[1361] in Humor
HUMOR: Symphony Madness
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jason D. Hintersteiner)
Thu Mar 28 00:07:14 1996
To: humor@MIT.EDU, sniemczy@MIT.EDU, nygren@MIT.EDU, aross@wellesley.edu,
lanaimal@MIT.EDU, mariadf@MIT.EDU, jkhodor@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 27 Mar 1996 23:57:28 EST
From: "Jason D. Hintersteiner" <jdhinter@MIT.EDU>
------- Forwarded Message
From: Elizabeth Schwab <es011e@uhura.cc.rochester.edu>
From az003e Wed Mar 27 12:37 EST 1996
From: Alexis Zingale <az003e>
From: Katherine Slepecki <ks003e>
From: Lawrence M Switzky <lawrence.switzky@yale.edu>
From: Brian Stuhlman <c664792@showme.missouri.edu>
Subject: Symphony Madness (fwd)
Too funny to pass up. BS
> Quite a number of years ago, the Seattle Symphony was doing Beethoven's
> Ninth Symphony under the baton of Milton Katims.
>
> Now at this point, you must understand two things: There's a quite long
> segment in this symphony where the basses don't have a thing to do. Not
> a single note for page after page. There used to be 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, once the bass players
> had played their parts in the opening of the symphony, 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 quaff a few brews.
>
> After they had downed the first couple rounds, 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
> tied a string around the last pages of the conductor's score. When he
> gets down to there, Milton's going to have to slow the tempo way down
> while he waves the baton with one hand and fumbles with the string with
> the other.''
>
> So they had another round, and finally returned to the Opera house, a
> conductor's face told them they were in serious trouble. Katims was
> furious!
>
> After all...
>
> It was the bottom of the Ninth, the score was tied, and the basses were
> loaded.
------- End of Forwarded Message
