Hello Rachel and others, Jim Winter was a man of a vast knowledge not only regarding the horn. It was a great pleasure talking with him. I can say that I was most happy to have Jim Winter as guest in my house many years ago (1989). I miss this distinguished professor very much.
To the wagnertubas: They are not out of tune but seem to be so - for our regular embouchure. We are not used to play with an open bell. That is the most severe problem when playing Wagner tuba. There are a lot of alternate fingerings helping a lot. The holding position is most important too. Most set it on the left leg or between the legs instead holding it infront of them freely, so the leadpipe points to the lips like playing the trumpet. This certain posture will give you a better feeling for the instruments characteristics & you can play it like you play the horn. It is most important, exploring the position of the several pitches, as they are different to the horn in several ways - AND store these positions in your memory. Then it is most necessary to know which note of a chord is the most prominent (it shifts around in the quartet, e.g. in Elektra it will shift from chord to chord to another player). If this is known to the players, it will work. It is more a matter of balance than intonation. Our ears are not used too, to have the sound so near. This disturbs further. And one has to know the pieces very well, to come in with the best intonated pitch. If players shift around with their sound while playing together with others, it results in an terrible howling, we all do not want. So, even here, where we employ the Wagnertubas a lot, we do a special rehearsal one hour before every performance, even we had an orchestra rehearsal the same morning. We do it, to get used to the wagnertuba quartet sound everytime. Kindest greetings Hans ============================================================ ===================== -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of harveycor Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 6:01 AM To: horn@music.memphis.edu Subject: [Hornlist] Re: Jim Winter >from: Steve Tarter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >I have just heard that the horn world has lost another great >statesman...<snipt> James Winter (a former teacher, mentor and >friend<snipt> Hornfolks: Jim's kindly intervention is one big reason I still play horn today. He was playing in the Fresno Philharmonic when they did Bruckner 8. I had been hired in to sub on one of the extra horn/Wagner tuba parts and was given an extra mouthpiece for the tuba in order to facilitate swaps between the two. We held extra tuben rehearsals before every single full orchestra set including the dress and concert for purposes of tuning the instruments (which were horrifically out of tune to begin with). After just one week of this, my chops gave out for no discernable reason. I had no idea that part of this was due to the fact the mouthpieces had different rim sizes. Other byplays in the tuben section compounded difficulties. After a particularly rough rehearsal where nothing seemed to go right, Jim followed me backstage as he had noticed the entire tuben section was having severe problems close to concert time. He concluded that I was having some serious trouble with my chops after I described the difficulties and very kindly offered me lessons at his home to attempt to diagnose and remedy the problem. It only took him about 5 minutes to inform me that the mouthpieces were different. In addition, I had been unconsciously 'dropping my jaw'; thereby increasing the aperture of my embouchure to a point where generating a buzz was almost impossible without using heavy pressure (not at all in my book). After one hour of lesson and about two days of practicing on some particular etudes (as well as giving up one of the mouthpieces) and I was as good as new. We all recognize Jim as an outstanding hornist in his own right as well as an excellent teacher. I also recognize him as one of the kindest people I have had the privilege to work with. I thanked Jim before, many years back on this very list-and I shall do so again for the last time. Jim, you will be sorely missed. Rachel Harvey _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/hans%40pizka. de _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
