The Lost Accord

If working for an orchestra is so difficult, why do they stay in it? This is a perfectly legitimate question, just as legitimate as asking why people stay on the board of directors year after year. Replies one of the older men, "We might want the diversion of playing with smaller groups, but being part of an orchestra like the Philadelphia is the culmination of one’s career." A younger man says simply, "It’s what I always wanted to do. It was my goal in life. But I’m turning into a cog in a machine. I happen to like music still. It might change if this goes on."

FLY NOW, PLAY LATER. The South American tour was another troublemaking product of the last contract. The headlines in the papers last spring screamed the protests of orchestra members to air travel. Their contract stated they could have a choice of rail or air travel on tours, and some were insisting on rail. This attitude didn’t make any friends for them. On the face of it, it did seem ridiculous to expect anyone to get to South America and tour it in a train.

Said a board member, "I think the Association’s attitude toward the orchestra hardened when they pulled this South American caper.

"I’d gotten to know some of the men during negotiations for the last contract and I think a mutual respect grew up then. We understood each other’s problems. But when something like this happens, you wonder whether this leadership can be dealt with reasonably. What if this tour had been canceled after two-and-a-half years of preparation? It was an important cultural interchange sponsored by the State Department and they’d given us a $150,000 grant for it."

From the orchestra’s point of view their objections to flying weren’t so ridiculous. Apparently a large group (maybe 40) always elects rail travel over plane, either because of fear of flying, especially on some charter flights where equipment isn’t always the most up-to-date, or for health reasons (anyone with sinus or respiratory trouble might find his ears blocked after a flight, for instance). The South American tour controversy was settled by an arbitrator who ruled that members could be excused on medical grounds, but both sides came out of it embittered.

All of this seems pretty petty. But every toot of a horn is in itself meaningless until it’s all put together with other instruments and the cumulative sound stirs its audience. Out of countless small incidents like this, misunderstandings grow, the emotional climate gets hot and explodes with hysterical demands. Throw out the present Association board! Fire the present orchestra!

The Philadelphia Inquirer editorialized: "If the striking musicians continue to turn their backs on the binding arbitration proposed by the Philadelphia Orchestra Association as a means of settling the current dispute, then the only logical alternative is for the Orchestra Association to assemble a new group to carryon its concerts …. "