Posted by Graham Smith on August 07, 2000 at 18:05:25:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Burnt out posted by Jason on August 07, 2000 at 17:29:44:
No, it's not about the money. Not entirely...
However, anyone who's not independently
wealthy has got to put meat on the table and keep a roof overhead,
and if there's a family it's even more demanding, as the post by
"Me too" illustrates.
I am not a professional musician, although my undergrad degree
is basically a theory and composition degree with several years
of tuba study, so I have to speak with some reservation. I love music,
I love hearing it, I love playing it. However, I know a good number of
other folks who were in school with me back in the 60's with similar
sentiments who are now doing other things because the jobs available
for them (whether playing or teaching) were not jobs that would support
a family.
Anytime supporting a family becomes the end, there's a good chance that
whatever means is being used to accomplish that end is going to be a
chore eventually, particularly if the job becomes subject to the
American business credo of the 90's (and now the new millennium), which
is to squeeze the work force harder and harder and try to get more
work for less money.
What I see happening to the orhestral work environment in the posts here
is just the same thing that's happened to people in any number of other
lines of work.
Unfortunately, because it comes from down deep inside our creative places,
music is inherently different from most other lines of work.
It is not like servicing insurance claims, or screwing lugnuts on a car in
an assembly line, or any number of other non-creative occupations. That's what
makes it particularly hard, I suspect, for performing musicians to endure
the backwash of American management philosophy.
When it ceases to be art that is enjoyable for the performers as well as
for the audience, it becomes just a job.
And, unfortunately, a job is about money.
Please don't think I'm anti-business. I'm not.
But I am against management practices that kill the creative soul. Some
of the posts that I've seen in response to the original detail what, for
me, are horror stories.
I don't work in an enjoyable occupation, and I long to do more music.
What I've seen here, however, is a pretty argument for a choice I made
long ago not to make music my living. It makes for very sad reading,
and I want you guys to know that I'm sorry you're going through it.