For what it is worth, in my school days of yore, I played the Brahms trio with a violinist who held the fiddle "backwards", with his hands reversed, fingering with his right hand. He is still quite active on the free-lance scene in the city here and it seems not to have too seriously hampered his opportunities to perform. On the other hand, I wouldn't say that it didn't present certain difficulties, mostly related to seating issues, not unlike those posed in this thread already. In playing the Brahms, we had to sit next to each other, facing the pianist, to avoid having either player pointing the sound producing end of their instrument away from the audience. It worked out well and only took a short time to acclimate to. I seem to recall him sitting without a stand partner in the orchestra at school, though there may have also been other accommodations that were made that I can't recall. The bottom line was that he was and is a damn fine player. I would say that the obstacles would have seemed greater if his playing was only mediocre and this would probably follow suit for a horn player that exhibits a similar anomalous characteristic.
Peter Hirsch _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
