Text 16363, 105 rader
Skriven 2014-08-28 20:55:00 av NANCY BACKUS (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av MICHAEL LOO
Ärende: Re: concerts 840
========================
-=> Quoting Michael Loo to Nancy Backus on 08-24-14  06:42 <=-

 ML>> The psychology of free concerts is interesting.
 NB>> Getting something for nothing...?   :)
 ML> Well, yes, for the consumer, on that level it's pretty
 ML> obvious. But why do the performers do it?
 ML> For youngsters, the experience and publicity make them
 ML> worth it. For more established performers and venues,
 ML> there are other motivators - the educational aspect,
 ML> getting people to better understand and apprecciate
 ML> serious music; the publicity aspect again, bringing
 ML> the venue into the consciousness of potential audiences,
 ML> and not coincidentally allowing the musicians to hawk
 ML> their wares - CDs, t-shirts, other paraphernalia,
 ML> teaching careers, whatnot.

True...  Those all seem reasonable motives.... :)

 ML> What I was thinking of specifically as well was that
 ML> delicate moment when the collection basket gets passed
 ML> or passed by. 

Ah.  

 ML> Does one solicit donations before, after,
 ML> or at intermission? Does it depend on the projected
 ML> feelings of the audience - gratitude, appreciation,
 ML> guilt, perhaps even pity? For the first three, I can
 ML> admit to being hired every year by a couple of groups
 ML> that make a big thing of offering reasonably high-quality
 ML> concerts for free, but there's a prominent basket for
 ML> donations. This plus dwindling grant moneys have kept
 ML> the organizations going for decades, though the situation
 ML> now obtains where one of them has dropped its full
 ML> orchestra to now a string quintet plus winds and organ.

Around here there are a lot of free concerts, many of them senior
recitals at the various music schools, but sometimes from the
established groups.  There's a regular noon-time concert at Hochstein
Music School that brings in all sorts of performers, some local, some
big names (in town for some major concert(s) usually)... those are
always free (and broadcast live on WXXI as it happens), but only happen
during the school year in two separate seasons...  The RPO goes into the
community and does free concerts in churches (usually) and schools...
partly educational, partly public service... At the community concerts
there often is a donation basket passed at intermission, but not always... 

 ML> For the last of these, I've seen street musicians of
 ML> appalling quality rewarded with sizable tips, possibly
 ML> elicited by their very badness.

Probably some from pity, some from a tin ear...  ;)

 ML>> The manifest conversation was at least somewhat jokey, though
 ML>> the crew don't really enjoy dealing with such things.
 NB>> Possibly the fact that you at least recognised the fact that it
 NB>> made more work for them along with the solving of the issues at
 NB>> hand helped soothe her feelings... ;)
 ML> In this case, the service was provided by at least 6 (it
 ML> was a very big airplane) flight attendants in concert (ha!),
 ML> so the easiest thing, so they could do the proper thing and
 ML> address us by name and so on, would be for them to consult
 ML> the printed manifest, which then had to be corrected by hand,
 ML> assuming someone bothered to do that. They all ended up
 ML> calling me by my right name, but then I'm more distinctive
 ML> than the rest of the polloi. Or so I like to tell myself.

You may well be... :) 

 ML>> Too bad - the topic is interesting. I fear, though, that
 ML>> the conductor's disquisition referred to solo lines within
 ML>> an orchestral piece, rather than the massed sections or the
 ML>> music as a whole.
 NB>> Possibly only solo lines, but the impression I got was of also within
 NB>> the massed sections...  He was saying something about the spontaneity
 NB>> being a better good than the possible raggedness would be a bad
 ML> But spontaneity times 20 or 50 or 100 can lead to more
 ML> than raggedness.

True... especially if they don't breathe as one... ;)

 NB>> If I hear or figure out who it was, I'll let you know...  It's possibly
 NB>> one of the guest conductors from last year's RPO season, and maybe the
 NB>> interview I heard will be part of the broadcasts (they just started
 NB>> the second iteration of the season) and I'll catch it when it comes by.

 ML> That would be very interesting.

I'll let you know if it does...   Too bad there isn't really a way to
rewind life to find out which it was...  :)

 ML>> The protruding nail gets hammered down.
 ML>> - old Chinese proverb
 ML>> But then it's in no worse shape than the other nails, is it?
 ML>> - Michael

Point.  ;)

ttyl         neb

... Foods labeled as "cheese food" must now be labeled as "fake cheese"

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