Is it just me, or WHAT? A RANT!

[Dwyn .]

Why should *you* be the professional who’s expected to take heroic steps to avert a disaster caused by the composer’s unprofessionalism, which was in turn caused by the unprofessionalism of whoever hired this utterly unqualified composer?

I’m not a professional musician of any kind, but the concept of professionalism applies in all fields.

[HBrock25]

This is such an incredibly frustrating situation!!

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

We just played this show, and most of the harp parts were obliterated by thick orchestration. There was one “cadenza” which I had fixed up so that it worked well…but here’s the sad thing. They travel with this show, but seemingly print out fresh parts every time, so that the next harpist has to re-invent the wheel.

[Sid Humphreys]

Here’s another rant; I was handed a piano score to Babes in Toyland by my community Orchestra conductor. She asked if I could play it on the harp and have it performance ready in less than 4 weeks. After looking at only the first page, I told her that the harp is not a piano and that it would be too much work to get this done without pay. I was asked to hold on to the score and give an answer this Wednesday…. sigh.

[Karen Johns]

Here is your answer: “Helllooooo??? What part of “NO” don’t you understand?”

Sheesh….some people.

[Sylvia Clark]

Can’t you just write in chord symbols and play off those?

[Sid Humphreys]

I probably could Sylvia, but this is orchestra. I shouldn’t be playing the piano part. The piano should play the piano part!

[eliza-morrison]

By now it’s over….I hope it went well!
This kind of thing happens all too often. I found that when a booking agent is desperate for a harpist, they will often say whatever they think you want to hear, to get you to agree to play the gig: the part is not that extensive, it isn’t hard, etc. When the music is finally delivered (and that often happens at the last minute) it is enormously long and monstrously hard! Or illegible, or unplayable, etc. I never thought of charging extra for all the modifications that must be made to make a part playable, but it’s an intriguing idea….

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