Beethoven's Ninth

Quite a number of years ago, the Seattle Symphony was doing

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony under the baton of Milton Katims. Now at

this point, you must understand two things:

1.There's a quite long segment in this symphony where the basses

don't have a thing to do. Not a single note for page after page.

2.There used to be a tavern called Dez's 400, right across the

street from the Seattle Opera House, rather favored by local

musicians.

It had been decided that during this performance, once the bass

players had played their parts in the opening of the symphony, they

were to quietly lay down their instruments and leave the stage,

rather than sit on their stools looking and feeling dumb for twenty

minutes. Well, once they got backstage, someone suggested that they

trot across the street and quaff a few brews.

After they had downed the first couple rounds, one said, "Shouldn't

we be getting back? It'd be awfully embarrassing if we were late."

Another, presumably the one who suggested this excursion in the

first place, replied, "Oh, I anticipated we could use a little more

time, so I tied a string around the last pages of the conductor's

score. When he gets down to there, Milton's going to have to slow

the tempo way down while he waves the baton with one hand and

fumbles with the string with the other."

So they had another round, and finally returned to the Opera house,

a little tipsy by now. However, as they came back on stage, one look

at their conductor's face told them they were in serious trouble.

Katims was furious! After all...

It was the bottom of the Ninth,

the basses were loaded,

and the score was tied.