{"id":156,"date":"2006-09-28T20:24:21","date_gmt":"2006-09-28T20:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2006\/09\/28\/the-gravity-of-my-situation\/"},"modified":"2006-09-29T11:04:10","modified_gmt":"2006-09-29T11:04:10","slug":"the-gravity-of-my-situation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2006\/09\/28\/the-gravity-of-my-situation\/","title":{"rendered":"The gravity of my situation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Work loves work.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since I set out on the road to being a full time free-lance conductor some years back, I\u2019ve become exceptionally sensitive to the rhythms of work.<\/span><\/p>\n

This experience and the careful study of my own situation now brings me to my new “special theory of the gravitational fields of stuff-to-do.”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This is the first law of the special theory of the gravitational fields of stuff-to-do<\/strong>:Work, that is,\u00a0stuff-to-do that is directly related to one\u2019s chosen field, exerts the strongest gravitational field around it. Likewise, the absence of work exerts an equal but opposite strength of anti-gravitational field around itself.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore\u2026. When one has work, one gets more work. The new work is attracted by the work one already has, so all incoming work attempts to\u00a0be scheduled\u00a0for the same days. When I first quite my university job, I only had 34 days of work in my calendar (my OES contract at the time) for the coming year. For the next couple of months, I had no calls, no enquiries of any kind. The anti-gravitational field of non-work was at full force.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, a friend asked if I would take over a charity concert for him. It didn\u2019t pay, but it would be my first chance to conduct anything in <\/span>Britain<\/span>. I happily agreed. Within a week I had three more calls for gigs on the SAME DAY as the gravitational field around that single gig was so strong. Think of it, I had 330 free days in my calendar, and in a week I had four requests for the same day, and none of them could happen at other times.<\/span><\/p>\n

Music can also exert funny gravitational fields of its own. As of the end of last season I had never conducted, covered or studied a work by Nielsen. I didn\u2019t own any Nielsen scores. It was safe to say that in March of 2006, Nielsen was the most important composer I had never performed. I made up my mind to change that, and proposed several Nielsen pieces to several orchestras. In the end, it worked out that I would conduct the Helios Overture with the Oregon East Symphony in January 2007, and the Nielsen Flute Concerto with the Surrey Mozart Players this Saturday, September 30th<\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n

What then were the odds that within less than two weeks of finalizing the SMP program for this week, I had a call from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales asking if I would do the same Nielsen Flute Concerto for them on October 3rd<\/sup>. \u00a0Not only had I never done a Nielsen piece before, nobody had ever suggested one to me before, and now I find I\u2019m doing the same piece with two orchestras within 3 days\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t particularly seek any gigs for August this year so that Suzanne and I could have some time to ourselves, but I wouldn\u2019t have cried if some fabulous band called me to fill in last minute at a Prom or something. No- the repellent force of non work held- not a single inquiry from anyone about anything in the entire month of August except for the first couple days of Kent County Youth Orchestra. Not even a turkey gig. Now, I have six programs to conduct, all with different orchestras, in different cities on two continents in 10 days. Not complaining, this is what it’s all about,\u00a0but isn\u2019t it just a little weird? Now I\u2019m getting the\u00a0effects of second law of the special theory of the gravitational fields of stuff-to-do:<\/strong>\u00a0 non-work-related stuff-to-do gravitates towards the time when I have work-related stuff-to-do<\/em>. Car mirror breaks, dog needs the dentist, visa has to be renewed, coffee grinder is on the fritz, concert jacket needs a button…. None of this happened in August!Surely this happens to everyone- stories, pease?<\/span><\/p>\n

Gravity, man\u2026..
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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