An open letter by a timpanist

[Carl H.]

The comments are quite representative of the problems out there.

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippedd...ing-san-francisco-by-principal-timpanist.html

Why I’m leaving San Francisco, by principal timpanist

March 16, 2013 by Norman Lebrecht
We told you three months ago that David Herbert, the much-admired principal timpanist, was upgrading from San Francisco Symphony Orchestra to Chicago.
Today, in a letter to his striking colleagues, he explains why. In brief, ‘I want to be in a workplace where I am valued and supported by management, and where I am considered an asset rather than an inconvenience.’ That’s telling ‘em.’

For eighteen years I have had the incredible opportunity and privilege to serve as Principal Timpani of the San Francisco Symphony. These years have been the best years of my musical life. As a member of this world class orchestra I have shared with my colleagues the honor of winning multiple Grammy Awards. We have benefited from daring and visionary projects brought to life under the leadership of our Music Director, Michael Tilson Thomas, and we have had the enduring support of our great audience, a strong donor base, and a generous and enthusiastic Board of Governors.
Unfortunately there has grown, over time, a cultural disconnect between the San Francisco Symphony Management and the musicians of the orchestra who make the music come to life. The increased divide between my colleagues’ service to the music and the failure of the San Francisco Symphony Management to recognize such commitment has been disheartening.
In contrast, the Management of the Chicago Symphony has worked and committed resources to growing a culture and philosophy that puts the music and the musician first. They are making that fact very clear by their commitment to me economically and artistically. As a result, my ongoing pursuit of excellence as Principal Timpani of that great orchestra will be allowed to flourish.
The work ethic required from every member of the orchestra is enormous and our practice away from the stage is integral to that excellence. Every musician in the San Francisco Symphony spends at least as much time in our personal practice and preparation as we spend with our colleagues in rehearsal and concerts. As Principal Tympani, the arrangements, organization and support needed to arrange on site access to instruments and space in which to practice is a necessity. The management of the Chicago Symphony has recognized this as a given and have done nothing to impede my abilities to perform at the absolute highest level by offering ease and unrestricted access to instruments and consistently reliable space in which to practice at Orchestra Hall.
Again, in sad contrast this has not been the case with the Management of the San Francisco Symphony. While I have had support and as much encouragement from our stage technicians as they could provide under difficult conditions, I have had no cooperation from our management and instead have encountered only a negative attitude with little or no attempts at problem solving. This has exacerbated an already impossibly challenging and unmanageable workplace. I was eventually forced to rent, at my own expense, practice space at another location and to purchase additional instruments.
I will always admire and respect the musicians of the San Francisco Symphony and our Music Director, Michael Tilson Thomas, but as an artist and as an employee I want to be in a workplace where I am valued and supported by management, and where I am considered an asset rather than an inconvenience.

Comments not posted here as they are evolving.

 

[SOTSDO]

Nothing new under the sun.

Management cuts the easy cut - the compensation for the talent. Workforce moves on to somewhere better - an understandable if somewhat disloyal to the workers approach. Organization declines as a result.

All that's needed is for one to put the || : and : || at either end of that, and you've got the modern symphonic music scene...

I don't have a crystal ball that allows me to see what is going on in the mind of the management of any given orchestra, but labor relations are pretty consistent across the board. Organizations will say that they've cut everything to the bone, but management "swell" and management compensation seems to be invulnerable to these draconian cuts. Plant is a fixed expense - the hall and the equipment will draw a certain amount no matter what you do. That big fat (to management) employee compensation and benefit line item is going to draw the attention in every instance.

Artists (who are still workers, education and practice notwithstanding) have a better bargaining position than do plumbers and auto workers, but in the end it's still a matter of take it or leave. No one is going to step up to pony up the tin to keep a 'luxury' (as it is perceived by the general public) operation afloat. And, that is what our tympanist did.

His option, and his right. Whether or not it is the best course to take is another thing entirely. His departure is going to help him, but it is not going to help the #2 girl on the last viola desk. She may not have the chops to move on to somewhere else, and may have to take what the Knob Hill crowd thinks is appropriate.

Union action is bound up in the very meaning of the word. If all do not join in a union to counter the power held by management, then the employee position is weakened.

And, yeah, I'm in the union - I'm in three of them, in fact. Even though my family owned a business, my father impressed upon me the need to respect the rights of the workers that we employed. I held the same position when I became a manager for the government; a number of times, I had to point out to union stewards what they needed to do to counter management actions.

The problem with music is that it is so easy to work around the workers. Those who record music make their money from their work, but they also take money out of the hands of the musicians who would otherwise be performing where the live music has been replaced. While it has gotten almost completely out of hand in recent years, the first cracks in the system occurred long before most of us were alive. Petrillo stood firm for a long time back in the day, and some concessions were obtained. But, live music has been replaced for many purposes - weddings (DJs), hotel entertainment (canned music), ballet (canned music), many Broadway shows (synths or canned music). It's only going to get worse rather than better.

William Kraft may do better in Chicago, although I doubt that it will last. That tenth violist may not be so lucky...

 

[CHasR]

agree on all points,.. but to elaborate further on this one:

. Those who record music make their money from their work, but they also take money out of the hands of the musicians who would otherwise be performing where the live music has been replaced. .

at $0.99 gross, $0.68 (+/-) net per download, or x-times that on disc sales, it still pays more to do a live gig. True, there are them that make megabux through recordings, but the majority of profit made from most musicians work just trickles up to various & sundry entities as the speaker cones vibrate. And in terms of getting worse rather than better, even the "horrendous" working conditions the tympanist faces are way way better than what most of us face in the trenches (at least me). To say nothing of peer competition for the few live gigs that are left. It aint pretty no matter what way we slice it.

 

[pete]

I was eventually forced to rent, at my own expense, practice space at another location and to purchase additional instruments.

When I was going through this article, I thought, "OK. Explain the 'disconnect.'" When I got to the sentence I quote, I lost all my sympathy.

Yes, I understand that tympani are expensive (and heavy, as one of my hernias reminds me), but so is a baby grand. Or a high-end flute. Or a harp, contrabass clarinet and just about anything else in a symphony orchestra. No practice space? [sarcasm] Darn shame. My heart bleeds for you. [/sarcasm] Now, if it said in my contract that I'd be provided free instruments and free practice space and my employer reneged on that, that'd be different. I don't see that mentioned in the article.

 

[Carl H.]

Each timpani head responds differently and moving them around is not good for their responsiveness or intonation. Tuning a set of timpani - not changing pitch, but tuning them requires some quiet time to hear the overtones. Playing on a 2nd set of timpani can get your physical motions coordinated, but the idiosyncrasies of each individual head can only be learned by playing those specific instruments.

I have worked as a timpanist and do sympathize with the author about access to the specific instruments to be used for performances. Good Timpani are also not inexpensive - I say this as a violinist who owns a number of professional instruments - world class instruments. Tell your concertmaster he cannot have access to his violin and needs to buy a 2nd instrument to practice on and see what happens there.

I'm ending this post here as I have to leave right now, but I could go on about this issue - in my opinion this is a very relevant point and I will say no more.

 

[pete]

I definitely grasp the concept of being told that you have to practice on one set of instruments and then being told you have to play on another. I did that for a couple years when I didn't have my own bass clarinet, bass sax, contrabass clarinet or baritone sax. I also grasp the concept that tympani are touchy to tune/keep in tune. However, a harp is difficult to keep in tune and it's difficult to lug about ... but a harpist does that. I'm also pretty positive that most concert pianists, unless they're really big-name, have to practice on instruments that they're not going to be performing on. Heck, if we're just going to go the tuning route, remember that you're supposed to tune to the oboe, so you have to tweak your tuning anyway.

To me, this still looks like tympanist doth protest too much in his letter. I see no reason, in what is presented in this guy's letter, to feel in any way sympathetic toward him. I think a lot of folks -- ESPECIALLY non-musicians -- would respond the same way, thus my point and why I posted in this thread. Please expand on why we should feel sympathetic, Carl. I'd like a good reason. Seriously.

(BTW, anyone notice Mr. Herbert uses "principal tympani" and "principal timpani" interchangeably? I just find that a tad odd.)

 

[SOTSDO]

It's an easy enough spelling error to make, and spell check only picks up misspelled words, not misused words.

In my experience, harpists don't lug their harps around; they tend to impose on others to do it for them...

 

[CHasR]

Likely, the 'disconnect' in mention; is that his new orch is (presumably) paying him more than his previous one. So as far as i can tell, letting out some bile at this point in the proceedings is all part of the "YAGE" routine. What goes around comes around. I'll shed a tear for him after he sits in on bodhran for 5 hours at Scruffy McDuffy's bar-n-grill sports pub on March 17th for $50. Timp diva. (oops...i meant "tymp divo" )

It's true that our craft is highly devalued at this current time, and ideally Mr Herbert ought to be able to have the conditions he needs to be the best he can be. Who dosent want that? But, we all need to take a 'turn on the edge' & I'll gladly give him a couple spins on my spot.

 

[pete]

Likely, the 'disconnect' in mention; is that his new orch is (presumably) paying him more than his previous one. So as far as i can tell, letting out some bile at this point in the proceedings is all part of the "YAGE" routine. What goes around comes around. I'll shed a tear for him after he sits in on bodhran for 5 hours at Scruffy McDuffy's bar-n-grill sports pub on March 17th for $50. Timp diva. (oops...i meant "tymp divo" )

Thanks. Good summary.

There's definitely more than a bit of "burning your bridges" in that letter.

 

[hakukani]

I definitely grasp the concept of being told that you have to practice on one set of instruments and then being told you have to play on another. I did that for a couple years when I didn't have my own bass clarinet, bass sax, contrabass clarinet or baritone sax. I also grasp the concept that tympani are touchy to tune/keep in tune. However, a harp is difficult to keep in tune and it's difficult to lug about ... but a harpist does that. I'm also pretty positive that most concert pianists, unless they're really big-name, have to practice on instruments that they're not going to be performing on. Heck, if we're just going to go the tuning route, remember that you're supposed to tune to the oboe, so you have to tweak your tuning anyway.

To me, this still looks like tympanist doth protest too much in his letter. I see no reason, in what is presented in this guy's letter, to feel in any way sympathetic toward him. I think a lot of folks -- ESPECIALLY non-musicians -- would respond the same way, thus my point and why I posted in this thread. Please expand on why we should feel sympathetic, Carl. I'd like a good reason. Seriously.

(BTW, anyone notice Mr. Herbert uses "principal tympani" and "principal timpani" interchangeably? I just find that a tad odd.)

Timpani is correct in modern English. The latin root is 'tymp', but the 'timp' spelling is the Italian. I always liked 'kettledrum' or the German 'Pauken' better, though.

I don't think it's so much the fact that he had to practice on different instruments, it's the fact that he could not access the instruments that he was using. It does seem rather silly that they couldn't give him a key to the venue. I suspect that Mr. Herbert would have left the SFO for the CSO anyway. It's a better gig. He probably felt guilty about leaving his colleagues during the strife.