Quotes
"Next time you’re at the symphony, imagine the hornists as darts players, having to throw bull’s-eyes every 20 seconds for 45 minutes. Then imagine the conductor standing next to the dart board, silently urging the player to throw each dart as gently as possible, but still demanding that the bull’s-eye be hit every time." - Mark Almond, San Francisco Symphony​​
"Actually you never eyeball a horn player. That’s one of the real rules. You just don’t. They’re stuntmen. You don’t eyeball stuntmen just before they’re about to go near death." - Sir Simon Rattle
A reporter once asked the question of the great violinist Jascha Heifetz: “Mr. Heifetz, how much does luck have to do with the perfection of your performance?”
Heifetz: “You know, it’s funny, the more I practice, the luckier I get.”
"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner
"Who is this Beethoven? His name is not known to us. Of course, Punto is very well known." Written by a Hungarian critic after a performance in Pest of Beethoven's Horn Sonata in F major, Op. 17.
"I played French horn, and I certainly do miss it. I miss it. I wish I had the time to keep up with it. It's like exercising: You have to keep it up, especially the muscles in your lips to deal with the French horn.
"I love the French horn." - Vanessa Williams
"When I went to college, I thought I was going to become a professional musician. I was a French horn player, so I went to Yale to study with a very unusual French horn player." - Joshua Prince-Ramus
"The Violins waltzed. The Cellos and Basses provided accompaniment. The Violas mourned their fate, while the Concertmaster showed off. The Flutes did bird imitations ... repeatedly, and the reed instruments had the good taste to admire my jacket. The Trumpets held a parade in honor of our great nation, while the French Horns waxed nostalgic about something or other. The Trombones had too much to drink. The Percussion beat the band, and the Tuba stayed home playing cards with his landlady, the Harp, taking sips of warm milk a blue little cup. But the Composer is still dead." - Lemony Snicket
Images
January 2013, South Island of New Zealand
I took this photo in Northern Virginia.
No disrespect to all the fantastic, diligent conductors.
I did not take this photo.
Tongue Twisters
"C'est combien c'est six saucissons-ci?"
"C'est six saucissons-ci sont six sous."
"Si c'est six saucissons-ci sont six sous, c'est six saucissons-ci sont trop cher. "