Wedding -- Pianistic Disaster

[alzado]

We attended a beautiful wedding recently in a music conservatory.  The salon where the service was performed was a recital salon with a beautiful Steinway concert grand.

The interlude music was performed by a professional -- or, he was supposed to be.

The music for the opening procession was Pachelbel's Canon in D.  I was appalled at the performance.  Missed notes, hesitations, mistimed in some measures --

Because I play this piece (I happen to play the Robert Schultz version) I was very sensitive to what I should be hearing.  It was pathetic.   But "bold as brass," this turkey just kept forging ahead.

The sad part is, most of the listeners know so little about piano that they probably thought it was fine.

I felt like telling the father of the bride that he should try to negotiate a discount . . . but discretion overcame valor and I kept my mouth shut.

Is this commonly done -- that wedding pianists are just mediocre hacks, who still do not stint to submit a big bill for their services?   It doesn't reflect well on the profession.

[phil13]

Ouch. 

Is it possible he was just really nervous?

Was this literally a disaster or did he just miss a few notes here and there?

Also, it is possible he realized he had to learn the piece with like 2-3 days notice and just didn't get to it in time. Some wedding planners do that kind of stuff.

Phil

P.S. If most of the listeners know so little that they think it's fine, how does it reflect badly on the profession? 

[quantum]

It might have been a last minute thing.  They just thought they could order a musician a couple days before just like the flowers. 

The manner in which some people casually higher musicians and expect them to be immediately able to play anything at any given time is cause for similar disgrace to the profession.

[pianistimo]

these things should be found out at rehearsal.  but, of course, sometimes that's the night before the wedding.  not a whole lot can be changed then.  i blame it on the wedding planner.  he/she probably advised this pianist.  perhaps there should be an 'angie's list' for pianists?  something like 'victor borge's list.'

[Mozartian]

P.S. If most of the listeners know so little that they think it's fine, how does it reflect badly on the profession? 

You beat me to it, lol.

[pizno]

Hold on a minute, flowers are not ordered a few days ahead of time!  More like months.  But there does seem to be something about musicians, they get sick, they can't do it, and someone else has to be called.  Or, as sometimes happens, at the last minute someone remembers that a brother-in-law's uncle is a pianist.  Quite often, I think the church pianist plays, who can be absolutely wonderful, or mediocre.  I recently sat through a bad Pachabel's Canon at a wedding too.  But mostly I sat there thinking WHY THE HECK DON'T PEOPLE THINK OF SOME BETTER MUSIC TO PLAY???  It just drives me crazy.  Then someone will sing guess what, the Wedding Song.  Uck Uck Uck.   OK, it makes me cry anyway, but UCK.  It's just a formula in our part of the country.  I think when people have music like this, they know nothing about music and let some wedding planner or church person or whoever tell them what they should play.  I would like to hear the pianist play something like a Handel Suite in A.  Now that would be nice, especially the Allemande and Courante.

Piz

[pianistimo]

and have a quartet, too.  (not a piano quartet - although now that i think about it - why not?)

[leucippus]

The sad part is, most of the listeners know so little about piano that they probably thought it was fine.

Why is that sad?  Seems to me that if the mistakes were so subtle that only someone very familiar with the piece could tell, then the performance couldn't have been all that bad.  Seems to me that would be a good thing.

What would have been really sad is if everyone thought it was a bad performance.  But that doesn't seem to be the case.

[quantum]

Hold on a minute, flowers are not ordered a few days ahead of time!  More like months. 

Which is cause for even more disrespect towards the musicians.  If the flowers need to be ordered months before, shouldn't the wedding planner give the musician the same courtesy. 

[mr.beethoven]

woo.. you are cold!!   
i'd never want you to be near me when im play!!! 

[canardroti]

This happens all the time, bad  piano accompanist, bad musicans at a reception. In this world, it's not how good you are, it's who you know.
If you were appalled because they hired a bad pianist who could have been a close friend to the family or just even a friend of a friend, then you'll have to deal with it.
Were you really going to tell the bride to get a discount from the pianist? that's  extremely rude, I believe the last thing they would think about is getting a discount from the pianist the day of their wedding. If everythign thought it was fine and the mood of the weddigng wasn't ruined, why would you even try to bring something up like that?

[nicco]

pfff a good pianist plays anything on a days notice.

[ce nedra]

You cant give the excuse that the pianist might've only had 2 days notice or whatever, which is why he played badly. A pianist doesnt accept the job, no matter what the price, if he knows he is just going to 1) make his name completely asss, and 2) a wedding is a very special day for two people, a pianist musnt ruin it with his mediocrity. Rather refer them to someone who is ready to play.

[quasimodo]

That's why I don't do a wedding ceremony. Can't find a pianist to play the Hamelin's triple etude at my wedding.
Hamelin himself is overbooked and randomly expensive.

[timothy42b]

You cant give the excuse that the pianist might've only had 2 days notice or whatever, which is why he played badly. A pianist doesnt accept the job, no matter what the price, if he knows he is just going to 1) make his name completely asss, and 2) a wedding is a very special day for two people, a pianist musnt ruin it with his mediocrity. Rather refer them to someone who is ready to play.

Finally somebody making sense.

Every performance is an audition for the next gig.

And a professional doesn't take a job he can't perform. 

If you are doing the hiring, and you are going to have to give short notice, you might expect you'll have to hire somebody very very good, and pay that rate.  But as a layperson, when you hire somebody and they take the job, you have a right to expect they know what they are doing.  You can't be expected to know how long a pianist or a harpist or bagpiper will need to prepare.  Studio musicians are expected to show up and sightread. 

[pizno]

Well, all I can say is, I'm glad people don't ask me to play for weddings.  If they did, you can bet I would only do it if I had at least a month to rehearse.  If I didn't, I would refer them to one of the many pianist I know who are used to playing at moment's notice.  I think one thing, as musicians, we need to recognize is when something is over our head, even if we like to think we can handle something like playing Pachabel's canon at a wedding.  I accompanied a kid who was playing violin last year, practiced hard for a couple of weeks, but what I learned from that is that I personally need a lot of time with a piece before I really feel comfortable playing it in public.  Lesson learned.  I will not put myself in that position in the future!

So, is Pachabel's canon harder than it looks or something?  I had the same experience with someone hacking their way through at a wedding.

[bartolomeo_]

There's usually more to the story than meets the eye.  I've played badly (though not at weddings) from time to time and if you take on scheduled gigs where someone else chooses the music and the show must go on you will occasionally get in a jam.

Maybe the guy was an amateur and didn't know what he was getting into.

Maybe the guy had a bunch of other gigs and mismanaged his prep time.

Maybe he was a sub asked to fill in at the last minute, and did it as a favor because the family (or the incumbent musician) couldn't get anyone else.

Maybe he hates weddings and only agreed to do this because the family twisted his arm.

Maybe bridezilla changed the music at the last minute.  Literally.  Maybe he found out he was playing Canon in D when he looked at the program.  I have a church gig and a couple weeks ago the pastor forgot to give me one of the hymns and I found out I was playing it from the program.  Do you have any idea what it's like to have to sightread in a situation like that?

Maybe he was in the hospital for five days right before the wedding and couldn't practice and couldn't find a sub.  Or his wife was in the hospital.  Or he had the week from hell and couldn't get any practice time because of whatever personal crap was going on in his life.

Or maybe your standards are unrealistic for a wedding gig.  It isn't a recital, after all.

[quantum]

Or maybe your standards are unrealistic for a wedding gig.  It isn't a recital, after all.

Agree.

[lostinidlewonder]

Sometimes people do not play well all the time, I wonder if this wedding piano man played more than 1 piece? Sometimes we can have bad days and not play well, thats a kInd way to tell people in competition they played badly..... Today your playing wasn't so good.

[alzado]

Thanks for all the postings.  I probably should admit that I was a little too bitchy about this performance. 

As for the concept -- which several posters stated -- that most of the audience did not notice anything out of order with the performance, so doubtless that makes the performance satisfactory . . .  well, come on!  It's either competent or it is not.  As for the acumen of the average citizen . . .  well, if any of you have played for people in your home, such as family, you will discern that many of them will be respectful and courteous, and listen carefully, but have no idea what they are hearing.  Moreso with classical selections.  The fact that miscues or wrong chords, or flaws in timing, went right over their heads . . . does that make the performance okay?

It is partly about what music that average people know, also.  This is not to be snobbish.  But many persons like what might be called better-quality popular music.  Now if the pianist played "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" with an equal number of mistakes, half the wedding guests might have frowned and looked at each other.  But a high percentage of today's Americans really don't understand classical piano music very well.

And yes, this man did play quite a few other selections far better, and in quite a satisfactory manner.  What was bad about his miscues in the Canon, it was the entry march, and arguably the most intent moment of the service.

Another thought occurs to me.  The Canon in D is available in many arrangements for piano.  I myself have at least five of them.  Possibly this pianist selected one of the most difficult of them.  If caught by surprise, he might have been wise to have selected an "advanced" version, but one somewhat less challenging.

Thanks, and mea culpa, I have probably been something of a "cold dude" about this. I will go off and do suitable penance.

[jpianoflorida]

I think you are being too judgemental!    maybe it was a different arrangement than you were use to? maybe the pianist was sick?(i've played when I've been very ill, I'm hoping I didnt' make a lot of mistakes), maybe you just didn't like the pianist's style?   I think we all(i'm speaking to myself as well) need to be careful not to be too critical without knowing all the facts...   for instance:

I was complaining about a nurse to my mom, when mom was in the hospital....I was saying how cold she was, etc etc etc....guess what? I didn't know that she had just got a call that her sister had died! I felt like an ignorant fool!   We don't always know what's going on with someone so we need to be careful!