It's just a picture, but.....

(loudly singing) COME BABBIES......
..thats my cattle/elepant/DB call.

 

What I want to know is....


HOW DO I GET THAT GIG? The rest of the orch is working while the bass section in on break.

 

"...it's the bottom of the ninth... the basses are loaded... the score is tied... Messrs Jackson & Shaw look worried..."

(anyone remember that one??)

- Wil

 

No one's using extensions.

 

Christopher, hair is usually not an issue in orchestral situations.

 

I don't think you can judge whether all four basses are extentionless with a sampling of one. That kind of math only works with the DNC

 

Ray, You beat me to it. Great one!
Mark

 

I don't know where he found the groovy big pic, but here's a smaller one with the whole bass section visible.


So there's one extension in the group.

Also interesting to note the European style seating: Basses on the left behind the first violins, cellos and seconds swapped from their usual seating.

Presumably, being directed by the conductor, he wrote the music for that seating arrangement (there's plenty of music which tends to really expect certain arrangements of musicians).

-dh

 

Could also be that the negative got reversed and it's a band full of lefties. Pretty unlikely, though.

Is that Gary Karr on principal violin?

 

Nah, that wouldn't explain the placement of the violins in front of the basses.

Some orchestral music sounds best with this arrangement, some sounds best with the traditional basses on the right, violas and seconds in the middle arrangement, and some sounds equally bad either way ;-)

Among other things I sing in the cathedral choir where are normal arrangement is basses behind sopranos and tenors behind altos, with firsts on the left and seconds on the right (so we're effectively two choirs in this arrangement). This works great for some pieces, but others, like the Durufle requiem really scream out to have the tenors with the sopranos and the basses with the altos. Really, it takes a sensitive director to realize how the music will be best served by the arrangement of the group.

-dh