http://www.nobleviola.com/2008/01/25/grim-faced-music-making/ Life on the working end of the viola. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:01:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.nobleviola.com/2008/01/25/grim-faced-music-making/comment-page-1/#comment-8667 pooty Sat, 26 Jan 2008 02:12:41 +0000 http://www.nobleviola.com/wordpress/2008/01/25/grim-faced-music-making/#comment-8667 -thanks, charles, for sticking up for your colleagues who sit in the back. we really appreciate that you didn't reveal us for the lazy, complacent, uncaring, inartistic, washed-up wanna-be soloists that we really are. what would we ever do if people ever figured out the truth about those of us who sit in the backs of orchestras across the nation and the globe? when are those pesky critics gonna learn that title players get paid to move and smile, and we don't...and that it makes us bitter and suicidal? -all kidding aside...I think one of the reasons players who spend more time in the back don't move as much or look as involved is that it's simply harder to hear when you are farther from the core of the group. your comment about concentration is right on. having said that, i also believe that the body language of "back" players is directly related to the level of trust a conductor has in his or her orchestra. suffice it to say, it's unrealistic to expect us all to swoon and sniff our way through every concert. -thanks, charles, for sticking up for your colleagues who sit in the back. we really appreciate that you didn’t reveal us for the lazy, complacent, uncaring, inartistic, washed-up wanna-be soloists that we really are. what would we ever do if people ever figured out the truth about those of us who sit in the backs of orchestras across the nation and the globe? when are those pesky critics gonna learn that title players get paid to move and smile, and we don’t…and that it makes us bitter and suicidal?
-all kidding aside…I think one of the reasons players who spend more time in the back don’t move as much or look as involved is that it’s simply harder to hear when you are farther from the core of the group. your comment about concentration is right on. having said that, i also believe that the body language of “back” players is directly related to the level of trust a conductor has in his or her orchestra. suffice it to say, it’s unrealistic to expect us all to swoon and sniff our way through every concert.

]]>