Inspired by playing on Ed Lojeski's Missa Americana, a couple of the musicians decided to take in Schubert's Unfinished Symphony at Disney Hall.
They had an extra ticket and invited a non-musician friend to go with them. This friend, it turns out, is an efficiency expert and offered the following critique of the concert:
1. For a considerable period, the oboe players had nothing to do. Their number should be reduced and their work spread evenly among other staff.
2. All 12 violins played the same notes. This is unnecessary duplication. If a volume of sound is really required, this could be accomplished with the use of an amplifier.
3. No useful purpose is served by repeating with the horns the passage that was already handled by the strings. If such redundancies were eliminated, the concert could be reduced from two hours to twenty minutes.
4. The symphony has two movements. If Mr. Schubert hadn't achieved his musical goals by the end of the first movement, he should have stopped there. The second movement is unnecessary and should be cut.
Therefore, I think that if Mr. Schubert had paid attention to these matters, he would have had time to finish the symphony.
