Johan van Veen wrote:

>This is a rather pathetic argument.  We are not talking about musicians
>getting fair payment.  I definitely think a musician should get what he
>deserves (see before).  But when an opera singer is singing aria's with
>piano accompaniment, and his or her programme lasts less than an hour, does
>he or she really deserve some $100,000 for one concert? That *is* the
>reality.  I don't expect musicians to be totally altruistic, but I like the
>principle of the Orchestra of the 18th Century, where the conductor Frans
>Bruggen gets exactly the same amount of money as every member of the
>orchestra.

But again, why not? If s/he can get it why not? If she doesn't get it the
promotor will, because if someone is commanding that kind of money they are
a big star and people will pay anything to hear her.  So better she gets
the reward for her success than the promotor!  And this analagy doesn't
work, either.  An orchestra can be thought of as a democratic little
society, if the conductor and the band so wish, and everybody gets the
same, fine.  Great idea, all orchestras should be like that (are people
really aware of how hard orchestra musicians work and how generally poorly
paid they are in relation to conductors?) Anyway orchestra is one thing, a
big soloist or chamber group is another.

I think part of the problem of underpaid musicians is the musicians
themselves, too.  Doing " a lot of research to perform little known music
or to perform early music close to the intentions of its composer," is
fine, and they indeed "deserve more money, because such research takes
time and costs money." But how do they present this little-known music?
Do they exclusivly program unknown and unfamiliar music? Is it presented
alongside other works that maybe are better-known? If it is early music,
to which many non-aficionados have a naturally low boredom threshold, is
it presented with some theater, or some explanation, or some contrast? or
is it 5 professorly men and women playing not-very-loud music and looking
earnest? And taking nothing away from my earnest colleagues, but in can't
be called very "commercial" and be expected to generate a lot of income.
I think it is possible for musicians to earn "what they deserve" but in
this world it takes some imagination and some marketing.  And if a soloist
or chamber group can command a big fee because they have imagination and do
some good marketing, more power to them.

David Runnion <[log in to unmask]>