Music Symphony
A couple of years ago, the Seattle Symphony was doing Beethoven's
Ninth under the baton of Milton Batter. At this point, you must
understand two things:
1. Bass players hate playing Beethoven's 9th. There's a long
segment in this symphony where the bass violins don't have
a thing to do... not a single note for page after page!
2. There's a tavern called Dez's 400 right across the street from
the Seattle Opera House, rather favored by local musicians.
It had been decided that during this performance, after the bass
players had played their parts in the opening of the Ninth, they were to
quietly lay down their instruments and leave the stage rather than sit on
their stools looking and feeling dumb for twenty minutes. Well, once they
got backstage, someone suggested that they trot across the street and
have a few brews.
They had quickly downed the first couple rounds when one said,
"Shouldn't we be getting back? It'd be awfully embarrassing if we
were late."
Another (presumably the one who suggested this excursion in the
first place) replied, "Oh, I anticipated we could use a little more
time, so I had tied a string around the last pages of the conductor's
score. When he gets down to there, Batter's going to have to slow the
tempo way down while he waves the baton with one hand and fumbles with
the string with he other." So they all laughed, had another round and
finally returned to the Opera House, a little tipsy by now. However, as
they came back on stage, one look at their conductor's face told them
they were in serious trouble.
And if you thought things couldn't get worse, both first-stand
players soon passed out right in their chairs! Batter was furious
and on the verge of completely loosing it, as he began making gestures at
the bases while trying to finish the piece and flip tied pages.
(Heres the best part)
Batter was up at the bottom of the Ninth, the score was tied with
the basses loaded and two men out.
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