Day 205 (well, technically 206): Unexpected British-isms in Music Are a Cause of Awkward Walks and Confused Americans (i.e. me)

It turns out that there are loads of differences between the UK and the States in terms of how people do things. One particular example of this has been brought to my attention time and time again: music. I had an orchestra concert tonight (Trinity Orchestra) and I was concertmaster (or leader, as they say here in the UK), which meant that I had to do the whole walking-out-to-a-round-of-applause thing, which was a bit nerve-wracking because a) I was wearing heels, and b) I wasn't quite sure how it all worked.

So I walked out at the beginning of the concert, after everyone else had sat down, and I didn't know if I was supposed to bow or not, so I awkwardly leaned over and asked my stand partner (or desk mate, as they say here). She said I shouldn't bow. So I sat down. (The orchestra had already been tuned.) We had the concert la-dee-dah, and at the end of the concert, the conductor did her thing with the showing of the orchestra and the bowing, and then we all sat down again. And then someone whispered something to me and I couldn't hear, so I was just really confused, but eventually, after an extremely long and awkward period of time when no one knew what to expect, I realised that he was saying "Take a bow!" And so I stood up abruptly and bowed, and then someone behind me whispered, "Now walk!", and so I did and I walked off stage and everyone clapped. I was really confused and I must have looked like a complete fool because I had no idea what was going on. After the concert someone explained the orchestra protocol to me:

• The orchestra will file out and once everyone'e settled, the associate concertmaster (they call it something else here) will tune the orchestra. After that gets worked out, then the concertmaster will walk out and just sit down while everyone claps. Then the conductor will come on. After the concert is over, the conductor will show the orchestra, bow, and then walk off stage. At this point, the concertmaster is supposed to stand, bow, and then also walk off stage. And in some instances, the concertmaster and conductor will both come back out onto the stage and take a bow together.

This is quite different from the States. In my experiences as concertmaster, the standard procedure is as follows:

• The orchestra will file out and once everyone's settled, the concertmaster will walk out, take a bow, and tune the orchestra before sitting down. Then the conductor will walk out. After the concert is over, the conductor will show the orchestra, bow, perhaps shake the concertmaster's hand, and then walk off stage. 

And then that's it. The concertmaster doesn't do anything beyond that first walk. Which is exactly why I was so confused. Man. I should have asked for a step-by-step explanation beforehand. Well, I did, but I only thought to ask what to do when I walked out there... I had no idea that there was anything beyond that. But anyway. Interesting things. And now I know. If ever I am concertmaster in the UK again (which will happen tomorrow, but I don't think there will be the whole walk thing because it's a smaller orchestra), then I will (hopefully) look less like an awkward, bumbling fool.

But these concert protocols are not the only thing in music where there are differences between the UK and the States. The names of things are different too! This really threw me off for a while, but I think I have it down now. Here is a list of the new British English words I have learned over the course of many orchestra rehearsals:

• semi-quaver = sixteenth note
• quaver = eighth note
• crotchet = quarter note
• minim = half note
• semi-breve = whole note
• breve = something twice as long as a whole note ("double note"...?)
• (The above also apply to rests of different lengths.)
• hold (I think?) = fermata

I think there are more, but I can't think of any others at the moment. This may be due to the fact that it is 4 am, and as a person who has a typical sleeping schedule of 11pm-to-7am, this is quite a shock for my body, and as a result I am incredibly exhausted. Especially since I woke up at 7am this morning, did math until class, went to two math lectures, ate lunch, did math until class, went to sociology seminar, had a math tutorial meeting, went to dinner, played a concert, and then came back to do several hours more of math.

Oh, oh, oh! Dinner! It was great. I went to formal hall at Trinity and it was great. Everyone had these black robes on and it's all traditional and old-time-y. We had several courses for dinner, but I think my favourite was the first course: deep-fried brie. My friend (who sponsored me in to formal hall) said that it seems quite British to take lovely French cheese and then deep-fry it. So it's extra healthy. :P

And now I very badly need to go to bed. I think I'm the only awake in the Stanford House right now. Goodness. I'm usually the first one to go to bed, so the times when I'm the only one awake are right when I wake up. I should clean up first. I basically took over half the computer cluster:

Yay. Now, bed.