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A Page-turner's survival guide
I suggested in one of my
previous articles that there ought to be a place
page turners could go to complete their education; preferably at a music
conservatory where their achievements could be best encouraged, closely
monitored, the most opportunities for practice, etc., but since no one has taken
me up on this yet I offer here a modest online tutorial for those thrown
suddenly into the fray who would like to enhance their skills before the big
night.
Some basics
| It is never good to actually crash into the performer. Try to sit far enough
away that, while you can see the music, you need not worry that a pianist's sudden rush up
or down the keyboard will earn you a bruise that will hurt the next day.
Official concert position is so that the right side of the performer is facing
the audience. If the piano lid is open the sound will thus radiate in the
direction of the patrons who have agreed, by their presence, to accept the
consequences. This means that the page turner should be seated on the pianist's
left so that he or she does not block the audience's view of their idol. But you
never know. Things may function a bit differently for your setup. If the piano
is facing the opposite direction you may have to sit to the pianist's right. It
is generally a good idea not to sit between the pianist and the audience unless
you are a really good page turner and you think that at least half the audience
is there to see you. |
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If you want to be certain of your angle, ask the pianist to do a couple of
windmills while seated on the piano bench. This will demonstrate the reach of
their arms and assure you that you are seated in a way that they cannot possibly
hit you. While seated, that is. When you are actually engaging in a page turn
you will have to watch the situation more closely. It wouldn't be a sport if
there wasn't any risk involved. |
Actual page turning
If you are planning to make a life study of this valuable skill this can be
saved for our next lesson. If you want to learn in a hurry, here is what to do:
Some time approximating 5 to 10 seconds before it will be necessary to turn
the page, stand up. You should now be hovering a couple of feet from the
pianist, a little above his head. Not your whole body, of course. If the piece
is of moderate to fast speed, stand up when
the pianist has reached
the beginning of the last line.
Look for a nod from the pianist to
indicate when to turn the page. Most often, a pianist will want the
page
turned just as he reaches the last measure on the page, but this is a
personal preference. You may wish to ask the pianist about this. The general
rule of measurement applies if the pianist does not nod, being a little busy
with other things, or has his own maverick way of doing things. I tend to look
down for a second so I don't get dizzy when I see the page being turned. When I
look up, I hope to see a new page, having grown tired of the last one. When you
have turned the page,
from the top of the page, being careful not to get your
torso too close to the pianist, and when you are certain that you have only
turned the desired number of pages (generally being one at a time),
sit down,
and politely wait your turn for the next time. Lather, rinse, repeat as often as
necessary.
Figuring out where you are in the music if you can't read music
Now, this last description presuppose a few things. One is that you can read
music. If you are able or nearly able to play what the pianist is playing you do
not need my tutorial; you can inquire about becoming my teaching assistant. If
you have absolutely no idea what the symbols on the page mean at all, don't
panic. Here are some things you can do:
Follow the words. If someone is singing words to the piece you
are to play, then you can simply follow the text. I had a very good time one
evening last year at a school concert listening to one young lady who had been
commandeered to turn pages for me at the last minute busily counting the
measures under her breath (fairly loudly), obviously rather concerned lest she
miss the right moment to turn each page. Since it was a choral concert, I wanted
to tell her just to read the words the choir was singing and not to worry
herself about it, but the concert had already started and I had other things to
do.
If the piece is not texted, or if the text disappears for a moment, you can
do several things. One is to count measures, if you are reasonably musical and
have some idea of the beat. It will give you, if you are accurate, some idea of
where the pianist ought to be on the page so you have some idea of when to stand
up. Standing up too soon will give the pianist the uncomfortable sensation of
being at a lesson; standing up too late means you may miss your opportunity
altogether. Obviously this window varies with the speed of the piece. If you are
able to key in to the tempo of the piece, you have the added benefit of
communing with the spirit of the music. It is a good idea not to count out loud.
Or to tap your feet. Or to look like you are enjoying the music too much. Unless
the performers are not very good. Then a large part of their stock in trade may
be looking like they love what they are doing so much that their audience will
be too annoyed by their cheesy grins to take much offense at the noises they
produce. In which case, you may join in.
Very often, a piece will be rather picturesque on the page. A florid passage
will look that way. If the pianist runs up the piano, the notes will get higher
on the page. Actually, it happens the other way around--first the notes tell the
pianist what to do and then he does it. What is important to spot are
landmarks. If there is a sharp contrast between lots of thick, black notes
joined together like foosball players, or clustered in a squadron, and then
suddenly the page becomes peaceful, you will be able to identify that spot when
you come to it and know where you are, which generally contributes highly to a
page turner's peace of mind. Contrasts of loud and soft are also useful; you may
wish to memorize these few marks:
ff-very loud
f- loud
mf- medium loud (which, in a strange twist, is actually less loud than just
plain loud)
mp-medium soft (louder than just soft)
p-soft
pp-very soft
There are extremes at both ends, made by adding more fs or ps to the
porridge, and these are the most useful marks to notice anyway, especially when
one extreme suddenly dissolves into another. If there is a mark like "subito
pp" after some blustering around, that "suddenly very soft" will tell you
exactly when you get there. Some other things to notice, if you have several
instruments, are when one of them has begun to play again, or has just stopped
playing; mark your spot there. You can see it when the notes start to appear on
one of the other lines. All the ones that" have the same line running through
them are occurring at the same time; that vertical line joins them all together.
You may wish to simply follow the profile of the melody. Don't hum. If the
pianist wants to hum, that's his business. Many of the good ones do. So do some
of the worst members of the audience.
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If you are really cagey, you can follow the pianist's gaze as
he makes his
journey across the page. If he is staring a little to his left, then he is
still on that page; you don't need to panic just yet. If he is short enough you
might be able to make out when he is at the top of the page. Despite their good
looks, it is still advisable to look at the music and not at the pianists. |
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Matters of form and style
Some people would like to know why I've asked that they stand up every time
they are ready to turn a page. If the page turns come in rapid succession, the
page turner may feel like she is playing "my bonnie lies over the ocean" in
front of an audience. But if you don't stand up, you are liable, unless you are
very tall, not to be able to get your page to the other side without nearly
whacking the pianist on the side of the head. You really need some height so you
can turn the page from the top, anyway.
Let me explain what happens if you turn the page from the bottom. The pianist
sometimes cannot play his notes because moving his hands to the
required position means going through some of yours. This is why you should
really, at all times, permit the pianist full range of motion, especially if you
cannot read music well, and don't really know that he won't suddenly launch
himself at the low end of the keyboard and catch you off-guard.
There is a well-known incident involving a pianist--I don't recall whom--who
was giving a concert at Carnegie Hall. The page turner kept turning the pages
from the bottom. After a while, the frustrated pianist said in a hoarse whisper,
"from the top!" Whereupon, the indignant page turner stood up and flipped the
entire score back to the beginning. This is, of course, an alternate meaning to
the phrase, "from the top", but it is not usually a good idea to do this in
mid-concert unless you are absolutely sure that you are starting over, as George
Szell did once when the audience for a Cleveland Orchestra concert set a new
world's record for coughs during the gossamer opening of the overture to Tristan
and Isolde.*
I have, in my time, had to play passages in different
octaves when I was prevented from reaching the right one by my page turner; I
have turned back pages when two were turned by mistake, or none was turned at
all; once, the page turner sat back down, unaware that he had turned to an empty
leaf between pieces and I had to finish the piece from memory. I have also
played through my page turner's suit jacket, when I could see the note I needed
just before he blocked it. Pianists have ways of getting the music played in
spite of the obstacles, much like a running back determined to score a touchdown
even if he has to bounce off of the entire defensive line before he gets to the endzone.
Intermediate Page-Turning
Here are a few important exceptions to the normal flow
of things.
Page turning rule #9
If you notice that right hand page has a double bar at
the end
that means the piece is over. There is no point in turning to the next page; the
piece will end with the end of the page. When you see the double bar, you can
let out a sigh of relief (preferably inaudible), for your job is temporarily
over.
If the piece contains several movements (that is,
separate pieces that together are part of a larger work), those double bars will
still be in force. Not turning those pages gives the pianist himself a chance to
turn the page to the next piece when he is good and ready; the atmosphere from
the last piece has a chance to evaporate, and the pianist can control when he
wants to break the spell with an extraneous motion. We pianists are a funny lot.
Important exception to rule 9:
if the page contains said double bar, but it also has the word "attacca" nearby,
turn the page as you would normally. "Attacca" means we are going to attack the
next movement without pausing in between. The next sounds you hear will be a
totally different piece, but there won't be any time to quietly digest the
contents of the last one.
I'm going to insert a bit of page-turning arcana here;
there is a mark known as V.S. or Volti Subito, which quite literally means "turn
the page quickly". This almost never happens, and if you find the composer
addressing you, the page turner, directly, you should consider it quite an
honor. You should also be on your toes, because there is very important
information on the next page that the pianist has to set his eyes on pronto. As
I said, you'll most likely never see this mark, but if you do, you'll feel very
proud of yourself for recognizing it.
Now if you notice that the pianist has a measure or
two, or perhaps an entire line, where he is not playing anything, probably
because some soprano has stolen the show; all the notes are for her, but not for
our poor accompanist/hero, you should gracefully allow the pianist to turn the
page himself. This courteous gesture allows the performers to assume control
themselves over when they are ready to look at the next page; pianists do tend
to have two perfectly good hands which, when they are not busy pounding little
plastic levers, are just as good at turning pages as the rest of us.
When you notice that there is a universal rest (pause);
that nobody is making any musically required sound, and that the page turn,
should one occur, would be the only thing audible in the concert hall, try to
place it on one side of the rest or the other to preserve the atmosphere. If you
have not been over that section with your pianist beforehand, I recommend doing
it just before the rest. Sometimes I will instruct my page turner to wait until
after, confidant that I have the next few bars
memorized.
Turning a page
backwards
There are cases where it will be necessary to turn back
to a previous page, or perhaps to intentionally skip a few. When you see a
repeat sign it is generally too late to know just how much music your pianist is
going to have to repeat, so you will want to watch carefully when you see one of
the following signs:
your standard "repeat" signs come in pairs.
The idea is that you have to repeat everything in between these two signs!
Note: if you can absolutely prove that you did not see one of these
anywhere previous to seeing one of these
, then you
are to go back to the beginning of the music. "Sonatas" generally do just that
with the first several pages of their opening movement.
These are signs you will definitely want to remember for later,
for, perhaps several pages down the road, you will need to go back to that
precise spot in the music. If you want to pass your exam so you can enter the
advanced class, be aware that the test most certainly includes at least one of
these. If you are not in the mood for such a workout, you'll certainly want to
avoid pieces with the word "Sonata" in them. These always have at least one very
prominent repeat in them, unless the pianist has decided to ignore it. If the
pianist has not told you in advance whether he is going to take the repeat you
may wish to panic when the moment arrives; be prepared to turn the page in
either direction, or both at once.
You can
immediately establish yourself as an expert page-turner when turning pages for a
piece called "Sonata" by asking the pianist if
he plans to repeat the first movement exposition. Also, if one of the movements is
labeled "Scherzo" you will probably have to return to the beginning of the
movement when you get to the end (D.C. means go back to the beginning) unless
the publishers have written it out for you. (D.S. is that other kind of nasty
sign that means go back to the sign we discussed earlier ( )
and proceed from there.)
Some other things you will need to know to pass the
advanced class: many choral publishers like to put repeat signs only a measure
or two after the page turn which means you will have to turn the page forward
and then, before you have had time to blink once, turn back to that doggoned
inverted repeat sign. But if you want to get into the advanced class you'll have
to sign up for it. Here is our last handout, a handy guide to all the signs that
make page-turning life interesting. It is always good to scan the music for
these in advance since all of our most aerobic turning will be done in response
to these; some page-turning divas like to clog their routines with these kinds
of things just to show off and hog stage time. If you get a chance, ask your
pianist about the "road map" for each piece in advance, or if she is "taking the
repeats". If you never get a chance to do this in real life you can still sound
like a dandy at cocktail parties by dropping these phrases once in a while.
Really Nasty Signs (in order of nastiness)
D.C. al fine -- Go back to the
beginning of the movement; the pianist will now play the music a second time
until he is either too worn out to continue, or he sees the Italian instruction
for "finish"--the word "fine", which is pronounced fee-nay,
D.S. al fine -- This one is a
bit harder. It requires you to look for a little symbol that could pass for the
coat-of-arms of an ancient clan of warriors, namely--
if you are on the lookout for this sign at all times, you'll
spot it on the first pass. Several pages later you will need to know where this
sign is. In addition to knowing what page to flip back too, you should remember
its location on that page, in case the pianist is looking lost and you need to
direct her to that location. You will instantly become recognized
internationally by the guild of page-turning cognoscenti.
The pianist will now continue playing from
the point of this sign until the conclusion of the piece, "fine".
and of course, the triple-axle of the page-turning world:
D.S. al coda This works the same way as the
sign noted above, only, now instead of merely continuing on from the point of
the sign
until we've reached the end, there will now be an additional
 coda
sign, which means we will now skip all of the music in front of us and proceed
directly to the coda, which is the part that the pianist didn't get to play
earlier because we were too busy skipping back to the
sign.
the page turner's "triple Salchow" is a small variation on this, called the
D.
C. al coda. I trust you can figure out how this works. It will be on the test.
(By the way, if your services are required for the accompanist
of a singer doing something from an opera, there may well be some places in the
music where the performers have chosen, for reasons of their own, to cut whole
sections out of the music. This is generally marked with an elegant pencil slash
through the score. Try to find the next similar-looking slash as best you can.)
to sum up: D. C. and D. S. mean to go back; D.C. means back to
the beginning of the movement, D.S. to a particular spot marked with a sign.
(D.C. literally means da capo, or "from the head", where D.S. or dal segno,
means "from the sign") A coda sign means to skip ahead to another spot marked
with an identical sign bearing the word "coda", which, incidentally, means
"tail" as in "tail end", although some composers can go on for quite some time
once they've reached it.
Speaking of which, we have reached the coda of this little article, so I'll
leave you with one nice thought.
Page-turning is a high stress job and requires years of
steady effort to master; it is good to start out as an apprentice and work your
way up. If you are lucky, perhaps you will be acknowledged in the program, or
even asked to do interviews on public radio.
In the meantime, you will get a nice seat for the concert.
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