Courage, Part Two

(Prepare to hear my children cheering across the miles.)

Anyone who knows me well knows I am one of the most non-confrontational people in the universe. I shy away from the risk of hurting someone's feelings, of offending anyone, of making someone uncomfortable. My stomach ties in knots at the very thought of my words or actions resulting in someone else's displeasure. I would rather I be displaced or discomfited than anyone else be put out of their comfort zone.

In the third movement of Carmina burana, the strings play G-A, and then the altos and basses enter on that A, singing a unison A-minor ascending triad to begin the passage. Thursday night, as the strings played the A, someone behind me hummed, rather loudly, a C. Somewhat disconcerting? Yes. But I ignored it and went on. The next time the strings entered, I heard the C again. And the next time. And the next time. Each of the six times this passage occurs in the movement, the same person hummed the same C. Why exactly? We come in on the A. We're given the A by the strings. No need to be hummin' anything!

I thought about it throughout the day on Friday. When I got to my seat in the Green Room on Friday night, I turned around to my friend, Laurel, who sits over my right shoulder. I asked if she had hummed a C, and she said, no it was someone else and she heard it too. Then the woman who sits over my left shoulder came in, and I turned to ask her. She shook her head, and pointed to the seat between her and Laurel. Then we started warming up, so I had no further chance to pursue it until two minutes before we were to go on. I turned around again and realized it was Lucik who was doing the humming. (At least I knew her name. Whew. That would make it easier.) I said, "Are you humming a C? Did Dr. Chamberlain ask you to hum that C?" She replied, "I'm just making sure we get the minor third." I said, "You shouldn't need to do that. You're surrounded by professionals." She replied, "there was a problem and someone asked me to hum it." I said, "It's very loud, and we're miked, and we're being recorded. It would be better if you didn't do it." She nodded and said she wouldn't.

As I was in the crowd funneling through the door to leave the Green Room, another woman, in her 60s, sidled up to me and said, "Thanks for saying that. I could never have done that."

Me! Approaching someone to fix something! And admired by someone else for having done it! Yea!!!