Page Turners: The Unheralded Heros of Music

I've been watching a lot of live music performances over the web recently and for some reason have begun to obsess on page turners.

I worry. Are they going to make the turn in time? Will they accidentally turn more than one page? Will the page stay open or will it start to turn back? Will they distract the pianist from the music? Was that a nod to turn by the pianist or was he just moving to the music?

There is a lot to page turning that most people don't consider. It requires concentration, skill, and grace. People don't always appreciate that.

Yet, at the end of the performance, what happens? The pianist takes her bows, accepts flowers, tries to look pleased and humble at the same time. But what of the page turner? Discreetly they have vanished from the stage. I would say that they are quickly forgotten, but that would imply that the audience was even aware of their presence to begin with. They receive acknowledgement from neither the pianist nor the audience. In the flush of triumph, does the pianist even remember?

I suppose the job of the page turner can be a metaphor for our lives. Most of us quietly live out our existence, dutifully doing our job and fulfilling the expectations of friends and family. Then one day we are not there.

Perhaps we have retired, moved, or taken another job. A few months after leaving, someone asks, "I wonder how so-and-so is doing?" and a year later, "Whatever happened to, what was his name again?" and then, . . . nothing.

Perhaps we have died. Outside of a few close friends and family, our lack of existence may not be noticed. We must be content with a mention in someone's genealogy.

Charles de Gaulle once said, "The graveyards are full of indispensable people." The indispensable superstar pianist will one day fade into a one paragraph entry in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, in effect suffering the same fate as the forgotten page turner.

In the end, it is the same for all of us – we do our job then leave, hoping that along the way we have made a difference in someone's life. A few are lucky enough to earn a little applause and take a bow or two.

But we all deserve at least a little recognition. So let us now acknowledge the unheralded heros of music – page turners, the musical everyman. "Bravo!" Without you the performance could not have taken place. Take a bow for a job well done. Take a bow for all of us. "Bravissimo!"