You’ll never succeed in idealizing hard work. Before you can dig mother earth you’ve got to take off your ideal jacket. The harder a man works, at brute labour, the thinner becomes his idealism, the darker his mind. (D. H. Lawrence)
I have been entertaining ideas about building a chamber orchestra in Bandung
After my first music camp, I got to know more string players and it seems to me that their talents (or no-talents) so far are used only to fill background music in an orchestrated pop/rock concerts. Many of them also played as regulars in hotels, accidentals like product launch or birthday parties, and weddings (too bad we’re not accustomed to making music at funerals, otherwise they would’ve got more gigs). Some better ones go to the nation-level orchestra, but as we’re not a nation of classical music fan, our so-called national orchestra played only a very few times a year. Some who got hired as permanents were given schedule to practise and a far-from-fat paycheck, some who don’t must be happy with a honorarium, paid per concert.
And here’s the thing with many string players (and maybe with some brass or wind instruments as well) in this country: many of them come from not-so-well-off family, then they started taking their instruments around the age of 15-18, then after 3-4 years of classically-based training, they realize that they can start making money from the little skills they have. So they do one gig to pay their tuition fee. Two gigs to pay board and lodging. Basic needs thus fulfilled, they take three gigs for a little bit of entertainment in the weekend. Then it’s more entertainment, up to a ridiculous level of spending. For a new, posh mobile phone and a notebook to update their profile in Facebook, they’ll even skip classes in college. In the end, they play too many gigs that none of them maintain their identity as classical musicians. Nobody cares about learning classical pieces anymore, nor investing in their education, that many finally abandon their studies and end up visiting TV studios regularly.
I’m not saying it’s bad. I think it’s only natural that they do that, since no organization whatsoever can and want to take these people and give them decent salary. One ought to make a living, although in the end, there’s no limit to how good a living one can make.
So I thought, it would be awesome to have a chamber orchestra that could support its members. It should be like a corporation, where people go to work everyday except on weekends, get paid regularly and have some health benefits.
Now the last question is: should this ideal condition be offered to them, would they be committed? My one and only consideration is that some people, so accustomed they are to making money, see this opportunity only as a mean to get more cash. I don’t know if my mentality is ready to face people at the orchestra who show up doe-eyed for work from lack of sleep after doing a show on telly. I don’t know if God will grant me enough patience to deal with those who don’t have their notes in their fingers.
(Imported old blog, originally written on April 3, 2009)
