Damn The Tuxedos!

Composer/critic Greg Sandow had an interesting post over at his ArtsJournal blog this weekend, positing, with photographic evidence, that the formal dress sported by orchestras is an outdated remnant of a time when ordinary citizens of a certain class dressed much the same way on a daily basis, and orchestral music was largely the province of those certain classes. Greg's conclusion: "There isn't any [such] context now. Formal dress for classical performances just looks weird, and ancient. Time to put a stop to it."

Now, before I wade hip deep into this debate, let me state for the record that musicians are quite divided on the subject of concert dress, as are audiences. (The comments on Greg's post show that his readers are hardly of one mind.) In the last few years, I've begun to get the sense that a critical consensus is forming within the ranks of those who write about classical music for a living that it's time to think about ditching the white-tie-and-tails look, but even among those who agree with that statement, there's no widespread agreement about what should replace the tuxedos. Suits and ties, such as we wear for daytime concerts and pops? Simple black-on-black ensembles for everyone, which would have the men of the orchestra matching the women, who have never worn anything approaching the formality of a tux? T-shirts and jeans?

I'm not going to bother getting into what about the formal look turns some people off, and makes others happy, because I think both sides of that debate are fairly obvious, and have been hashed through ad nauseum elsewhere. Instead, I'd like to provide an argument in favor of ditching the tails that I haven't seen anywhere else. It's the major reason among many that I hate our dress code, and it has nothing to do with "looking professional" or making us more accessible to anyone who might find the formalwear intimidating and off-putting.

The argument is this: tuxedos are almost unimaginably uncomfortable to perform in, especially for string players, who must have pinpoint precision control of hundreds of small and large muscle groups at all times during a performance. The heavy tailcoats, needlessly bulky vests, ruffled shirts, and bow ties seemingly designed to get in the way of any shoulder-hoisted instrument quite simply make it harder to play well. I honestly believe that we become less elastic and adaptable as an ensemble the minute we put on these multi-layered monkey suits, and I can't believe there hasn't been a full-scale revolt before now.

Summer dress is even worse (again, if you're a man. Women's orchestral dress codes are almost always far looser, and never require topcoats under any circumstances.) Those white dinner jackets we wear with black bow ties and tux shirts are nearly always made of polyester, making them ridiculously hot for summer wear, and they're also nearly always badly tailored, which is an absolute killer when you're a violinist or bass player who needs a full range of arm motion. (Why don't we get non-polyester, you ask? Well, you know how there are always a few musicians wandering the stage in what look like unacceptably dirty white coats? Those are the cotton ones - they simply don't come in real, true white, so either you go poly or you look filthy.)

If you ask me, switching to a suit-and-tie dress code, as some high-profile European orchestras have done, doesn't really address the larger problem that topcoats make playing string instruments needlessly more difficult than playing without a coat. The women don't wear coats, and most of them look perfectly fine in their concert black. Why couldn't those of us with y chromosomes simply start wearing something more in line with what our female colleagues wear? A simple black button-down shirt with black dress pants and dress shoes is visually smooth, comfortable to play in, and in no way makes the orchestra look unprofessional or sloppy. (This, of course, is the dress code the Minnesota Orchestra employs for our Inside the Classics concerts.) For summer, we could switch from black shirts to white, as, again, the women already do.

Now, I know all the arguments for keeping things as they are, and I realize that many of you reading this probably aren't buying my contention that tuxes are really all that awful to play in, since orchestras have been doing so for ages, and sound perfectly fine. And as I said, there is no shortage of orchestra musicians who believe strongly that the formal look is an integral part of our presentation, and would hate to see a change.

But if you ask me, the truth is in actions, not words, so I tend to keep a close eye on what my colleagues choose to wear at our periodic chamber music concerts throughout the year, when no strict dress code is in place. Over the past years, I've seen colorful vests, well-tailored suits (mainly on wind players,) simple black ensembles, vibrant colored tops, and even a feather boa donned for effect during a classic film score.

What I have never, ever seen is a member of the Minnesota Orchestra choosing, of his own volition, to play a chamber music concert in white tie and tails. Why? Because they're awful to play in. Simple as that.