Klarinet Archive - Posting 000016.txt from 1995/09

From: Ed Pearlstein <e_p@-----.EDU>
Subj: Gig from hell
Date: Fri, 1 Sep 1995 22:55:29 -0400

The following is copied form the book "The Clarinet and Clarinet Playing",
by Robert Willaman (page 227).
A famous anecdote in this connection concerns an occurrence of some
years ago. One of the best known concert bands had a new solo clarinet.
There was no rehearsal to start the season. The band assembled from all
directions and started the first concert "cold". The leader was a showman
and allowed barely enough time between numbers for page turning. The
soprano soloist walked on and bowed while the preceding march was still
reverberating through the hall. Then came the down beat - and
pandemonium. There was no doubt about it, the band was playing in two
different keys. The new man was not at all panicky, and started to take
charge of the reed section in the only way possible. He played loudly and
incisively and literally brow beat the other clarinets into the same key
he was playing in. The rest of the band was high, but not for long. The
other sections sensed the trend, and before the introduction was finished
even the tubas had given in and were playing in the lower key. With a
shrug, the soprano sailed into her number and all was harmonious to the
end. At the finish, when the applause commenced, the solo clarinet
glanced at the top of the page and nearly fainted when he saw it was a
violin part that he should have transposed one step higher than written.
He was so overwhelmed with chagrin that he could hardly continue playing.
He thought he could see himself that evening on the train going back home
- fired. When it was over, the leader disappeared into his dressing room
without saying a word. In a way this was worse than a nasty harangue. It
left no outlet for his own resentment toward himself. Slowly he wiped out
his instrument and prepared to leave the theater, when a second cornet
player, who had no part to play during the song, came up and complimented
him on his superb job of rescuing the solo by leading his colleagues out ot
the musical wilderness into which they had plunged. The culprit thought
it was being rubbed in, but finally he realized that the man was in
earnest. He really thought he was the savior instead of being the
instigator of the trouble. The solo man softly whistled and said to
himself, "It isn't what you do, but what you can make them think you do,
that counts."
.