Culloden III and...a compliment?

For State Festival in 2007, our Wind Symphony played a piece called Culloden III (interesting sidenote about Culloden: it has a section in it that's called "Ye hag, ye've gone and kil't me!". Also, it produced this funny poem from Mr. Bowman: "My bonny lass, she doesn't smell. She bakes good bread, and is really good to me". Okay, it was really funny at the time).

ANYway, there is a part in Culloden where the oboe and Eb clarinet get to play a little duet (is it just me, or did that rhyme?). Of course, I got the privilege of playing the Eb clarinet. Because I love having my own little solos and duets and such.

Now, the Eb clarinet I had to play on was weird. It was old, the keys were bent funny and pads were falling off right and left, and the reeds were old and hard and just lame. But let's be honest: it wasn't all the clarinet's fault. I just wasn't very good at playing that baby clarinet.

Anyway, we went to state, played our song, Matt and I played our duet, and I thought it went fairly well. You know, it was okay.

A week or two later in band, we were listening to the tapes of the judges listening to and critiquing our performance. I was nervous to hear what the judge had to say about our little gem of a duet. We got to that part of the music. Matt and I held our breath, waiting to hear what the judge would say. Finally...

"Well...yeah, that's good. You're supposed to sound like bagpipes there. So you're supposed to sound out of tune. Good job!"

Uh...thank you?