Quarter for your thoughts

We've begun our epic Symphony for the Cities week that takes us from Hudson, WI to Plymouth, Winona and Excelsior, MN. They're all outdoor venues, which present their own very peculiar challenges (I don't usually have to fight gnat swarms on stage at Orchestra Hall), but also their very particular pleasures (including the throng of kids dancing on the grass right in front of the orchestra).

On Monday night in Hudson, I turned to the audience before starting "Radetzky March" to explain to them how I'd cue their "clapping entrance", how I would indicate a soft dynamic, a loud dynamic and, most importantly, how I'd cut them off. "Now, I want you all to stop clapping right on my cutoff. If I hear any clapping after the cutoff, you own me 25 cents." I've asked for dollars in the past (and something I've done with student orchestras playing, say, rhythmically complex pieces like "The Rite of Spring" - "don't fall in the hole!"), but I figured it's tough times for everyone, so a quarter would do. It garnered some chuckles from the audience.

The Orchestra and I then started "Radetzky"; I cued the audience to come in, they clapped as softly as I indicated, then went to forte on my cue. At my cutoff, a thousand people stopped clapping - well, OK, except a few stragglers, who I pointed out in the crowd, grinning. We went through the series of clap soft/clap loud/stop as we performed the piece, and at the last chords the rhythmic clapping quickly disintegrated into applause.

I thought nothing more of our little clapping exercise as we finished up the program (I have to confess I get tired of doing "1812"...). After our Sousa encore, as musicians began to pack up, I was chugging bottled water behind the bandshell when a woman approached me.

"I just wanted to give you this," she said, handing me a quarter.

"Actually, this is for my husband. He kept clapping after you stopped us, all three times. I guess he doesn't follow direction too well. Anyway, he was too embarrassed to give it to you himself, so I'm doing it for him!"

I had a good laugh. If this keeps up, maybe I can buy a soda at the end of the week...