Friday the 13th. How many bad things could happen today?

Instead of a traditional “listen to this” post, I’m going to bend to popular culture and put give a list of fails, not because we need a laugh at someone else’s expense, but because, well, it happens. We’ve all had a day where fate seems to be against us and we screw up big time. The real test is not whether we screw up or not, it’s in how we pick ourselves up afterwards and move on gracefully.

Speaking of picking ourselves up, that’s exactly what this unfortunate tenor has to do.

I really admire this guy, because under the high-stress of being onstage, trying to remember his words, notes, choreography, and acting, his fall only stops him for a second, and then he’s back on task – and look at the great response from the audience. We’ve been there, man, we’ve all been there.

Equipment malfunction is a major cause of musical disaster. Sometimes, there’s nothing you can do except put down your instrument and try to look good.

Hey, it happens.

And of course, the classic “sheet music falls off the stand” disaster – always at the pivotal moment of your performance, too.

It happens; bravo to this timpanist who keeps his cool and doesn’t miss a note.

And then, sometimes the malfunction doesn’t have to do with the equipment itself, but because the musician doesn’t know how to use the equipment – like this organist who accidentally hits a transposing button at the most important and iconic part of Handel’s Messiah.

It happens. Bad luck to this organist that s/he was playing the loudest instrument at the loudest moment of a loud piece when “it” hit the fan.

But then, sometimes you screw up because you’ve been drinking. Even if you don’t know Bolero, you can probably spot the errors.

We’ve been there. Keep calm and carry on making music.

I recently stumbled across a friend’s performance on youtube, and immediately though “wow, this is great – time to put this on the blog!” Any Art Music video (that isn’t designed to be click bait) with over 20,000 views is quite an accomplishment.

Now it’s common knowledge that if you want to lose your faith in humanity, all you need to do is read through the comments on any youtube video, news feed, or basically anything on reddit. Unfortunately, and against my better judgment, I scrolled down and found that many of the comments were complaints about my friend’s facial expressions – not the music. Here was a flawless performance with good sound & video quality, offered for FREE to anyone, anytime – but clearly, this generous offering of beautiful music at no cost isn’t as important as making the right facial expression.

The world is full of Philistines and Trolls. We’re all told to ignore the Philistines and not feed the Trolls, but their words still can hurt – and some of us are unable to forget cruel words, regardless of the circumstances under which they were said or written. So as a public service message to all, please think before you speak or write, and remember that beauty is a thing that needs to be protected and defended. And DON’T FEED THE TROLLS!

One has to deeply admire Hilary Hahn, not just for her amazing playing, but for her dedication to new music. She gets called all over the world to perform the great violin masterpieces (IE, the old, tried-and-true pieces by dead composers), then turns around and commissions new music for the instrument. The album “In 27 Pieces” is filled with these pieces – 26 encores that she commissioned herself, and 1 final piece which she reserved for a winner of an open contest that received over 400 entries.

This piece, titled “Third Sigh” is from one of the composers Hahn commissioned – Antón García Abril.