Council of Musicians, Instrument-Makers, & Choristers

The Council of Musicians, Instrument-Makers, & Choristers

The Council of Musicians, Instrument-Makers, & Choristers is a guild in Waterdeep that caters to entertainers and those who fashion musical instruments. Commonly known as just the Musician's Guild, it is one of the more prominent guilds of the city

Members

Guild membership costs 30 gp, with annual dues of 25 gp for full members and 15 gp for apprentices. To become a full member, one has to be considered a skilled and accomplished artisan in their field.
Under the auspices of the guild are the majority of licensed and respectable entertainers in Waterdeep, such as musicians, singers, acrobats, jugglers, jesters, mimes, and other street performers. Although a significant number of non-guild entertainers (including amateurs and travelling bards and shows) work in Waterdeep, and do so freely, the Council takes the greatest slice of the professional entertainment industry for the city and upper classes. Therefore, an entertainer seeking to earn real coin needs guild membership to reach wealthy patrons and clients. Thus, owing to the dominance of the city's guilds, the majority of bards residing in Waterdeep are members of the Council - even if they themselves are not already legendary minstrels. The non-musical performers, namely the acrobats, mimes, jesters, jugglers, and other street performers in the city are under the Council's control because they are not large enough as a group to warrant their own guild or union, nor quite fit into any other. Not liking how the Council handled their trade, they have reacted in different ways over the years, typically ignoring Council wishes or not even becoming members. Thus, the majority of acrobats and non-musical performers are not guild members. Meanwhile, those jesters who are in the guild established the satirical Ancient and Revered Order of Merrymakers.
Guild members have a reputation for quality, and thus can charge high fees for their services: a performer typically charges 6 gp a day, while an instrument-maker charges on average 1 gp a day for however many days it takes to craft a custom instrument. Bards and musically inclined adventurers can register at Halambar's Lute Shop.

Attitudes

Rather than being self-important and demanding divas, the greatest Waterdhavian musicians are true professionals and the Council of Musicians, Instrument-Makers, & Choristers exemplify this view. They take pride in providing a client with precisely what is required and performing it as well as possible.

Activities

Guild musicians frequently perform at private parties, events, weddings, and other ceremonies. They also commonly give concerts to showcase their talents and their own works. These are generally hosted and sponsored by rich citizens, who find it a popular hobby. After 1368 DR, many were held in the amphitheater of New Olamn. The Council also hosts pageants for the city.
Regularly, outsiders (particularly noble dilettantes) come to guild musicians with requests to set their poetry to music or even perform tunes or lyrics they've written themselves. Although the pay is good, quite often, they are awful. However, in keeping with their practice of giving the client what they want, a guild musician will never alter any work without permission - this would be seen as dishonest. Instead, they might embellish to make it sound better or give a private preview performance for the client to approve or make changes. Apprentices who keep making rash efforts to improve a work remain apprentices. Guild musicians are also available to tutor students and amateurs.
Of the instrument-maker members of the Council, some have reputations that stretch across Faerûn for fashioning musical instruments of extraordinary quality. Prime among these are guild craftsmen of the Crommor noble family. Guild instrument-makers work for both individuals and for the city; they have a standing contract with the Lords of Waterdeep to supply signal-horns (a.k.a. battle-trumpets or war-horns) for the City Guard. The Council inspects and approves of all of the musical instruments sold through the Aurora's Emporium chain. 
In addition, the Council gathers and disseminates news and information about music and other forms of entertainment from around Faerûn. This usually comes from itinerant bards who can enjoy the hospitality of the House of Song.

Leadership

The guildmaster is titled Master Musician. Elections for Master Musician are held approximately every seven years, with candidates nominated only from among guild members. In successive ballots, the least popular candidates are eliminated until only one candidate remains to be chosen as Master Musician.
Below them is the Voice of the Council, who serve as the primary contact with outsiders and as the second-in-command to the guildmaster, and take the Master Musician's place (though not their title) if they die in office. The Voice of the Council remains as interim guildmaster until the next time for an election, even if it is several years away. Then, they can either run in the election or decline to contest it.
The Master Musician and the Voice of the Council are assisted by a council of twelve Assistant Guild Masters. They manage the everyday matters of teaching, overseeing instrument making, and scheduling performances around the city, as well as tutoring mimes, jesters, and other street performers. An assorted group, some Assistants put in the bare minimum effort while focusing on their own interests, while others wait to take power themselves and develop the guild along their own lines.
Circa 1301 DR, Kriios Halambar was elected Master Musician and retained his position in every election he was in from then. Over the years, he \had a half-dozen or so assistants and would-be replacements, but outlived them all - even singing at their funerals. Among the Assistant Guild Masters, some, like Flugel Ratanion around 1357 DR, privately fumed about the entrenched "old guard" (represented by Halambar) repressing new ideas. By 1357 DR, Maxeene Rhiosann served as Lady Voice of the Council and continued in this role through 1368 DR. When Kriios finally died during his eleventh term, in the early 1370s DR, Maxeene filled his place as interim Master Musician until the next election in 1377 DR.

Base of Operations

The main guildhall of the Council of Musicians, Instrument-Makers, & Choristers is the House of Song, which of course stands in the Trades Ward with many other guilds. It is located on the site of Olamn, the old bardic college of Waterdeep centuries before.

Possessions

The official livery of the guild includes a scarlet jacket with slashed sleeves of white and purple; a long cloak of deep green; and a hat of matching dark green with white and purple plumes.

Type

Guild, Professional