I never heard this story about Mason, directly or personally but if it came from Fred Hinger, there must be truth in it. In the old days of recording the orchestra would play until someone clammed, not necessarily a horn player. If the conductor didn't hear it, you, as a player were supposed to "confess" by raising your hand. If the conductor didn't see you and stop, yelling or more hands going up around the "perp" would ensue. Kicking over a stand might be a last resort and I remember one Philly session when I was there when John DeLancie, the principal oboist, slammed a book on the floor to get Ormandy's attention to stop the orchestra. When I was in the orchestra, Mason was the personnel manager and had to pay his attention beyond playing to keeping a time log. He did "confess" from time to time, though, just like everyone else. Recordings were a cut and paste affair in the days of analog tape. You'd play until a clam, stop, back up and continue. There might be a few patches after the piece or movement was finished. Rarely did you play straight through without a clam stop. Since the late 80's with the advent of digital recording you generally play through the piece several times. If the producer/conductor/engineer feel that they don't have everything they need at that point, a few patches might be done or another whole run through. They generally pick the best overall performance and edit it from the other takes. Once in a while, something goes great and needs no editing. This happened in MN when we recorded "Don Juan" with Eiji Oue. We ran it down, everyone was happy, and the release is truly "live and unedited." The plus side now is "cleaner" technical product. The negative side is that in the old days, you needed a damn fine group of musicians to make decent recordings. Now, any bunch of hacks can get a "great" recording given enough time (and money). What this has done, along with other changes in the business (most notably the lack of full time music directors with any kind of vision beyond their own jet-set careers) is to destroy the individuality of orchestras, worldwide. Personally, I mourn the loss of regional and international "sounds" and lament the generic results attained in the recording industry today. It's all about product now, not music, IMHO. I definitely miss performers such as Lucien Thevet, Gottfried von Freiberg, Domenico Ceccarossi, Georges Barbeteau, Aubrey and Dennis Brain, Alan Civil, Vitaly Buyanovsky, and of course, Mason Jones! It is a continuing delight (and education) for me, though, to hear Hermann Baumann perform when he comes to KBHC! I encourage all serious horn players to get old recordings of both soloists and orchestras and study these styles and learn why they played the way they did. I feel that there is now a certain emotional element missing from most new recordings and you can't be sure of the performers' technical skills, either, sue to the editing capabilities in our digital age. It's not quite sampled midi yet but it seems to get closer to that all the time. When is the last time you heard live musicians on a jingle? I will say, though, that the Vienna Philharmonic has retained it's individuality better than any other, for some very obvious reasons such as the Vienna horns and oboes. The most obvious, though, is the dogged determination of its musicians to maintain their traditions of playing. What other orchestra places the snare drummer in the clarinet section and then the guy plays his part like he's in a chamber group in regard to balance? NO ONE! Ah, don't get me started! When I want to listen to symphonic music, I listen to re-issues of 78's and LP's of the likes of Stokowski, Bruno Walter, Bernstein, Toscanini, Klemperer, von Karajan, Cluytens, etc. When I want to listen to horn soloists from a "student" perspective these days, I dig out my recordings of Hermann, Dennis and Mason, first. I do like this idea now that the LSO and Berlin are doing in offering recordings of live performances both in the hall and on line. It is difficult to tell them apart on recordings, though, these days. I always liked, despite the obvious stress, that in MN we went out live on MPR every Friday night though I think there was some editing done for the national re-broadcasts on NPR by using tapes of the other performances of the week. I would hope that serious students who perhaps can't attend live orchestra concerts on a regular basis would avail themselves the opportunity to hear recorded live performances, though. There really is no substitute for hearing an orchestra live, though, especially in its home venue. But, then again, I may be just another "Ol' Faht" at this point and "youngins" know best. I report, you decide! KB In a message dated 2/20/2009 1:00:59 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, horn-requ...@music.memphis.edu writes:
date: Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:07:12 -0500 from: "Joe Scarpelli" <joescarpe...@earthlink.net> subject: RE: [Hornlist] Mason Jones Passes I would like to relay a story I heard from Fred Hinger who was a percussionist in Philly during Mr. Jones' tenure. I met Fred when he was at the Met circa 1968 while he was residing in an apartment building where I worked just after High School. Here it goes: When they were recording, if Mason heard something he didn't like in the Horn section, he would kick over his stand which would of course force them to start over. It wasn't clear if this was a onetime occurrence or multiple. Kendall perhaps you validate this story. I hope it is true. I loved it as it you can see it stayed with me for 40 years. Joe **************Need a job? Find an employment agency near you. (http://yellowpages.aol.com/search?query=employment_agencies&ncid=emlcntusyelp00000003) _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
