Letter: Scribblings in the Orchestra Pit

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To the Editor:

Re "Philharmonic Adds More Archives on the Web" (Arts, Briefly item, Feb. 22):

The scribbling of musicians in their orchestra parts are mostly about cues, unexpected tempo changes and interpretive instructions from various conductors that are not in the printed score.

Yet I have noted that while my younger colleagues in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra confined their orchestral graffiti mostly to musical matters, the older musicians (like me) were more concerned with physical needs and a relentless struggle against boredom, particularly when playing repeated eighth notes in a bel canto opera one has played a hundred times.

Consequently, we old-timers meticulously penned in the number of minutes of each act.

Moreover, during long rests (as in Wagner's "Ring"), both young and old musicians often resorted to doodling, cartooning and (forgive me, Maestro Levine!) caricatures of singers and conductors that were not always flattering.

LES DREYER
New York, Feb. 22, 2013

The writer is a retired violinist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

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