Message text written by The Horn List >Cousins in his funny book "On Playing the Horn" suggests a small Drink before Playing. I'm not sure that in the long Time, that is very clever, though! <
Dear All 'Farky' Cousins (now 86 years young) may be what some people would call an 'English eccentric' (from a family of high ranking clergymen) but he is also a man of phenomenal intelligence, witty, erudite, highly literate and highly educated. He makes no bones about the fact that nerves finished his playing career. However, I do not think that his comment about 'a little something' should be taken too seriously. In my days as a Health and Safety Representative - going to conferences, courses, reading and writing reports etc., I was once taken very seriously to task by a VERY famous clarinet player (long since retired). He waxed lyrical about the use of prescription drugs to combat nerves (propranolol, inderal, beta blockers - whatever you like to call them). He reeled off a list of famous orchestral players of the 30s and 40s (people still well known to historians of orchestras) saying "they could only play in front of an audience if they were drunk - blind drunk! - and they played well" Whether this is true or not I am not qualified to say. But I know that there are some orchestras over here where the use of beta blockers is rife and this has led to disquiet from some quarters who opine that "you can't go for a pint before the show, but it is OK to go on full of potentially dangerous drugs!" Perhaps Farquharson Cousins should have the last word - I once hear him say that "you have got to get into the right frame of mind; if Oberon is coming up, either you panic or you say - Oberon, lovely Oberon!" And the way that he said "Oberon, lovely Oberon" made it clear that all those Oberons which he must have played in the 50s and 60s were a very precious memory to him. Cheers Paul A. Kampen - 4th horn, Orchestra of Opera North (Leeds UK) _______________________________________________ post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] set your options at http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
