Posted by Ike H. on October 25, 2000 at 15:32:22:
In Reply to: Music and joy posted by Joe Baker on October 24, 2000 at 23:05:59:
Joe,
My first thought of why the musicians looked "bummed-out" while on stage, is usually stemming from what they are dealing with conductor-wise. You mentioned they are playing in a church with a large choir. More times than not choral conductors, expecially ones in a church, are not too well versed on how to conduct instrumentalists, and can be rather frustrating to deal with. Also, there could be the matter of bad copy work, or just badly written music altogether. I'm not trying to defend people I didn't see or don't know, but there are things that go on in a situation that we can't see whether we're there or not.
I've been in situations where I've played with a traveling artist in various symphony "pops" concerts and each orchestra seems to have it's own kind of personality. It's amazing how differently they can react to the very same material and conductor. These were pretty high level groups, too. One would behave like the material was beneath them and during rehearsal you could feel the contempt, and then go to the next place and everyone just played the stuff like expected and were really nice to us, asking questions, etc. I think, though, some groups are more used to the "pops" concept than others.
Anyway, there's a lotta different things that can make a certain situation what it is, and I hope I don't get into very many like what you described, but, they happen occasionally and are usually quickly forgotten by those who don't want to be there. Just another gig.