Do symphony orchestra musicians dread having to play new "music"?

Question

It is so discordant, lacking any of the qualities associated with real music: melody, harmony, rhythm, I wonder if they enjoy playing it or does it drive them crazy?

Answer 1

I answer this question as a former college music major (tuba performance). Performing modern music was a love hate relationship. I love modern music... it's absolutely fascinating, however there were several challenges in performing it. I have performed pieces by composers who are absolutely clueless as far as how to write for the tuba... sure it sounded the way the composer inteded, but it would be awkward to execute from a performer's standpoint. The other big challenge is that modern music often doesn't sound familiar, so to think in your head how it is supposed to sound and execute that "visualization" was very difficult, because there's no frame of reference. An example would be Prokofiev's 5th symphony... if you ever have a chance to listen to an early recording you will notice that it sounds like a train wreck... once musicians became familiar with it they were better able to execute it and it is now considered a masterpiece. Another challenge with performing modern music is it is demanding on the musician... playing the tuba for a lot of older pieces I just know I play in octaves with the trombones, or play a pretty basic base line... with modern music I'm often doing something as an independent voice in the orchestra and something very technically demanding... one modern piece I played called for me to play my very first note at the near top end of my range and the only way I could know what note to hit was to listen to the double bass, then play a note an octave and a 7th above that... not easy! So to answer your question I did enjoy the challenge of modern music and appreciate modern music as an art form, but sometimes it could be very frustrating to perform.

Answer 2

Yeah, mon. I think they do. Unless they are into that kind of music.