OK, since I'm the one who knows him the best, after all, and he was and
still is in a way, MY TEACHER, I can tell you what little I know about his
background. I can only surmise some of this, and other stuff is factual, to
the
best of my memory but please don't mistake any of this for the absolute truth
on the subject. As to Prof. G.'s name, he does know German, some English and
Yiddish to a degree, as well as a smattering of French, Italian, Spanish,
Latin, Chinese, Japanese and Texan, but I think it was probably maybe
mispelled
by the INS clerk at Ellis Island when he immigrated. Also, he worked his
first gigs in the US playing horn and reciting poetry, a la Hindemith Althorn
Sonate but with Bongo drums added during the poetry, at Greenwich Village
coffee shops in the late 40's-early 50's. He might have changed it then to a
more
easly remembered stage name so that the audience members would have some
reason to return.
A veritable, authentic, legendary performer and teacher of the horn, Prof.
Ignaz Manfred
Gestopftmitscheist was born at a very early age in the village of
Schplittenotendorf am Oede, Germany, which is a suburb of Bad Lippstadt
which is near
Wein am Rhine. His mother, Helga Swarzhertzschlutt Gestopftmitscheist was
well
known in the musical circles of the area and had a special place in her
heart for the many
horn players she knew. She was renowned for her kindnesses to all of them,
especially
those who were touring through the area. This has caused some confusion in
regard to the
identity of Iggy’s father as to whether it might have been Oscar Franz,
Franz Strauss,
Franz Oscar, Oscar Strauss or the immortal Otto Fisch, who was to be the
professor’s
horn teacher at the Hochschule fur Musik und Bierbrauen und Wurstmachen von
Bad
Lippstadt. The professor claims his father was probably Oscar Franz but if
you ever
heard him play, you would realize that it is probably Otto Fisch as the
stylistic similarities
of tone production, musicality and embouchure are more akin to genetic
mutation than
one of educational background and musical traditions passed on from teacher
to student,
though it has been said that Prof. G. had surpassed his teacher in his
abilities to miss
notes both equally well from above and below as well as being able to play
most of the
horn solos beautifully with all of the wrong fingerings.
Iggy began his musical studies at the age of 3 when he started lessons on
the double bass.
He found the bass to be quite difficult due to its size and soon switched to
violin and said
“The violin is a very easy instrument compared to the double bass because it
is so much
smaller. I had no trouble at all with the violin: just the bow!” He then
took up piano but
found that to be too cumbersome to transport back and forth to his school
for rehearsals
as he had become the accompanist for the Kinderchor. It was a fateful day
for the horn
world when his mother took him to a performance of the Staatsoper Bad
Lippstadt and he
first heard the sounds of Otto Fisch performing the famous offstage call
from Richard
Wanker’s opera, Siegfried und Godzilla, and little Iggy begged for a horn
and lessons
from the master. As fate had it, the very next day, the famous touring
virtuoso of the
time, Franz Oscar, who was a houseguest that night forgot his horn as he ran
for the train
that morning so Iggy got it out of the case and tried his first notes. It
was immediatly apparent that he had a “special gift” as the sounds were the
most unique ever heard in a household renowned for its “horniness!” Ignaz
auditioned for Prof. Fisch the next day and was immediately accepted at the
Hochschule.
Prof. Fisch had many students but Iggy was the only one to survive his
rigorous,
disciplined training in that all the others finally quit playing after years
of study of
Kopprasch No. 1. Iggy did not tire in his relentless pursuit of perfection
of this etude
over his 15 years of study at the Hochschule and he continues that pursuit
to this day! He
did finally graduate and found employment, winning an audition for the great
conductor
Fritz von Errantschtich and served as Principal 8th horn and Principal 4th
Wagner Tuber of the Schplittenotendorf am Oedland Staatsoper und
Philharmoniker until immigrating to the USA at the end of WWII. He was still
being
pursued by the Allies to stand trial at Nuremburg (not for his politics but
for
his horn playing) so he lived underground in Greenwich Village in NYC until
the
statute of limitations ran out on his crimes against humanity. He then
moved to Exit 2 and pursued a free-lance horn career in South Jersey.
Professor
G. as he liked to be called, was Principal, or Solo Horn as he insisted, of
the Mullica Hill Opera, Fourth Horn of the Paulsboro Chamber Orchestra and he
was and still is Assistant Associate Principal Mellophone of the NJ Turnpike
Authority Drum and Bugle Corps, "The Phantom Lane Changers" . He had a studio
in a room upstairs at Margie's Truck Stop, Motel and Showers and he was part
owner of a bar next door called The Grease Spot where he made and sold his
own beer and smoked his own sausage and bar-b-que. This place was quite
successful because of its location, close to both exits from the highways (NJ
Turnpike and US 130, now I 295) and it was the first stop for the truckers
headed
north and the cigarette smugglers headed from North Carolina to New York
City as there was a State Police Barracks next door where they could take care
of their bribes for their overweight loads and untaxed smokes.
Prof. G. taught many young students and gave us all the training we needed
to become
good horn players: breath control and tone production (long tones); rhythm,
articulation
and phrasing (Kopprasch, always memorized); solo repertoire (Mozart 2, 3, 4,
Concert Rondo and Richard Strauss Concerti, memorized); orchestral excerpts
(Pottag Books, memorized); transposition (we had to learn everything in E
flat horn); Solfege (always in E flat); hand-stopping (also on Wagner Tuba)
correct embouchure development ("Press and Smile! Press and Smile" he would
keep
repeating!); dealing with conductors; marksmanship; swearing; smoking;
drinking. He was a great, great teacher! I would have never gotten into
Curtis
without his training. At my audition, I had played a beautiful Mozart Three
and then Mr. Jones asked to hear the Tchaikovsky Fifth solo. He got so mad at
my wrong dynamics and articulations (I had it memorized from the Pottag
book) he did not notice that I was playing it in E flat. He then wanted to
hear
all three parts from the Eroica trio and the audition was over. He accepted
me as his student.
Prof. G. plays mostly on a custom made Sansone 6 valve single B flat horn.
It is the standard 5 valve in silver plated brass with one valve added (two
pinkie levers) that lead to a second bell that points forward. This bell is a
standard Allied Music Supply replacement alto horn bell and it is spray
painted silver to match the rest of the instrument. He had this horn built to
solve what he calls "the mellophone problem." You know, the difficulties we
all have with switching back and forth between instruments. His ingenious
solution is to combine the two instruments into one! Fantastic! His
mouthpiece
is a custom copy an old Fisch PDC (Pretty Deep Cup) that was made by Bob
Schlumpf, Margie's husband, who ran the garage at the truck stop. He did it
on
his brake turning lathe and used an old GMC diesel truck engine piston rod
for stock. It is chrome plated. Prof. G. used the second bell to deal with
conductors or as he described, "putting dah schtoopid hundfleischkopfs to
flight". I once saw him do this in a rehearsal of Cosi fan tutte at the
Mullica
Hill Opera. The maestro, who was Hungarian, kept telling Prof. G. he was
playing too loud. The Prof. was very patient until the Rondo of the Second
Act
(No. 25) in which he played everything fortissimo on the second bell (also
in E flat, of course, instead of E horn, which I don't think the conductor
noticed). At the end of that piece, the conductor screamed that they would
take
a break, then collapsed and died on the podium. The whole orchestra cheered
and I learned a most valuable lesson about professionalism.
The Prof.'s horn also solved the great problem of what to play on the
marching field as all he had to do was crank in the sixth valve and the
sound went
forward just like a mellophone. This freed up his brain to concentrate on
the afterbeats
and not be distracted by having to think about all those confusing,
different, E flat
mellophone fingerings as well as having the luxury of using his beloved
Fisch PDC
mouthpiece at all times. He is very respected by his colleagues in the
"Phantom Lane Changers" not only for his musical artistry but also for his
precise, teutonic marching ability and everyone in the corps learned to be a
great
marcher "under the influence" of Prof. G.
Prof. G. was a most conscientious teacher and cared a great deal about his
students. He
fostered camaraderie and mutual respect amongst all of us and we all had
some successes
with our horn playing. My freshman year at Exit Two Regional High School,
five of his
students, including myself, auditioned and won the five positions in the All
South Jersey
High School Band: Jeff Longton, 1st; Dick Muffelstone, 2nd; Ted Kranzhammer,
3rd; me on 4th; Vinnie Cannoli, Asst. 1st. We played really great at the
concert and we even stood up to play the horn soli in the trio of The Klaxon,
by Henry Fillmore! The next year, four of us
were selected to the All New Jersey High School Orchestra! What an honor!
This had
never happened before. In all of history to that time, there had been only
one player from
South Jersey who had made All State Orchestra, a violist from Glassboro.
Now, four
horns! Half the section! Dick made 2nd, Ted 3rd, Jeff 5th and I made 8th.
Vinnie didn't
audition as he had dropped out of high school that year. You can imagine
the pride in us
as we drove together up to Newark on the turnpike for the first rehearsal.
The
conversation was of horns, music, self confidence and friendship. We played
beautifully
during that rehearsal but all four of us were asked to resign at its
conclusion by the
conductor. Why? Because we had played everything in E flat. This was not
a problem at
band the year before, since all the parts were in E flat.
Though I liked all the guys in our section, Vinnie Cannoli and I became best
friends
during my freshman year. He was OK on the horn but he had greater talents
in other
areas. He was real good with cars. Vinnie could strip and part-out a car
faster than most
guys could just get the wheels off. With Vinnie around, you didn't have to
steal the car
first and take it to the chop shop. He would just dismantle it like magic
right on the
street. It would just kind of vanish into thin air right before your eyes.
We timed him
once. He stripped, parted out and sold all the parts of a '57 Ford Fairlane
in just under an
hour. Incredible!
Vinnie's family was one of the most prominent in Exit Two as his folks, Sal
and Mary,
were very successful in business as they owned the landfill. Vinnie had an
older sister,
Angie, who was extremely attractive. She had dropped out of school her
junior year to
become a toll collector at the Delaware Memorial Bridge. She liked the job
because she
said it gave her the opportunity to meet a lot of cute guys. She worked the
truck lane and
if you went through her lane and she knew you, she wouldn't collect the
toll. This saved
me a lot of money a few years later when I was a freshman at Curtis as I was
making very
frequent trips to Baltimore to get my horn repaired by Walter Lawson at his
old shop on
Winters Lane. You see, Mr. Jones, as was his method with all the first-year
students, had
assigned me the Kopprasch Etudes and I was having a lot of trouble
re-learning them in F
as I had them memorized in E flat. I had a lot of bad lessons and I would
sometimes get
so frustrated when I was practicing those Kopprasch that I would slam my
horn on the
floor or throw it against the wall resulting in a lot of damage. Thank God
I don't do that
sort of thing, anymore!
Sal Cannoli had a younger brother named Guido who was a Jesuit Priest and
was the
reverend at Our Lady of the Oil Refineries Church in Exit Two. He was very
active in
community service as well and highly respected by everyone. He was known by
all, very
affectionately, as Holy Cannoli. Wanting to have good music at the church
and give us
an opportunity to perform, he asked Prof. G. if he would bring his students
and play the
St. Hubert's Mass on St. Hubert's Day. We all practiced our parts and went
to the
rehearsal well prepared. Prof. G. was playing1st horn and leading the
ensemble as well
because the Minister of Music refused to conduct for obvious reasons when he
heard that
Prof. G. was going to play. We had one main group of players and an
antiphonal quartet
in the back of the balcony of the church. We had the usual ensemble
problems because of
the distance but by the end of the rehearsal, it sounded quite fine. During
the service,
though, the echo quartet kept getting behind and things were not going well.
Finally, as a
last resort, Prof. G. cranked in the 6th valve and was playing everything on
the second
bell thinking that the echo quartet would hear him better and get it
together. Luckily, it
wasn't aimed at anybody, directly, but the sound did peel some paint, broke
all the stained
glass windows and boiled the holy water. Word got out about this and we
were never
asked to do any more church jobs.
(Continued)
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