Posted by Rick F on June 30, 2001 at 10:32:10:
In Reply to: funniest mistake/act of disobedience posted by James McNeil on June 29, 2001 at 13:29:56:
This ocurred just this past year. The conductor of our community band in Royal Palm Beach, FL is Fred Dart. (Some of you on this list may remember Fred from the Air Force Band in D.C., Ohio State, Kentucky U. or U. New Mexico) About 2 weeks before a scheduled concert, I found out that the date of our scheduled concert, was Fred's Birthday. I found a band arrangement of 'Happy B-Day' (only 8 bars or so) and passed it out to everyone on the sly with instructions to play this when we usually play "Stars and Stripes" at the end of the concert for an encore. I asked everyone to play the pick-up note of 'Happy B-day' on Fred's indicated down beat of S+S -- and to continue playing even when Fred stopped conducting. I was a bit nervous about this coming off as planned, and was wondering how Fred would take it. It went pretty well. Fred actually conducted for about 3 measures or so before realizing what was up. He told me aftwards that he knew we were playing the wrong piece, and figured we'd eventually get up the right music! The audience didn't know what was up at first, but when they did, they all laughed and applauded. We still had to play "Stars and Stipes Forever" -- but as written this time.
Rick F