Richard Pennycuick wrote:

>It seems to me that the wearing of formal evening dress is an anachronism
>which does nothing whatever to enhance the quality of the performance but
>has much to do with maintaining the perception that classical music is an
>activity for the rich.  I don't imagine for a moment that this tradition
>will ever wither away, but I'd be interested in the views of those Listers
>who are also performers.

An anachronism? Perhaps, but I enjoy wearing my tuxedo when I play, and my
tails when I perform as a soloist or when I conduct (even when I direct my
middle school band).  I feel it is a part of being a performer.  Why should
we dress like the hoi polloi and look disheveled and sloppy? I know that I
wear shirt and tie to rehearsal (because I go to rehearsal after school,
and I teach privately, as well), but other people come in sweat pants and
torn blue jeans.  That's fine for the rehearsal hall or for everyday wear,
but for the concert stage? We'd wind up looking like rock musicians, and I
do not wish that.  We already must suffer through "pop" music concerts to
bring in the hoi polloi to finance the concerts where we play better music.
While it is true that I enjoy some of the pops concerts (our last one was
a Celtic concert with dancers and pipers, etc.), but I-IV-V-I gets AWFULLY
tiresome.  Why, then, should we dress like pop performers? I do not want to
cheapen our image.

I remember being a young lad and going to hear the New York Philharmonic
play an open air concert at the Bronx Zoo.  They were playing Carnival
of the Animals, and they called for a volunteer from the audience.  I
was picked, and got to go up on stage to play the cuckoo instead of the
clarinet (an actual cuckoo instrument).  To a boy of 8 standing next to
those black clad musicians was a HUGE thrill (I had just started clarinet
about a month before that, and knew that that was what I wanted to do).
If they had been wearing jeans and sweat pants they would have been just
another Bee Gees or Bay City Rollers.

Maybe we should educate the public better towards classical music.
It's been "that boring crap Grandma listens to" far too long.  I try
to incorporate some classical music in my general music classes (they
invariably balk at listening to it--they prefer Brandy, and Puff Daddy and
"that boring crap that kids listen to!  *snicker), and even offer extra
credit if they go to our Symphony concerts.  I hate bribing them, but
almost none of them take me up on it, so I don't feel that guilty *laugh*.

Anyway, I've rambled long enough.  My point is that we should, as
performers, take pride in our appearance on the stage, in the same way
as we take pride in playing well.  It completes the image.

Sincerely, all, I apologize for the length of this post.

Charles L. L. Dalmas
http://www.winternet.com/~davion
Principal Clarinet, Internation Symphony Orchestra, Sarnia, Ontario.