I wrote this over at my tumblr blog as part of my DigiWriMo efforts.
Musicians love to bitch. It is our favorite hobby. If we have nothing to kvetch about, then we are a sorry and miserable lot, even more so than when we have woes falling about us like the frozen products of a prairie hail storm. Largely, this is due to the fact that we have very little control over our environment. Even basic things can go awry. A coat rack appears in an already cramped backstage area used by an entire section of stringed instruments. Too bad – building management said it goes there. Like it or lump it. Or someone in an adjacent section ate an entire bulb of raw garlic and then went on a ten mile run. Then forgot to bathe before that evening’s concert. Yes, something like this actually happened (I may be being charitable by assuming the body odor was caused by exercise). The conductor sprays sweat all over you during the scherzo of a Beethoven symphony. One of your strings breaks. A trumpet plays into the back of your head from six feet away – for an hour. Someone else’s mail got put into your cubbyhole by mistake. The Starbucks was really slow and so you didn’t get a refill during your strictly enforced 15 minute break. So many problems, many of them unrelated to the process of making the actual music. But they all are related to that process. Because we use our bodies to manipulate instruments – that take decades to even partially master to the level of the professional orchestral musician – and if we are out of sorts in our head, that will translate into our bodies, and bad things can happen.
Now, there is that phrase said about some musicians – that they are ‘true professionals’. What exactly does that mean? It means that they play like motherfuckers (that’s a good thing) even when the chips are down. They may have had a fight with their husband, had their cat die, lose their wedding ring, and have a very bad case of halitosis – all on the same day, and if they are physically able to play their instrument, they will show up and put the pedal to the metal and play solidly and dependably. That’s why, for those of us who aspire to this level of professionalism, we are so wed to our instruments and our place in the orchestra (or string quartet, or dance band, or rock group) – that act of making great music with colleagues who we trust and respect can get us through the hard times that otherwise might bring us to our knees.