Tie

``No! No! No! That was obviously a sour note, right there! Have you actually looked at the score you are playing at all? Why are you wasting everyone's time?'' The conductor bellowed from his place right in the front of the orchestra.

Elsewhere, everyone else was trying to keep their line of sight away from Susan who was taking the brunt of the entire admonishment. She was a flautist, principal player no less, and was actually the principal player for quite a while now. But the conductor for the orchestra had changed recently, and there were some rather odd mannerisms behind him that she could not get behind properly.

In this case, it was the issue of ties.

It was stupid. She knew that she was playing the ties correctly -- there was no other way of playing the same note that is tied across bars other than just holding the note for the entire duration. Yet each time there was a solo part of the flute Susan found herself stopped rather rudely by the conductor for failing to play the tie correctly.

And she thought it was just a joke, at least in the beginning. How was it possible to misplay a tie and lead to a sour note? The other orchestra members were initially amused at what they thought was a diversion from the conductor, to bring out something as innocuous and impossible-to-get-wrong part of music like a tie; some were even looking forward to the tirade that would come by necessarily.

But it started to get old very fast. Susan was very sure that there was something fundamentally wrong with the conductor for pointing out that there was a sour note with respect to the tie. And today, she just had about enough of the abuse that she was willing to take.

Susan stood up from her position and glared at the conductor for a while.

``With all due respect maestro, how the fuck am I supposed to play that tie other than holding the note?''

The musicians around her were suddenly drawn by the rather vulgar manner in which she had delivered her displeasure. Those who averted their eyes initially soon found reason to turn about and look at the unspoken exchange between Susan and the conductor.

The conductor seemed to be mildly rattled as he swallowed his saliva with a rather audible gulp.

``You ought to... play the tie a little more... evocatively. That part is between two major... major leitmotifs, and there could have... should have... some change in dynamics.''

Susan glared at the conductor hard.

``It's a fucking sixteenth note tied with another sixteenth note on a piece at allegro. You tell me how to effect the damn dynamics change and I will do so.''

(Based on an exercise generated by WriteThis - 2014-08-06 16:22:09)