March 17, 2005 at 5:02 PM

It’s pretty much an unspoken rule of orchestra: When someone cacks/blows/muffs/bloops a note (or two.. or five dozen) do not…. no matter what…. do not… at all costs… do not… I don’t care if their hair’s on fire or they’ve sprouted another nose… do NOT look at them. Don’t even look in their general direction. Don’t look at anyone, for that matter. Do not react or communicate in any way. If you’re not playing in the moments following the mishap, take the opportunity to examine your knees…. stare at them like you’ve never seen knees before. It’s just considered bad form to react to the incident and the perpetrator is probably having enough trouble recuperating without you drawing additional attention to them. Besides… one of these days the cacker/blower/muffer/blooper will be you… and you’ll be glad the rule exists.

My orchestra’s concert last weekend went surprisingly well. Given the hugely ambitious programme & the break-neck speeds we tend to go at, there was an extremely high potential for disaster. It’s a really awesome group but lately I’ve been disappointed with how our concerts turned out, so this was especially satisfying. Now we’re onto our next programme and it’s been radically changed from what was originally planned…. so I’m right back to disappointed ‘cause I really liked it before. On the up-side, with the killer concert behind me & the reduced interest in the next one, I’m looking forward to doing less repertoire work and devoting more attention to things that will enhance my chamber music playing, which is my priority… mainly sight-reading… or just reading music in general.. and some basic technique work, mainly my bow-arm. Jeez…. only my 3rd entry and I’m already repeating myself.

From Nisha Bala
Posted on March 18, 2005 at 2:08 AM

Well said about the unspoken rule Christina :)

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March 17, 2005 at 5:02 PM

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