He never can get close to the ideal musician. Playing as a professional horn player is a bigger matter than you might be able to imagine. It is not a matter of just play a few years - but fall a burden to the section, as soon as life takes his grip (family, financial, family trouble, a divorce, etc., asshole conductors, bad colleagues). Then the section has to get rid of you, but how. You will ruin the section.
Playing in the section (I speak about high class orchestras) is not a matter of writing all into the part, ever nuance, practice endless to get things into your lips because of the embouchure difficulties. No, absolutely no. Things must work spontaneously, in an anticipational way, but how, if you are occupied with your embouchure, your tone production obstacles, articulation, etc. As the audience has become very stupid these days, special in areas where classical concerts are rare (you understood ?), in areas where general music education is at bottom level, you might be right, that as long as the audience like it, you get the job. But permanently working in a big full time symphony is another "glass of beer". And the audition is not a thing of playing your text without missing a note. This assumption is obsolete. You are requested to make music. MUSIC, not just reproducing black dots on white paper more or less good, music is more. Read my last letter again carefully. Try to understand it. But one question: have you ever played in a big high class symphony ? You would understand what I try to explain. See the example of the phantastic heroe tenor singer. But he is just 5 1/2 feet. Can you hire him for the title role in Siegfried ??? The audience would starting laughing, special when he encounters the 6 feet + Bruennhilde of 150 pounds. His voice will not matter then. If he wears high heels, he would walk on stage quite comical & degrade to a caricature of the role. But he might be very good as recording artist. A horn player with many physical obstacles would make a good figure in a regional, perhaps semi professional symphony, but not in the high class, where the wind blows that sharp, that nobody has the time to permanently train to master the obstacles. But there might be exceptions from the rules, off course, but very, very, very rare. Question: why is it that hard to rethink the decision to study a particular instrument if the preconditions are anything other than ideal ??? Is that stubbornness or psychology or what else ? Or is it just vision ? Or Messianism (you have a lot of these people, we also getting more & more of them) ? The not ideal conditioned horn player does not ruin the section, but diminish the potentials of the others in the section & even of the first, as he or she can never adapt herself or himself to spontaneous expressions. I know what I am speaking about (it is not related to the thick lip people), as I have played with such players often. And believe me, it is a different thing for a leader, having a second player on his side, who has also not to invest so much to master any embouchure problem and can react together with me in a spontaneous action. Then playing the horn is great fun. Believe me also, an audition jury can distinguish between ideal players & players who are LEARNED only. We can distinguish that by just listening. May-be, our ears are better trained. Be assured, the conductors ears are specialized to that, even the ears of completely deaf conductors. ========================================================== -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, October 17, 2003 9:06 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Hornlist] something to think HR Professor Pizka and others, While you continually make this point about some people are not suited for some things, I feel that you go about it in the wrong fashion. It seems that your take on the matter is that if someone tries to make it in the world of horn playing, who does not have an ideal tongue, or lips, etc. then he is out to "ruin" the profession. Is there idealism in music? Of course. Idealistically Beethoven would not have become deaf. Yet, almost every conductor still ends their tenure with an orchestra with his Ninth symphony. Audiences still love it. If a hornist with thick lips or an imperfect embouchure can play the music, no matter what Hans Pizka thinks is the definition of "music," and the audience enjoys it, they will get hired. Even if this person has to work slightly harder than the posterboy hornist, but can play, what's to stop him from trying? Biased orchestral hornists who feel that only their way is right; the same people that will only let their section play a Conn 8D, or an Alexander, or a Paxman. While there is constant dissuasion to not letting the irregulars try, there seems to be no reasoning for it. There is reasoning for why they may not make it, whether it is biases or that the person simply isn't good enough, but there is no reasoning why this person may not try. While you say that you are not trying to discriminate, in effect, you are. Keep more of an opened mind, and maybe keep your eyes closed from that guy with the thick lips playing a Holton really well. While practice may never make him perfect, he can get just about as close as anyone else. Michael Scheimer, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 2003 Interlochen Arts Camp Concert Band, 2002, 2003 PMEA Honors Band and 2003 District Orchestra Founding co-member of Fünf Brass Quintet _______________________________________________ post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] set your options at http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/hans.pizka%40t-online.de _______________________________________________ post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] set your options at http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
