Message text written by The Horn List >I took Farkas' advice quite literally...I would blast, blat, honk, whatever adjective you choose to apply, when working out in the basement.<
Dear All Sorry - I have probably bored you all with this before but, it reminds me of a story told by the late Bob Aspden (2nd - latterly 4th - horn of what was then called the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra in Manchester). In the mid 1930s, Bob was a student of Otto Paersch at the Royal Manchester College of Music. He was always first on Paersch's list for the day and his lesson started at 8.30 am (most modern students have not crawled out of their pits at that time!) Paersch;s teaching room was in the basement, right under the office of R.J. Forbes - the principal - a rather fastidious man who could not stand loud brass playing. One day, Bob was playing an Oscar Franz Concert study and could not produce anything like the amount of volume that Paersch wanted. Finally, Paersch snatched the horn from him and proceeded to blast his way through the study. As he finished, angry footsteps were heard descending the stairs outside. Paersch quickly thrust the horn back into Bob's hands and the door opened. It was Forbes - "good morning Mr Paersch, please tell that student not to play so loudly!" Paersch (a noted practical joker) assumed a visage of the utmost seriousness - "yes Robert, how many times must I tell you - don't play so loud!" British listers can testify that, when we play our National Anthem, it is customary for the horns to play what we used to call 'the falling seventh' very loudly against the third bar from the end. Those old pupils of Paersch's who were still around in the 60s and early 70s used to call this the 'Moss Side ending'. Moss Side is an inner city area of Manchester and I often wonder if that term came from Paersch - "you could have heard it over in Moss Side". Any ideas Lawrence? Regards Paul A. Kampen (W. Yorks UK) _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
