Ian Crisp wrote:

>I'm tempted to extend the argument to writers, painters, sculptors, film
>directors etc., but I'll leave that to the imagination of others. The big
>difficulty is to think of analogues to orchestral players in other fields -
>members of the corps de ballet are a possibility.

Right on, Ian. You said it better than I.

I do have an analogy for you, outside the world of art, to the world of
atheletes (where there are many parallels and where an artist can learn a
lot)

I refer specifically to a book by a former picher named Jim Bouton, called
"Ball Four".  A hilarious and insightful book, it goes inside baseball
better than any other book I have read and debunks myths every 5 lines.

Anyway, he discusses the difference between baseball and football
(American) players, and for our purposes the baseball player is the
orchestral player, the football players conductors and chamber musicians.
A baseball player must put on his uniform every day for 162 games during
the regular season, sometimes playing 18 innings a day in hot summer
weather.  A football player plays once a week.  Baseball players lounge
in the dugout, play cards, look forward to the buffet after the game.
Football players jump up and down, bash their helmets together, play each
game at a frenzied pitch, and have a week to rest.  Baseball players tend
to look at the big picture, shrugging off a bad game and pounding down a
couple of Budwiesers after the game.  Football players get involved with
each play, each hit, and errors have huge consequences.  Baseball players,
batters, are champions if they fail 7 times out of 10, and an error in the
field, even if it leads to a lost game, is only an error and doesn't really
have much importance over the long season.  And as Bouton says, if a
baseball player approaches the game in the way a football player does, he'd
be burnt out and useless by May.

Okay, let's go to music.  Orchestra players often play 3 concerts a week,
with different, demanding repetoire that changes every week.  They churn
out the notes week after week, preparing at home as well, and personal
interpretation and flair is discouraged.  Who can blame them if away from
work they would rather not listen to what they do every day? Conductors and
soloists, on the other hand, the football players of the music world, must
get up there less frequently, must be creative and original, and errors
are costly, even career-threatening.  They *must have that helmet-bashing
obsession or they cannot achieve the intensity they need to perform at
that level.  Orchestra players, our shortstops, must maintain a calm,
levelheaded concentration, which for many players means a healthy balance
of non-musical activities, and not running home and listening to more
music.

In my own personal experience, I am both an orchestral player and a
chamber musician.  As an orchestral player, the last thing I want to
do in my free time is listen to more orchestral music, and it helps me
not a whit in doing my job if I study the resume of each conductor and
soloist that I am working with.  On the other hand, as a chamber musician
(http://www.serafinotrio.com hehehe) I must obsess, study, listen, study
the score, and, yes, listen to recordings to give myself the perspective
needed to give the best possible performance where a mistake, an unvibrated
note, a low-energy performance, will make the difference between success
and failure for my group.

Blah blah.  I hope I make my point here, which is, please don't blame the
poor orchestra musician if s/he isn't sure what the conductor's name is.
And to say that they should be selling insurance or used cars is to grossly
misunderstand what it is to be a professional orchestra musician.

Dave Runnion, who's tired of typing.