Indulging in Musical Snobbery. . .

I am disquieted in spirit.
Thinking back on the weekend I can point to several basic points in which this disquiet could have entered and, most probably, did.
I do not generally speak ill of a fellow performer at this point in my life. I have in the past but I decided conciously to put that behind me. About the only person who I will say what I really think to about anyone in particular is my BF. She gets that it isn't meant to hurt anyone and its just my personal feelings. Other people, no matter who they are might be offended by this expression and its best to keep your unsolicited opinions to yourself on most occasions.

This weekend I had a very special opportunity. My music director is also a cover conductor for the NSO in Washington DC. He regularly works with Marvin Hamilisch. So, my Bf and I went to hear Shirley Jones and Patrick Cassidy in a partially staged version of "The Music Man". I really wanted to be impressed. . . I really wasn't. Now, the same afore alluded to Music Director is also the director of a 175 voice Chorale in which I sing. We also do staged versions of musicals and, I must say, we do it MUCH better. Mr. Hamlisch, while a nice man - had a brief exchange with him backstage, and Mr. Cassidy - also equally as kind - are not what I expected them to be. Marvin Hamlisch should take lessons from my friend the music director - not on how to play the piano - but on how to be exciting! And Mr. Cassidy - should just take lessons. His mother, Shirley Jones, does pretty well in the older roles but should definitely not do solo repertoire anymore. So, I guess I'm hypercritical of things I pay good money to see.

Fast foward the evening to the end. Backstage - meet Marvin Hamlisch, meet Patrick Cassidy - good. Off for a drink with music director friend. We're enjoying perfectly pleasant conversation when a member of the City Chorus who provided the chorus for the perfomance sits down next to our music director friend and the talk comes around to what we do in Annapolis. "You can find 175 people who can sing there?" "What do you do with all those fisherman"" Ah hah, musical snobbery turned onto my chorus! Fisherman. .. bah. What does she think he's doing? Making music on sailboats.

Now it's Sunday Morning. We practice (me after getting in really, really late). We're up and running. Music Director, organist,choir. The point in the service where we are to sing arises - up pops someone who doesn't believe that she needs to practice with the choir in order to sing. Appalling. Guess what? I don't have to either - that's not the point.

Music making. Isn't it about "being there". Not for the wonderfulness of who you are. Lord knows the world doesn't need any one of us as much as we need all of us. I'm not a gift to the music world. The music world is a gift to me. I receive from the world of music far more than I can quantify in numbers of pieces of music I've sung, being perfectly on pitch, or being just capable. I'm all of the above and can sing with any chorus in the country. Yep, I'm that good. What do I choose to do? I choose to invest my time in a group of genuine people who care. I've chosen to invest my time in making excitement happen for me and the people who hear us. I choose to think that while I'm a musical snob about charging me lots of money to hear inferior singing - that music is a higher calling than who sings what or who sings better.