You Probably Don't Want Your Own Entrance Music

After next month, my wife and I will have three children under three. 

Which will basically make us hermits. One of us might slip out now and then to go to work or buy some food, but you won't see all of us out in public any time soon.

So we have to change some things. Like our activity in the community orchestra--because we just can't do that to a babysitter every week, you know?

Image credit: Meme Generator

Our short-term solution for the orchestra, at least, is to trade off concerts. I get the fall concert, my wife gets Christmas, etc. It stinks not going together, but it's a small price to pay to keep ourselves in practice and in the company of adults. 

I always love returning to the orchestra after our summer break. Another concert season brings fresh faces and new music to our group. It's fun to see what we end up with.

I hate being late for the first rehearsal, though. Especially if I'm alone. And as fate would have it, I did a terrible job planning dinner last night, so I walked in half an hour after we were supposed to start. 

I wondered what music would already be traveling down the hallway as I entered the school where we rehearse. The fall concert can be difficult to predict; in the past we've played a wide variety of pieces, from Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain and Saint-Saëns' Danse Macabre to Ralph Vaughan Williams' English Folk Song Suite. There's usually some kind of Halloween theme, but not always.

As much as I didn't know what to expect, what I heard . . . wasn't what I expected.

I made my entrance at the height of Wagner's majestic Bridal Chorus. You know the song.

Here comes the bride,

All dressed in white,

Sweetly serene in the soft glowing light. . . .

My seat was clear across the room.

Awkward.

Image credit: pak101.com

Luckily everyone else was busy reading music, so pretty much only the violin sections took any notice of my arrival. And I might have gotten a look from the flute section. But it had nothing to do with Wagner. 

Even still, I've changed my mind about entrance music. It's definitely not for me.