On being a page turner

I rose early Friday morning so that Leslie and Noella could give me a lift to the music school where Noella and Peiming were to rehearse for their Piazzolla piece, Le Grand Tango.

For weeks I'd been pestering the duo to let me attend their rehearsal. We settled in a classroom with two grand pianos. The two musicians, Peiming and Noella, readied their instruments - Noella tuning her cello and Peiming warming up on the keyboard - got out their digital metronomes which look like pocket calculators and then jumped straight into the piece. The acoustics of the classroom weren't great of course, but it was still a delight to listen to the two parts of cello and piano come together. Even better was watching the two musicians digging into the piece and refining their interpretation. Noella often played with her eyes closed (having memorized most of her part) in an attempt, I presume, to hear better the notes emanating from the cello. I'd say that a cellist tends to be more dynamic in performance - the facial expressions and body movements echoing the rise and fall of the melody.

Leslie, Noella's fiance, and I sat quietly, taking in the music. To my left, a large window provided a lovely view of the large pond next to the music school. A light, constant snowfall lent more beauty to the panorama. It was a good morning to be listening to Piazzolla.

Half an hour into the rehearsal, Peiming asked if I could turn pages for her. I'd seen her wrestling with the pages during the practice so I immediately agreed. My first page turning task! I've always felt that I would be a great page turner. Precision of timing, it goes without saying, is the most important attribute of a page turner. Unobtrusiveness is the next. Slight and vertically-challenged, I fit the bill, especially next to Peiming, who stands in the 1.7-something range.

I was worried at first about getting lost in the music and not knowing when to turn the page, but I found myself reading the notes, glancing at Peiming's hands and just knowing when to turn the page. Of course, it's hard to know when exactly she'd want the page turned, so I hazarded my guesses - perhaps just before the final measure on the page ended. I would stand up in the middle of the page to be turned, place my fingers on the top of the sheet, and wait for Peiming to reach the final measure, and then I'd turn the page and sit back down. It is pressurzing because you have to keep up, you can't get lost and you mustn't panic. Once, I did get lost, and was searching for the right measure while the music kept getting further and further from me. Peiming was nodding, and then nodding more vigorously until I caught on that I had to turn the page; I'd thought she was nodding to keep rhythm!

Some notes:
1. Pages to be turned should have their upper corners turned down in advance, this makes the fingers grip the page easily, and not fumble and accidentally take hold of two pages instead.

2. The pianist should nod once to indicate to the page turner when he or she wants the page turned.

3. It helps if the page turner is familiar with the music.

4. It helps if the page turner doesn't have horrifically-polished nails that would distract, slivers of bright colors against the busy black notes on a white page. (No, I'm not guilty of this.)

5. If female (or even male), the page turner shouldn't overdo on perfume, which would cloy, and the pianist would wrinkle his nose, irritated, and possibly sneeze. (No, I'm not guilty of this either.)

Posted by Monoceros at March 12, 2004 10:25 PM