A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Rehearsal

by George Grove

REHEARSAL (Fr. Repetition, Ger. Probe). In the case of Concerts, a performance preliminary to the public one, at which each piece included in the programme is played through at least once, if in MS. to detect the errors inevitable in the parts, and in any case to study the work and discover how best to bring out the intentions of the composer, and to ensure a perfect ensemble on the part of the performers. In England, owing to many reasons, but principally to the over-occupation of the players, sufficient rehearsals are seldom given to orchestral works. The old rule of the Philharmonic Society (now happily to be altered) was to have one rehearsal on Saturday morning for the performance on Monday evening, and this perhaps set the example. Unless the music is familiar to the players this is not enough. No new works can be efficiently performed with less than two rehearsals; and in the case of large, intricate, and vocal works, many more are requisite. We have it on record that Beethoven's E♭ Quartet, op. 127, was rehearsed seventeen times before its first performance; the players therefore must have arrived at that state of familiarity and certainty which a solo player attains with a concerto or sonata.

An ingenious method of adding to the attraction of a series of concerts has been sometimes adopted in England of late years by making the rehearsals public; but a rehearsal in face of a large well-dressed audience, unless the conductor and performers are above ordinary human weaknesses, is no rehearsal in the true sense of the word, and can be of little or no avail for the efficient performance of the music.

In the case of Operas, every practice of either chorus, principals, or orchestra, separately or together, is termed a rehearsal. These will sometimes continue every day for six weeks or two months, as the whole of the voice-music, dialogue, and action has to be learnt by heart. Whilst the chorus is learning the music in one part of the theatre, the principals are probably at work with the composer at a piano in the Green-room, and the ballet is being rehearsed on the stage. It is only when the music and dialogue are known by heart that the rehearsals on the stage with action and business begin. The orchestra is never used until the last two or three rehearsals, and these are termed Full Band Rehearsals (Germ. Generalprobe). Last of all, before the public production of the work, comes the Full Dress Rehearsal, exactly as it will appear in performance.

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