 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: MichaelR
Date: 2007-08-10 20:39
Yesterday I had my first public performance playing clarinet. (Vancouver Community Concert Band summer park series) My wife and a friend both sent me off with the good luck wish of "break a leg".
Sure, that's the tradition for theater. But in the music world? What's the "good luck" wish?
I kept thinking "split a reed!"
--
Michael of Portland, OR
Be Appropriate and Follow Your Curiosity
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Author: Ski
Date: 2007-08-10 20:42
That's what people have always said to me, though some of my more crass friends have offered such good luck wishes as "don't !#@*-up".
:)
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2007-08-10 21:45
A VG, scientific, friend always asks me "how many reeds did you break today". Answer, usually none, but it is a welcome conversation starter. Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Michelle
Date: 2007-08-10 23:36
My husband always sends me off to a performance saying "Break a reed!" Just in case, I always have a backup reed and a legere on standby.
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Author: Chris Hill
Date: 2007-08-10 23:36
The term "break a leg" goes back many years, to when it was traditional to get down on one knee and bow if you had enough applause to have three curtain calls. In order to do this, you have to bend, or "break" the back leg.
Chris
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Author: GBK
Date: 2007-08-11 00:51
Chris Hill wrote:
> The term "break a leg" goes back many years, to when it was
> traditional to get down on one knee and bow if you had enough
> applause to have three curtain calls. In order to do this, you
> have to bend, or "break" the back leg.
That's just one of MANY popular theories to the origin:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Break_a_leg
...GBK
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Author: LarryBocaner ★2017
Date: 2007-08-11 14:41
Musicians, dancers and actors are superstitious about wishing "good luck" before a performance/entrance. Different cultures have their own ways of avoiding bad luck onstage. Opera singers traditionally wish each other "In boca di lupo" ("in the wolf's mouth"), "break a leg" seems to have come from the ballet culture. Many musicians I know salute the soon-to-be soloist with the French "merde" -- an indelicate vulgarism for excrement! Rostropovich used to say "toi, toi toi", which I think also has its origins in the opera house.
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Author: Ski
Date: 2007-08-11 15:16
Quote:
"merde" -- an indelicate vulgarism for excrement!
Show me a delicate one! ![[grin]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie5.gif)
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Author: Ski
Date: 2007-08-11 17:11
Quote:
"poo-poo?"
If spoken with a vague French accent, I'd say we have a winner!
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Author: Bubalooy
Date: 2007-08-11 20:29
Toi toi toi comes from German and means "good luck" or "may I be so lucky".
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2007-08-11 20:44
Bubalooy wrote:
> Toi toi toi comes from German and means "good luck" or "may I
> be so lucky".
Actually, this is onomatopoeic/figuratively for spitting three times over one's left shoulder. (Saliva had the power of banning evil back then). And the origins are yiddish or jewish, if I'm not mistaken.
(tailgating a side-thread, "toi toi" is a brand name for portable toilets (for festival or construction sites) here...)
--
Ben
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Author: jane84
Date: 2007-08-15 19:22
"In bocca il lupo" is a common good-luck-wish in italian; but I didn't know opera singers used to say it!
-jane
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Author: davyd
Date: 2007-08-21 01:53
If you want to wish someone particularly good luck (because they'll need it!) should you say "Break both legs"?
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