South
Skunky Schools
Music
Review
The South Skunky School
Board President was given a ticket
for a performance of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony. Since he was
unable
to go, he passed the invitation on to Stuperintendent LaBeaver.
The next morning, the president asked him how he enjoyed it, and
instead
of a few plausible observations, he was handed a memorandum which read
as
follows.
1. For a considerable period, the oboe players had nothing
to
do. Their number should be reduced, and their work spread over the
whole
orchestra, thus avoiding peaks of inactivity.
2. All 12 violins were playing identical notes. This
seems
unnecessary duplication, and the staff of this section should be
drastically
cut. If a large volume of sound is really required, this could be
obtained
through the use of an amplifier.
3. Much effort was involved in playing the sixteenth
notes.
This seems an excessive refinement and is recommended that all notes
should
be rounded up to the nearest eighth note. If this were done, it
would
be possible to use paraprofessionals instead of experienced
musicians.
4. No useful purpose is served by repeating the passage
that
has already been handled by the strings with horns. If all such
redundant
passages were eliminated, the concert could be reduced from two hours
to
20 minutes.
5. This symphony had two movements. If Schubert
didn't
achieve his musical goals by the end of the first movement, then, he
should
have stopped there. The second movement is unnecessary and should
be
cut.
In light of the above, one can only conclude that
had
Schubert given attention to these matters, he probably would have had
the
time to finish his symphony.
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