Klarinet Archive - Posting 000398.txt from 1998/01

From: "Kevin J. Bowman" <kbowman@-----.com>
Subj: orchestra drones (was RE: leister recording)
Date: Thu, 8 Jan 1998 10:02:56 -0500

Georgio Gallantino wrote:
[clip]
Most players
can only aspire to play like robots because they lack talent, the ability to
think on their own, and a HEART for music. I believe orchestra players hate
their jobs and equate it to working in a sewer.
[end clip]

About 10 years ago I was contemplating music as a career when I started
getting not-so-sublte hints from my instructor (who, for the time, will remain
nameless but is a member of the Detroit Symphony) that I would end up
hating music if I did it all the time. Well, I love music too much so I became
a software engineer instead. However, I recently discovered that the minimum
salary for DSO musicians is $85K - that's quite a bit more than my salary!

This same instructor had plenty of talent but did seem to lack a true feeling
for music. He had several musical "formulas" that were to be applied to various
situations but usually didn't reason *why* a phrase should be played this way
or that. He seemed more hip on technique than style.

On the other hand, I do know professional muscians that have an absolute
passion for music and are great orchestra players as well as soloists and
all-around musicians (I'm especially thinking of the DSO's principle flutist,
Irving Monroe).

Kevin Bowman

PS. sorry about the improper message include, above (without indent). I
subscribe to the digest and haven't quite figured out a good way to reply
to the list yet.