Subject: "It's taken me this long, and I'm not even especially good as classical violinists go.
Author:
Posted on: 2022-05-02 19:33:29 UTC
Or fiddlers, for that matter. It takes a long time to get to be even passably goot at playing an instrument. Maybe it would have taken me less time if I'd practiced more, but I don't have all the time in the world, what with being an agent and trying to squeeze in a few classes here and there."
I was thinking starting a full-fledged RP based on this concept, but since I'm probably not allowed and I have exactly zero experience conducting (ahem) an RP, I'll make this thread a headcanon collection.
Lately I've gotten really into imagining characters from my fandoms as orchestral musicians (heck, I've straight-up written an orch AU for one of said fandoms), so I figure it'd be fun to bring this game over to the PPC as well. I'd like to see Permitted boarders' headcanons on what their agents would be like as musicians in the Philharmonic of the Plot Continuum. Do include:
She read it. "Huh. It says 'Musicians and concertmaster/mistresses wanted. Must be able to read music or otherwise be able to learn by ear.' I can read music, and I was in an orchestra for a few years."
((more soon))
A bit of clarification though: a concertmaster is the leader of first violin section (a.k.a. a musician), while the person waving a baton is a conductor.
"Nah, I don't know any instruments." Deirdre could sing a bit here and there, but she'd never taken lessons.
Rebecca grabbed her violin case and walked out the door. "If I'm not back by tonight, you can go looking for me," she said, closing the door behind her. She walked off to find the orchestra, whistling a tune to herself so as to be distracted enough to get there.
"Stupid partner. Why does he have to be such sourpuss any--" She stopped when she saw that Rebecca was walking alongside her, carrying a violin case. "Are you joining the orchestra too?"
"I'm Mina, department of Floaters, RC -?. And this," she nodded towards the guitar case she was carrying. "Is my guitar, Flurffles."
((Yup, she named her guitar.))
... what to make of that.
Mina looked puzzled. "Anyway, what's your name?"
"Do you play violin?" She nodded towards the violin case.
Mina said. "I've only had this guitar for three days."
Or fiddlers, for that matter. It takes a long time to get to be even passably goot at playing an instrument. Maybe it would have taken me less time if I'd practiced more, but I don't have all the time in the world, what with being an agent and trying to squeeze in a few classes here and there."
"Here we are!" said Mina.
"I can give you a demonstration, though!"
She unzipped the case and withdrew a guitar covered in purple scales. Three of the strings were broken, and the word "Flurffles" was written on it in uneven letters. Mina took out a pink, sparkly guitar pick. "This is just the second time I've tried to play this!"
The cacophony was horrendous.
Noman stepped out of the bathroom, having finally scraped the last of the glitter off of his body and clothes. (The terrible thing about Mary Sue glitter is that, just like real glitter, it gets stuck everywhere, in places unknown and unfathomable to common, decent pollutants.) Shaking himself off, he wandered about the RC, noticing Winfrey bobbing her head and chirping along to something. She was doing a pretty decent job, making long whistling calls and trills easily as she spun a screwdriver in one hand, holding a glass of mixed Bleepka and orange juice in the other.
Noman sat down next to Winfrey, and she turned to face him, placing her screwdriver in a drawer and taking a long sip of her drink, which was confusingly also called a screwdriver.
"What're you singing?" Noman asked, unfamiliar.
"Tintin On The Moon, sorta," Winfrey said back, "hard to get the Noisemaker's mix down while chirping it."
"I saw a poster for some sorta... music festival, from out and around HQ."
"Oh, should we go?" Winfrey asked, "I'm a pretty good singer."
"Well, last time, someone messed with the sheet music and replaced it with the Brown Note. But hey, I'll pack some fresh pants and a shower-in-a-can just in case."
Winfrey winced and spluttered, ending her chirping performance. Noman casually noted Chrysostom's 11th Discourse opened on Winfrey's tablet computer, alongside her music playlist. He tipped his head at her.
"Huh. X-CEED's Flip-Flap next to Poor Man's Poison's Providence? Next to an hour of Bach, Handel, and Shostakovich?"
"Like you are one to talk about weird music taste! Ready To Die has no business being in the same playlist as Glorious Morning!"
"You're reading fanfic right now about how..." Noman squinted (baffling Winfrey, as Noman lacked eyes to squint with) at Winfrey's notes "...Hector survived the Trojan War, and how Troy won the war in truth?"
"I-It's not fanfiction, it's a historical debate!"
Noman casually turned to face the reader, leaving Winfrey utterly baffled.
"You know, I think we've drifted off course," he said.
"Who are you talking to?"
"You'll get it, later."
Winfrey sighed, clearing her throat again as she began to try and sing once more. This time, just to spite Noman, she was singing the opening theme to Barney & Friends.
His screams brought her some small comfort.
If you're a fan of the classics, here is what Winfrey was reading.
This is Tintin On The Moon: Noisemaker's Mix.
This is Flip-Flap by XCEED
This is Providence by Poor Man's Poison
Bach, Handel, and Shostakovich are composers
This is Glorious Morning by Waterflame.
This is Ready To Die by Andrew W.K. (mild violence warning.)
For the sake of everyone's souls, I will not link the Barney & Friends theme.
My Drama Club/Thespian Troupe is performing Grease and one of the members has been carrying around a guitar and randomly playing songs (he once play "Seven Nations Army" while we were waiting for everyone to arrive at a meeting).
It's kinda funny at times.
And, because of him, I was thinking about making an agent play guitar.
-kA
(I'll make an intro RP post soon. I'm just busy right now.)
When agents idle, they tend to do many things. Some cause chaos at HQ (those are never left to idle again), some spend time with friends-
CRASH!
And some, well, some do that.
David Null flinched, dropping the guitar pick in the process. He sighed, then took off the guitar to pick it up again.
CRASH! Thud!
"I found it!" K called out. He wandered out of the second cabinet, holding a cheap, fuvggy plastic recorder as if it was some trophy. "I finally found it!"
"Oh?" David said. "And why did you want to find a fuvggy instrument?"
"Oh, don't be like that!" K said. "It was mentioned in a Shakespeare play, wasn't it? I thought you like these things!"
"Well," David replied, "when you have three children, two of them go through music class and host a recorder concert, and one of them was given a recorder as a birthday gift and wouldn't stop playing it..." He sighed and sat back down. "Well, I had thought they got a puppy without me knowing." He put the guitar back onto his lap, positioned the shoulder strap, and began casually playing a Sue-killing song.
"What play was it mentioned in?" K asked. He sat down on what was Matt's bed.
"Hamlet," David said. "I think I could remember the exact lines if you wanted to know them." He paused in his playing and looked at K.
"No thanks," K replied. "I don't want Flowers sending us to a Hamlet mission. I'm afraid you'd be too nitpicky."
"It shpxing Hamlet," David said. He went back to playing the guitar. "Of course I'd be too nitpicky."
"But you don't really need to be," K replied. "You-"
A paper fluttered in from under the door and tapped David's shoe. Dabid paused in his playing to pick it up and hand it over to K.
"Mail for you, probably," David said. He started playing again.
"Huh," K said. "Looks like the PPC is forming an orchestra."
"Well, I can barely stand being lead by other people," David replied. "But continue."
"It's completely voluntary-"
"Since when is anything here voluntary?"
"No pay increases-"
"This is the shpxing PPC, of course there wouldn't be pay!"
"And they're looking for pretty much anyone with any talent in musical playing," K finished.
"So not you," David replied. K rolled up the paper and playfully smack him on the shoulder. "I'm kidding! Maybe."
"I know how to read musical sheets," K said.
"You're lying," David replied. He stopped playing for a moment to look at K. "Right?"
"Well, I'm pretty sure no one is looking for a recorder player," K said, shrugging.
"Wait a minute," David said. "You know how to play an instrument?"
"Required lessons in the recorder when I was younger," K replied.
David put down the guitar. "From what I heard, the recorder isn't much different than the flute," he said. "Why don't we go find one? There has to be a spare one floating around in this shpxing place."
"Really?" K asked. "You mean it?"
"Well," David replied. "I don't think there's any harm, besides maybe my shpxing ears, if we get you a flute."
K sighed. "You're against the idea."
"No," David replied. "I'm against the idea of me playing. Let's go find you a shpxing flute."
Will David Null be forced to play anyways? Or will K be able to play the flute? Maybe we'll find out!
(Also, I know all flutes =/= recorders, but recorders are a type of flute, I think, and I was told that a flute was a more complicated recorder, so that's why there's a comparison.)
-kA, who is tired.
(Edit: a letter)
Derik has one he's willing to lend! It's a typical Western concert flute, though, so K might actually want to borrow the recorder instead. It is not a crummy plastic one. {= )
~Neshomeh
(Very quick bios 'cause these two are new) Carlisle - Grumpy, formal forty-year-old human. Mina - Cheerful fifteen-year-old ex-Sue. Tends to overuse punctuation.
Mina shoved the pamphlet in Carlisle's face. "Look!" she said. There's a PPC orchestra. Can we join? Now? Please???"
Carlisle sighed and took the pamphlet from her. "It says that you need some sort of musical experience to join. And your guitar playing isn't, er, something that needs to be shared. Nor is it orchestral, for that matter. Now, please stop the barrage of question marks. I'm simply choosing to not accompany you."
"Fine!" Mina said. "Then I'm going by myself." She turned towards her (slightly sparkly) room to find the instrument in question.
Thoughts, anyone?
Spensor plays the cymbals and is quite irritating with them during rehearsal. Phil plays the piccolo and is the usual target of Spensor's antics.
Anyone can start an RP! Use the Other Board so the RP thread doesn't eat the main Board if it gets big.
I'll admit I don't quite see how an orchestra RP would work, but I don't have to. {= )
~Neshomeh is in the choir, see you for "O Fortuna"!
Ladies, gentlemen, and goodbeings, I give you: Selections from "The Mary Sue" performed by the Caffeine Overload Symphony and the All-HQ Choir, conducted by Agent Handel!
It's a shame so little survives from 2006-2007. I'm sure there was a thread with people discussing what instruments their agents would play and stuff like that, too—not necessarily related to the Filk Game; not necessarily even in the same year. I wouldn't be surprised if it's happened multiple times!
As for my agents, Derik is the only one who'd think seriously about getting involved. He's competent on a variety of stringed instruments, and he has a collection that he's acquired from missions:
Derik's Abused Instrument Shelter
"The Empty Vessel" hasn't been written 'cause it was meant to be a co-write and my co-writer isn't around anymore, but I'm counting it anyway. Derik is very fond of that Elvish harp! ... He probably isn't very good with a modern flute, though ("What are all these fussy little flappy bits?"), so if anybody wants it, he'll loan it to them. You'd best not put a scratch on it, though...
^_~
~Neshomeh
(Translation: "So at this hour, without delay, pluck the vibrating strings!" Line from the final stanza of "O Fortuna.")
That is to say, yes. {= D
I've had the pleasure of performing Carmina Burana twice, once in the children's choir and once in the adult choir. Ten out of ten, would recommend.
~Neshomeh
I'm pretty sure the rule is that people who don't have Permission can participate in roleplays as long as the person starting the roleplay doesn't mind.
May I use my non-canon Agents, Yuki? (That nickname’s okay, right?)
“A PPC orchestra?” Diamond squinted at the pamphlet that had been slid under the door of RC 2314. “Why would the PPC need an orchestra?” She winced at the idea already forming in her head. “All those not musically trained mortals…ugh. They will be in need of me.”
Her partner looked up from re-reading ‘The Return of the King’ for the umpteenth time. “An orchestra in the PPC with you singing opera.” She paused. “Do death metal screams count as orchestral music? ‘Cause I can do a decent one and I feel like it would fit nicely.”
“… You are a disgrace to all things musical.”
“My music counts as music, just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean…”
<><><><><>
In RC 6, a similar argument was brewing, although it was broken periodically by what sounded like a dying duck trying to be a pig.
“No, Quinn, you are not trying out for the orchestra, especially not with that!” Doom gestured vehemently at what Thalia was attempting to tune.
Thalia stuck out her lower lip. “And what’s wrong with my kazoo?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me…”
Will they get admitted or will they get laughed out? I can't wait to find out!
Rebecca Buch plays violin. She plays first violin, specifically. She especially likes to play folk music, especially Irish folk music and jigs. She would play rock'n'roll if she knew any. She is generally friendly with most of the people in the orchestra, and wants to learn guitar and/or ukulele someday if she ever has time to pick up an instrument. Or maybe she'll just go back and do piano, shich she started learning but switched over to violin. She also likes to sing.
Is she the concertmaster, or is she just in that section?
also called orchestral leader, is the leader of first violin section, whose role in an orchestra is pretty much second to the conductor. Wonder why all the string players' bowings are in sync? It's the CM's job to make sure they're that way. On top of that, they also have the usual section leader duty to play solo bits for their instrument. From the audience's point of view, the CM is the violinist sitting to the immediate left of the conductor, which is where the red circle in this photo marks.
The violinist sharing a desk with the CM is called an associate or assistant CM, whose job is to fill in for the CM if they're not available.
although she would definitely grumble about that. I'm one of the oldest/most experienced first violins in my classical violin teacher's orchestra (which is pretty much all violins) and I'm sort of this. Well, the other first violins sort of rely on my sister and I to not mess things up, anyway. There are hardly any first violins, and the orchestra really needs us to be there. I will stop now, before this turns into too much of a rant about how suboptimal my orchestra is.