TromboneChat

I wouldn't say that the choir director where I normally play on Palm Sunday is in a rut, but we are playing the exact same 3 pieces for something like the 10th year in a row. I had a standing Easter gig for about 10 years once where we also played the exact same music every year. It that something they teach in choir director school? Does anybody else run into this?

The amateur orchestra I play in does not do exactly the same Christmas program every year, but there are several "perennials". The MD says the last time he left Sleigh Ride off of a Christmas program, he got a bunch of complaints from the audience.

The first year, it's new. The second year, it's a favorite. After that, it's a tradition - and people do love traditions.

I've had the same Easter gig, off and on for close to 30 years, and it's still virtually all the same music.

For some reason, it is a tradition in the big band I'm in to play "Beer Barrel Polka" as a closing number or encore, even in our holiday performances. I'm not at all sure this is for the benefit of the audiences, but something the long-time director/sponsor has decided is just really cool. I think there are a lot of eccentricities running loose in performance programming.

I attribute the decline of the Lutheran Church in this country to the abandonment of the "Red" hymnal and the loss of its classic tunes.

There is so much unnecessary change in our lives, it is nice to have familiar things even just once a year.

robcat2075 wrote: Tue Mar 17, 2026 9:39 am There is so much unnecessary change in our lives, it is nice to have familiar things even just once a year.

I guess "Beer Barrel Polka" counts as that. I feel much better about it now.