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It's a conspiracy
Classical composers must all hate percussionists. They simply don't know what to do with us - if we're not frantically cross-sticking (read: BSing) our timpani music, we're playing four-mallet marimba parts, or dashing from triangle to tambourine to bells and back to triangle again. And if we're not doing that, then we're sitting in the wings during the Andantes and Largos, yawning and doing our best not to fall asleep before we have to charge off again in the fast movements. What a life.
I just played (read: massacred) the timpani part for Finlandia last concert. By the end of the piece, which contains one excruciating 20-measure roll and two shorter rolls that come later, I couldn't feel my arms. My conductor smiled at me at the end of the piece, which meant he couldn't detect any mistakes that the audience would've heard, and then he made me take a separate bow. Which was nice, but still.... What happened to all those great parts where the bass drum plays on one and three, the snare plays on two and four, and you can always tell where you are because every eight measures a different set of instruments plays variations on the same theme? What happened to the nice easy soundtrack medleys: "Mission: Impossible" and "Star Wars" and "James Bond?" How come now when we play something recognizable as belonging to a movie or musical it's always "Guys & Dolls" and "Lord of the Rings" (talk about nasty percussion!).
More importantly, why didn't someone with a murderous grudge against Tchaikovsky kill him before he wrote the Nutcracker Suite and Romeo & Juliet?
But I'm complaining more than I have a right to. I love Orchestra, whether I rant about it or not - I love playing Copland, and Gershwin, and Shostakovich, and even the occasional Mozart or Beethoven. There are worse things than a little day music.
I just played (read: massacred) the timpani part for Finlandia last concert. By the end of the piece, which contains one excruciating 20-measure roll and two shorter rolls that come later, I couldn't feel my arms. My conductor smiled at me at the end of the piece, which meant he couldn't detect any mistakes that the audience would've heard, and then he made me take a separate bow. Which was nice, but still.... What happened to all those great parts where the bass drum plays on one and three, the snare plays on two and four, and you can always tell where you are because every eight measures a different set of instruments plays variations on the same theme? What happened to the nice easy soundtrack medleys: "Mission: Impossible" and "Star Wars" and "James Bond?" How come now when we play something recognizable as belonging to a movie or musical it's always "Guys & Dolls" and "Lord of the Rings" (talk about nasty percussion!).
More importantly, why didn't someone with a murderous grudge against Tchaikovsky kill him before he wrote the Nutcracker Suite and Romeo & Juliet?
But I'm complaining more than I have a right to. I love Orchestra, whether I rant about it or not - I love playing Copland, and Gershwin, and Shostakovich, and even the occasional Mozart or Beethoven. There are worse things than a little day music.