Mirror Mirror

A funny thing happened on the way through SocialMediaLand.  I ran smack dab into the difference between what professional musicians perceive and what “normal” people perceive.  If this doesn’t prove a disconnect then I don’t know what does.

For the record – I do not like the music of Gustav Mahler.  There are many, many reasons for this, which include the fact that he never seems to want to get to the point, and that I think he’s the most overrated orchestrator in the history of Classical Music.  (I have a running theory that if you took out 40% of the notes of any Mahler Symphony and then performed this new version you would be showered with accolades about how very clear your performance was.)  Be that as it may, I think one of the chief reasons I’m not a fan is because it encourages conductors to succumb to that dreaded disease P.M.S. – Public Masturbation Syndrome.

We’ve all witnessed it.  The Grand Maestro is in the middle of his Mahler Cycle and he is going to prove that he can emote!  Yes, look at him sweating and groaning and wildly rolling his eyes and living the music!  Forget, please, that normally his performances are as dry as wallpaper from the 1920s.  This is Mahler! He has license! He’s going to need an extra towel when he walks offstage tonight!

And then this guy came along on Facebook:

Frankly, I was appalled. This is the very extreme of P.M.S.  Worse, this is the one Mahler symphony I could actually stand, now forever ruined for me.  Highlights – or in this case lowlights – include the Cat Scratch Fever episode @ 3:30′ and the Baryshnikov on Heroin moment @ 8:08′.  Of course I reposted it on Facebook.

And a very funny thing happened.  My professional musician friends were suitably dumbstruck:

“All this guy is missing is an adult sized pacifier filled with ecstasy. At least that would explain his “style.””

“Yikes!! A Paganini cartoon look-a-like. In spite of the ill-choreographed egocentric display the orchestra” manages to make music.”

But then a non-professional friend of mine popped up.  Let’s call him Bart…… since that’s his name.  His first comment was:

“And yet he has a j-o-b…..and it looks like all the seats in the audience have tushies attached to them….So it must entertain the the audience…relax…”

After a few more choice comments from the professional crowd he continued with:

“I think my rugrat would go see him instead of some warmed over cadaver up on stage. At least he’s got some entertainment value.”

and then:

“Yeesh, most of you sound like a bunch of stodgy old conservatives harrumphing at anything “non-conformist”….lighte​n up and have some fun…..”

I keep Bart around for the entertainment value and the perspective.  He and I have divergent yet complimentary political views (he would call himself a Libertarian Republican I believe, whilst I proudly live in the Radical Jeffersonian Constitutionalist camp) and he always pops up when I least expect it with opinions that challenge my own perspective.  Admittedly on a weekly basis I want to reach through the internet and bash him upside the head with 2×4, but it is important to have said opinions challenged on a regular basis.

And let us forget for a moment that Bart, being a non-professional, completely misses the point.  Those of us in the business know (though will rarely admit) that the conductor actually does something important! All those motions are supposed to convey actual information that, yes, includes the musical feel of the moment, but is also supposed to help the orchestra play together.  That’s the hard part, getting 90 people spread across a couple of acres to play the same thing at the same time at the same dynamic with the same attack, etc., etc. etc. You have to do that and you have to leave it at that because anything more than that can be completely distracting, and anything that is distracting when you’re trying to concentrate on playing is extremely annoying.  Let’s forget all that because……. Bart’s got a point.

Mr. non-professional Bart was at least mildly entertained by this bozo.  There are people who came to said bozo’s concert.  And, truth be told, said bozo looks like he’s having fun.  That is in stark contrast with what usually goes on in our business.  The difference in perception between Bart and the Pro’s is a snapshot of how our business is perceived.  While we are appalled that Philly is trying to stiff the musicians out of their contract most of the rest of the world is appalled that anyone can make $124K a year playing an instrument.  While we bemoan the loss of yet another orchestra most of the rest of our society just doesn’t see why that orchestra should be a priority when people are out of jobs and hungry.

And most importantly, those who think that the Board of Directors has an obligation to work 24/7 on your behalf – most of those people on your Board have absolutely no clue what you do for a living and how you got to where you are now. It’s not their fault, though.  Society has developed that way.  If you want them to care you have to put them in a situation to make them care.  Demonizing them won’t work.  Perhaps it’s time to come up with another strategy before there are no more people willing to put the time, money, and energy into our beloved institutions.

Thanks, Bart, for that lesson in perspective.  Now please, enough of Palin/Bachmann, ok?