I nearly drove off the road laughing (DOTRL) yesterday when I heard this piece on NPR. It seems that some German violinists are suing for more pay because they play more notes per concert than, say, the trumpet or oboe does. They are actually serious about this, and they already earn one of the highest salaries paid for orchestral players anywhere in the world.

Using the following reasoning, one could suggest they deserve less pay. Take a given line of music from an orchestral score, and assess its value in dollars to the overall effect of the piece. (Let's call this Outcomes Based Assement for orchestras.) Having calculated the price or worth of a line of music, which could include by the way how many notes are played in that line, divide that figure by the number of players hired to play the line and that's what each player earns.

For a given line of music, you'll find more violins per note playing that line than you'll ever find oboes. Clearly, one oboe player can do the job of, say, 20 violins or so.

Posted by: Abby at March 28, 2004 10:18 PM