> I have recently started giving horn lessons to my fiancé (that could be > a thread in itself: good idea or bad idea?). We're now finding that it > would be nice to have a second horn in the house since I am often out > with mine leaving nothing for her to practice with. She came across a > used double horn in a pawn shop that appears to be an "Oxford" > distributed by Boosey & Hawkes. Does anybody on this list know anything > about this horn? Unfortunately I haven't had time to check it out > myself so I thought I'd try to get some background information about it > before I do. Any comments or information would be welcome. Thanks in > advance. > > -Ted. >
B&H themselves never manufactured their rotary valved horns. They were made either by Hoyer/B&S in GDR under the Schneider brand (better), Amati/Cerveny under the LaFleur brand (student level), or Lidl (better). B&H, or really their alter ego of Besson, used the Oxford brand to designate their 2nd level student line. Besson New Standard was the pro-line. Westminster was the student line (with some extremely effective small tenor trombones). Oxford was the less ambitious student line. I have met some euphoniums with extremely interesting intonation patterns. The 4th partial very flat and the 6th very sharp. Making the supposed fifth between them approach a minor sixth. Then there were the Czech made LaFleur and Markis lines to meet discount demands. I don't write this to deter you from a buying of the instrument in question, but I would not only look out sharply for technical shortcomings and check the intonation very meticulously. I also would evaluate, whether that Oxford horn is destined to further or to hold back the horn affinities of your fiancé. When I retired, I set out the goal to read fairly in-depth literature on all instruments related to classical music. One statement in the violin book still stands out: A really good violin player can make an average violin sound like a Stradivarius. A beginning violin student sounds much better on a Stradivarius, than on an average instrument. The conclusion, that we should give all beginning students a Stradivarius is not realistic, but we still should give students good instruments. Klaus _______________________________________________ post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] unsubscribe or set options at http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
