Thursday 26 May 2011

Musicians On Out-Of-Town Engagements


Mud From A Scraper
No. 3 in an occasional series.

Musicians on Tour
- between rehearsal and performance -

One of the least popular features of the orchestral musician's life is the out of town concert, or gig. This usually involves early rising, a long coach or train journey, the expense of buying meals, and a late return as well as the customary rehearsal and performance. For all this, the player receives little extra remuneration.

There is invariably great anxiety about catching the return train, and it is accepted that the last movement of the last work in a concert is always played faster than on any previous occasion. The conductor may object to this, but is usually overruled. Experienced musicians have a wide knowledge of the shortest route from every concert hall to the nearest station, via some public house.

Touring may consist either of a string of provincial concerts spread around the country, or of a longer period in just one or two towns. The first kind is generally detested, as the player is away from his customary haunts, and is not long enough in any one place to settle into a routine; the second is more easily tolerated and some musicians may even enjoy such a sojourn as it provides an opportunity for making new acquaintances and playing on fresh golf courses. Whatever its effect upon musicians, touring is a long-standing custom, part of their contract. A beneficial side effect of touring is that it boosts sales of recordings.

The main problem attached to visiting strange towns is that of finding reasonably priced accommodation. Alas, some musicians welcome tours as a justifiable excuse for getting away from wife and home, and, in common with sailors and commercial travellers, tend to have a sweetheart in many towns. Such players rarely have accommodation problems.

Musicians pay one of their few tributes to culture when working out-of-town, for no beauty spot, abbey or historic building in provincial towns is left unvisited. The purpose of this is two-fold: to be able to say they have been there when asked by curious grandchildren and also to help prove to suspicious wives that they have really been away on a job at all. Most take their cameras to add evidence to their stories; some have even been known to hand these to accomplices to take pictures for them, when their motives for going out-of-town were less than professional.





21 comments:

  1. I would venture to suggest your beloved is the loyal sort of musician husband, without a girl in every port. No one could take your place!
    — K

    Kay, Alberta, Canada
    An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

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  2. nice post-



    Aloha from Honolulu

    Comfort Spiral

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  3. ha. all in your motives i guess...used to have to travel for work monday thru friday and always took one night of the week to take in the local sights...

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  4. Motives are usually less complicated than they seem on retrospect. I think you have this pegged right. A lot of it is honing of egos.

    Just blog hopping. :-)~Mary

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  5. This makes me a bit sad.

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  6. Friko, I've begun treating myself to your recent posts.

    This one shows your writing skills, your knowlege of worlds that most of us would not otherwise know (thank you) and also a very sensitive view of human nature.

    When audiences sit in their ticket-designated upholstered seats and relax to absorb the music of a favored composer, or even appreciate a particular gathering of musicians, it is a hidden gift from those musicians to allow the audience to enjoy pure music. We audience members can forget about our own daily requirements and be caught up in the transcendence of music.

    Thank you for a reminder of how this magic comes into being.

    xo

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  7. The same can be said for other business travel, except for the bit about having a sweetheart in many towns, of course. Jim

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  8. Being on the road quickly loses its appeal for most musicians, I think. What a grind. It's very funny to think that the last movement of the last piece is played fast: sounds like a master thesis to me, but in psychology, not music!

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  9. I wonder how many people even think about the efforts musicians go to in order to entertain us? Hats off to them!

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  10. having worked in theatre i can associate entirely with this - near the end of the show, especially if you're hoping to catch the last bus, you start willing the actor playing Hamlet to just get on with it and collapse!

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  11. Hello:
    The life of a musician we have never considered to be easy and this post further confirms our thoughts. As frequent concert goers, we are so readily transported to another world by the music that we have rarely considered the behind-the-scenes details which bring large and talented groups of players, often from distant shores, into the concert hall, forever to leave an impression in our hearts and minds.

    It seems such a glamorous life when looked upon from the orchestra stalls, but, through your illuminating posts we are seeing rather a different face to it all.

    Your image is wonderful. Chess playing is almost a national sport in Hungary!

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  12. Friko, your musician stories are some of my favorites. I was just thinking how I never understood why the orchestra never seemed interested in that last encore. Now I know they were trying to get to the train station or the bar.

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  13. Friko, I enjoyed this tale immensely. You are awfully funny with your tongue in your cheek. Dianne

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  14. Army, navy, air force......symphony. Who knew?

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  15. The seamy underside of culture!

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  16. This was a fascinating read, well written. You seem to have a deep understanding of the life of a musician.

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  17. And here I thought professional orchestral musicians were altruistic, upstanding, faultlessly well-mannered and scrupulously honest people.

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  18. Having had peeks into a musician's life I know it is not as glamourous as it would appear to others. Life on the road can be very difficult and not exactly conducive to family life. Interesting look at this aspect of life. Thanks, Friko.

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  19. I always watch the musicians and wonder about their lives off-stage. How many are giving lessons? How many are still planning for a solo career? What is the combined value of all the instruments on stage - this goes up when harps and grand pianos are involved, of course.
    I shall look at them through different, more knowing eyes now, thanks to you:-)

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  20. One last thing tonight I must write to you: of course I love this post, and the photographs are splendid.

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