Can a price be put on notes?

In response to a demand for a raise by violinists from Bonn’s Beethoven Orchestra, who complain that they play more notes than other musicians, Britain’s Guardian newspaper has polled musicians.

The consensus is that musicians shouldn’t be paid by the note.

“As a bass player I can sit on the same note for bars and bars -- is that one note or more?” asks double bassist Cecelia Bruggemeyer.

“I won’t say I feel an enormous sense of my own importance whenever I play that one note,” said David Corkill, percussionist for the Philharmonia Orchestra, of his sole contribution to Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony, “but it’s my responsibility to make sure it’s there.”