Hollywood Studio Musicians
...nd orchestras. This ‘fair days work” is what is referred to as scientific management. There are a few theories Faulkner uses in Hollywood Studio Musicians but does not come right out and say them or at least, I believe that he’s using them, from my own critical view. When I was reading about the struggles all the musicians were going through to get their names out there, the Proletariats came right to mind. Especially the musicians working under contract with the symphonies and orchestras. These musicians were working themselves to the bone with performance after performance, for what? Definitely nothing that was worth living off of for the rest of their lives. These well trained musicians were raised believing that they would make it big when they grew up and have a solo career but those chances fade with age. It’s kind of ironic how the strings musicians grew up wanting to play professionally in studios but had to settle with orchestras to make rent and it’s the brass and percussion musicians who grew up wanting the orchestra and had to settle with the studio work. Of course, all of these people worked under the direction of someone and that was who paid them and got them their gigs to play at. These musicians who are in symphonies by age nineteen are making little money, approximately $60 a week in the late 1950’s. That’s nothing to live off of so they look to studio work where the pay is up to $226 per week. These musicians are working for people who are paying them squat and, that’s why they want to turn to studio work where they can become a free lance musician and make more money. Free lance musicians are the Industrial Reserve Army of the musical world. They are living the life because, if high enough in rank, they can pick and chose when they want to work and who for. The free lancers are the unemployed but employable musicians who sit at home, or at their cottage and wait for the phone to ring with someone asking them to come in for a few hours of work at about $30 an hour. Mind you, the pressure on these musicians is more intense then that of the contract workers. This pressure is more intense because the free lance musicians have to go into work, learn a piece of music in a few minutes and be able to play it near perfect the first time through. This is because of time restraints and budgets which the contract musicians don’t have. The symphonists have the ability to learn and perfect a piece of music over months and do not have to worry about time constraints. The free lance musicians are usually more experienced and flexible then the musicians of the orchestras. With this flexibility, they can earn a name in the Hollywood Studios and create a résumé that is well known amongst the composers and conductors who chose musicians for certain parts. This is the hardest part of the Studio Musician: being of the inner circle that everyone chooses from. Being in this “inner circle” is like being the cream of the crop. These musicians are the ones that every conductor and composer calls for because they are usually the first three names of a particular instrument on the many lists of players that are around the various studios. This can sometime be a bad thing because you, as a musician, can only handle so much performing over a certain amount of time, especially brass (I know this from personal experience being a trumpet player). Being a free lance musician means that you can be called up at anytime, by anyone and they expect you to come in, most likely for the next day, to learn and perform a piece in a short amount of time, perfectly. My favorite quote in this section of Faulkner’s book is an excerpt from one of his interviews where the string player says ‘I sit at home and wait for the phone to ring. When I’m called, I go and play. I compare my business to that of a prostitute. I’m a call man, you see. I go where I’m called and I get paid. There’s no emotional involvement there. It’s very convenient. I perform my duties to the best of my abilities and I don’t get involved.’ This is true of the studio musician—they are at the beck and call of whatever conductor needs them. Yes, the work pays well but sometimes, it’s not worth the pain your body goes through. This is of course, if you are in the “inner circle.” There are many musicians that turn to studio work for the better money but, since they are on the outskirts of this inner circle, their chances of getting hired for a gig are fairly slim. The only way they get called up is if the conductor has gone through his list and the lists of others and then starts on the lists of backups. Hence these guys are called the Industrial Reserve Army—the unemployed employable. You can quickly earn a good name and maybe a place on the edge of the circle if you give a good performance your first time, especially if you are a musician another musician recommended. In this business, it is all about connections to get in and get a job. These musicians that turn to the studio work and are trying to move up are those most likely of a symphony or orchestra because they were not making sufficient money. It is a big deal and a percussionist was quoted as saying ‘…you can’t do this all your life; you’ve got to go on another way and I did, I got into studio work.’ This just proves that being a musician is a vicious life: you are either playing for no money, or you are someone’s beck and call girl but making good money. It’s a hard life being a musician and the fit between theory and subject is evident in the Theories of Marxism and Taylorism. It is, all in a days work but you are working for someone, whether they are paying you good bucks and you are the most wanted trumpet all across the studios or you are a third chair in a symphony that get maybe $50 a week and has no time to perform in other areas like clubs at night. One of Faulkner’s contributions in this book is that of the life of the musician, whether in a contract or as a free lancer. Free lancing is not a glamorous job but if you want it, you better work hard at it to get it and you can’t guarantee to get a full time gig that pays well; you will most likely have to just sit around and wait until your name is called to make a name for yourself. You are just private in the army, waiting to be called to battle. Performers under a contract like those who perform in symphonies are like the farmers in the view of Marxism; you are working under someone else and getting paid diddely squat but it does look good on your résumé if you decide to move on to a better job like a free lance musician who’s trying to get their name heard at the studios. It seems, that from my own view, Faulkner was a believer in Marxism and used this to his advantage as a contribution to describe the trials and tribulations of the studio musician and why other musicians felt the need to go from their previous jobs to that of a studio musician. The work ethic was much harder in the studios having to play perfectly the first time, only playing a song for maybe one day and learning to have to play with clicks in the background to follow the pace of the scene in the movie. Of course, there’s the budget’s for films but the pay is a lot better in studios ‘cause, though you work twice as hard, you also get more then twice as much in pay. Faulkner’s approach to what excerpts of interviews to use was also a bi...