Ensembles can correct quickly if everyone is listening. One type of disaster is where two sides of the ensemble get out of coordination, perhaps due to poor acoustics.
A few weeks ago one local ensemble had the concert disaster of two sides of the ensemble starting different pieces. This occurred because the conductor went out of sequence on the program, made a quiet comment to the group about what was up (the wrong piece) and some ensemble members did not hear. So, we had "Blue Tango" and "With a Song In My Heart" being played simultaneously. It sounded surprisingly good. It took a while for the conductor to get everyone to stop, as the trumpets really enjoyed doing the melody of With a Song In My Heart and didn't want to quit. Finally, when quiet arrived, the conductor turned around and lectured the audience about how the American composer, Charles Ives, composed music like this. This was for an audience that probably never heard of Charles Ives. Rehearsals now have the trumpets pulling this gag on the conductor on some number in the rehearsal. Mistakes are slow to be forgotten. This one, maybe, never. This group has had even worse disasters, though. Last year, the group did a "music at the movies" concert-- not all of the video, to be shown on a large theater screen, had been pre-screened, and an XX-rated bedroom video scene was projected on screen located behind the musicians while they played away. This concert was for a community arts festival, by the way. The musicians (and I was one) saw only the expressions on the faces of the audience. Larry __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
