A pollen in his throat

Today for one of the graduation ceremonies I was supposed to play the accompaniment of Gaudeamus Igitur academic anthem while my colleague baritone sang it. We did it yesterday and it went fine.

The start of the ceremony was at 10 AM and before Gaudeamus I had to play a processional. The famous "Pomp and Circumstance" by Elgar. At 9:58 AM my colleague still wasn't there. I wrote him a message asking, "Where are you?" He replied, "Be there in 2 minutes". I wrote half jokingly, "I will play very slowly".

Then 10 AM came and he wasn't here. The ceremony coordinator gave me a sign and I started to play the processional while looking at the organ balcony staircase all the time. When 8 measures where left, I thought to myself that this is getting serious. I wondered if I could sing Gaudeamus instead of him.

Then the last cadence came and I slowed down considerably and at the moment I played the last chord my colleague ran into the balcony.

Phew! He was here ready to sing. I made a short rest to change registration and gave the first chord. Then we started to perform. After the first two phrases he suddenly fell silent and I obviously kept playing because that's what you do in public.

He was out of breath from all that running. I think there was some hysterical laughter involved too.

Then little by little he caught his breath and by the 3rd verse everything was OK.

When we finished he sat down all embarrassed and said this was the first time it happened to him. I started to console him telling him various horror stories from my musical career.

I told him how I missed one graduation ceremony when practicing in the church while the ceremony was supposed to be in another hall. Or how one soprano sang her part one octave lower. Or how @laputis and I were walking in the woods when I received a phone call from the church asking where I was because my group of tourists were waiting for me to play organ recital for them. Or how a member of the university forgot to bring diplomas during Honorary Doctorate celebration and I played the organ for 5 or 8 minutes to fill the silence...

Then my colleague started joking about what kind of excuse he would give if somebody asked him what happened. I told him he should say, "you get what you pay for" meaning they paid him for the 3rd verse only. Then he thought about saying "I thought I was supposed to sing on the the beginning and then entire congregation should join in. That's what do in Italy, you know... Since nobody sang, I continued to sing by myself."

He settled with a very plausible excuse - while coming to the church a pollen had fallen into his throat and he needed to get a drink to clear his throat...

I bet he'll show up on time for the next ceremony...