Another double post from Cape Town, folks. The 38th International Horn Symposium ended last Friday evening. From the first notes (played by Jeff Snedeker, during his Sunday afternoon talk on the horn in jazz) until the last (played by the South Africa Army Band, Cape Town, during a performance which got much of the audience, including the immediate past president of the IHS and your correspondant, among many others, up on their feet and dancing in aisles) the Symposium was a smashing success. The music, the friendships, the city... It was great fun and tremendously rewarding.
It's no secret that a new South African organizing team had to step in at the last moment to ensure that the Symposium would happen at all. With the help of IHS Advisory Council members, they pulled it off in spectacular fashion. This symposium was smaller than those in the recent past. The cost, the distance, and the fact that, to many westerners, the idea of travelling to Africa is scary combined to keep the numbers down. Numbers proved not to be a problem. Andrew Joy might have said it best: Small is beautiful. (Actually, that's my free translation of the German phrase that he used: Klein, aber fein.) There was an intimacy about this meeting, a sense of commaraderie, that was much more pronounced than at others I've attended. Pros, students, and small town, small time semi-pros (such as myself) found themselves hanging out with each other and enjoying each other's company. And, as I mentioned, in a previous post, the music-making was always very good and often dazzling. A few random observations... Multiphonics--played in tune, musically, and in moving lines--would seem to have become a necessary part of the technique of anyone who aspires to play contemporary music, jazz, or, as in the case of Frank Lloyd, their own transcriptions of Bach tocattas and fugues. We heard a lot of multiphonics, and I'm here to tell you that they're not just a gimmick anymore. The three serious jazzers on the program--Snedeker, Marshall Sealy, and Adam Lesnick--all played large-throated, Krupe-wrap, F-Bflat double horns. The quality of playing offered by horn instructors from US universities was exceedingly high. Kudos and bravos to Nancy Joy (New Mexico State U), Michelle Strebelton (Florida State U), Snedeker (Central Washington U), and my fellow Virginians Abigail Pack (James Madison U) and Wally Easter (Virginia Tech). Most of the soloists played double horns. Triples were greatly outnumbered. Grace, elegance, and elan: Bruno Schneider. Probably the most lyrical reading of a Mozart concerto that I've ever heard. We heard at least one very fine new work that deserves to be published and a find a place in the standard repertoire: South African composer Michael Viljoen's "Ukuhlanganisa" for horn and piano. Contemporary, technically brilliant, and accessible. Gotta to to work. I can hear the siren call of the Cape Town libraries and archives. BTW, I've posted more photos from the symposium on one of my web galleries. Here's the link: http://gallery.leica-users.org/IHSCapeTown New photos are on page two. Click on the thumbnails to see larger images. --John J Mason Charlottesville, Virginia DEMOCRACY OF SPEED, a Photo Documentary Project: http://www.people.virginia.edu/~ds8s/john-m/john-m.html __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
