<p>GH’s comments about the way musicians are treated reminds of the greatest story of this (and someone actually sympathetic to the musicians). Joseph Haydn was the court composer to Count Esterhazy, and he and the musicians were at the count’s summer palace, and their stay there dragged on and on (story I heard was the count was throwing some incredible parties and just didn’t want to stop…). The musicians were away from their families and were anxious to get home, but of course they were pretty much servants. Haydn was sympathetic, and he wrote the Farewell Symphony, which by the end of it has a single musician left on stage, as the musicians douse their lights (candles in his day) and leave the stage during the last movement. Apparently Esterhazy got the idea, and the musicians were shortly headed home:)</p>