Posted by Steve Dedman on February 25, 2000 at 00:45:05:
In Reply to: what's up with orchestral playing? posted by ken k on February 24, 2000 at 23:28:37:
Good observations!
I think that one reason for it is that it's the main venue where a player can occasionally show off in front of a decent audience. Here's what I mean.
In a band, you've got more than one player (probably) playing the part. So say you've got three tubas in the band. Two of you nail the low brass licks in a circus march, and the third guy plays mud. I know I played it right, but the audience doesn't know that I didn't screw up. In addition, to make a living playing in a band in the U.S. you're probably going to have to go through boot camp and salute your conductor. (not that there's anything wrong with those of you who choose that life - it's just not my bag)
In solo gigs, you get all of the credit for a gig well played. From all thirty members of the audience. Sure there are some solo tuba performers, and they are all superb musicians. But the public perception does not draw the same audience as Perlman, Ma, or Galway. And any of the soloists will tell you that the road is far from an easy life. At least with an orchestra gig, you get to sleep in the same bed most nights.
Some of the same things can be said about the quintet / ensemble gigs. To make a decent living, not only do you have to tour, you have to find four (or more) players as good or better than you (and you had better be d**n good) who ALSO share your artistic sensibilities. Not even the greatest success will guarantee that that artistic collaboration will continue - just ask Paul McCartney.
I don't know of very many church gigs that pay enough to make the rent. Even if it's an AFM job, you get those only on a few special days a year, usually the ones that you want to spend with your family. Maybe you have to play an orchestra concert on one or two those special days, but at least you have collective bargaining on your side to try to keep that sort of thing to a minimum.
It seems to me, that although a good year has two available jobs, if you can get that job, that's the best venue to be in.(unless you can do the military thing) It frees you up to do some of the other types of playing. As a member of an orchestra, there is a ready pool of excellent musicians to assemble a killer quintet. You probably have a little bit of a chance to do the V.W. in front of an orchestra. An ICSOM ensemble will pay the rent and then some.
The disservice that colleges and universities perpetrate is not being VERY upfront about the realities of the auditioning life. But if a student is GOING TO PLAY THE TUBA, the best a teacher can do is push them in the direction that has the greatest liklihood of success, however small that liklihood may be.
FWIW, I don't believe in undergraduate performance degrees. I think that undergrads should be required to major in a music or music-related field that will at least earn them a living. A masters in performance should be the earliest degree of that type offered. By that time hopefully some of the realities of a musician's life will have revealed themselves to the student, and they go into the MFA with their eyes wide open.
My $0.02