sick of biting my tongue

I warn any who choose to read on that the following is a rant.

I have to tell any of you who ever get the wonderful opportunity to be a part of a musical theatre production a word. Never, never, over my dead body, be anything less than appreciative of the musicians who perform in the pit orchestra. I am playing trumpet in such an orchestra right now and I am so pissed I cannot see straight. To begin with, we are not paid. There is no compensation for our work, and we have no incentive to be there except to help our friends who are onstage and the cookies that one of our fellow musicians (who in my opinion is an angel incarnate) bakes for rehearsals. Our names are squeezed into the bottom inch of the back page of the program and we receive 2 seconds of applause at the end of the show.

With that premise, let's move on to the music. I am given 3 run-through rehearsals in which to learn an entire 60 page book of music. This music was written by a vocalist rather than a musician. Consequently, not only is it written in some truly hellish keys (ever tried to play runs in the key of F# on a trumpet?) but it is also written with a range that would challenge dizzy gillespie. (nothin I love better than those triple high G's). I use a total of 5 different mutes and am not given the cuts until the 3rd rehearsal. In short, this is some tough shit.

As far as physical comfort goes--
I am squeezed into a tiny pit with 20 other musicians. I sit between the trombone player who occaisionally empties his spit on my foot, (not a big deal, I am a brass player too) the bassist who is insufferable due to his being a chronic joke-teller and the drumset player who, though she is very nice, has positioned her crash cymbal two inches from my ear.

Now--
All of this would be okay with me if it weren't for the fact that the cast and crew looks down on us as the scum of the earth that is intruding on their production. During the second rehearsal--the one that we get to solidify all the songs with soloists, they (the rest of the cast) lounge in the back of the room talking so that we can't hear the singer, much less the conductor. During the first dress, a major glitch ocurrs necessitating that we stop and figure out why the singer is now 31 bars ahead of us. When we stop, however, the snotty voice of the student director rings out from the back and proclaims "mr ----, this is a dress rehearsal. If you need to stop, you need to ask me first." His answer was to inquire "how I am supposed to ask you in the middle of a song?" My answer was to flip her off during intermission--a gesture she thankfully did not see as she had her head down at the time.

The next day, after all the cast has dragged themselves out of bed (the director excuses them for the first few periods--I still get to go to jazz at 6:50), I run into my best friend who also happens to be one of the leads. He calmly proceeds to inform me that the cast is really "ticked off" because the orchestra "sucks so much" It was all I could do to keep from decking the kid. Asshole.

Anyway, I'm sorry you all had to hear that, but I had to tell someone. Think of it the next time you get mad at someone you see as dragging you down. Sometimes that person will have just as hard a job to do for a lot less recognition.

Top five songs for when you are feeling melancholy (or just really pissed)

1)The gift--James Morrison
2)Grace is gone--Dave Matthews
3)Fanfare for the common man--Aaron Copland
4)Saltarello from the Italian symphony--Mendellsohn
5)Jokebox--Quintus

miss you all

-bern