors that look impossibly hard,” she notes. “But conducting [an orchestra]—I just thought, How hard, really, can it be?” Prepared with a little coaching from the real-life conductor Bernard Labadie, and armed with an eight-dollar baton from Amazon, Patty Marx takes a stab at conducting the prestigious Orchestra of St. Luke’s through Hayden’s Symphony No. 45. Marx doesn’t want to do a passable job of conducting the piece; she wants to give it her own unique stamp. With that goal in mind, she devises a set of sui-generis conducting techniques derived from daily activities like hailing a cab, or yoga. “I want to be one of the greats,” Marx says. Plus, the New Yorker’s Kelefa Sanneh sings the praises of his favorite Christian rockers.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From One World Trade Center in Manhattan, this is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:10.4	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour. Thanks for joining us today. I'm David Remnick, and now I'm going to turn things over to Patricia Marks. Don't worry. You're in good hands.
0:22.2	I'm Patty Marks, and as a writer, I spend a lot of time at my computer thinking of careers I should have chosen instead.
0:31.7	And high on my list is being the conductor of an orchestra.
0:36.8	You know, there are some jobs and endeavors that look impossibly hard,
0:41.0	like computer programming or landmine removal or swing dancing.
0:46.6	But conducting, I just thought, how hard really can it be?
0:52.3	So I think I've got what it takes. I know how to clap on time. I know the
0:58.9	difference between loud and soft, and I have free time. Miraculously, the orchestra of St. Luke's, a
1:07.8	very prestigious orchestra, gave me 36 musicians to play with. That's three
1:14.6	dozen. And they let me conduct the Haydn Symphony number 45, which they were rehearsing that day
1:23.3	because they were going to play it at Carnegie Hall. Hi, Patty.
1:28.2	Nice to meet you.
1:29.4	Likewise.
1:30.2	I was introduced to the real conductor, Bernard Labadee, from Montreal,
1:36.5	and he is a specialist in classical and baroque music.
1:44.6	So we're looking at this score.
1:47.0	Yeah.
1:47.9	There are many, many, many pages.
1:49.8	Yeah, and that's a small score
1:51.4	because there are not so many instruments.
1:53.4	If we'd be doing Stravinsky's rite of spring,
	...

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