[Trombone-l] Conch shell on Reveultas

[Raymond Horton]

OK, remember about three weeks ago when I was asking for advice on the 
conch shell part on Revueltas "La Noche de los Mayas?" I got some very 
helpful advice from the list - particularly Jeff Albert and Jackie 
Harris-Stone. I practiced the shell, and was ready for my four-bar 
cadenza, (wailed a couple of high E's - you guys would have been proud 
of this bass trombonist) and the whole thing went absolutely superbly. 
So this is what I get to read in the paper, in the midst of a favorable 
review (you can see the whole review at:

<http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070909/SCENE05/709090582/1011/SCENE>


“You don't often see a large man in white tie and tails blowing into a 
conch shell (do you think his mother beams, ‘My son, the conch player!?’).”

This reviewer is a really snide person whom I have known for years - 
he's been in my house. He really thinks he is hot stuff, I guess because 
he is the nephew of a famous composer with the same last name. Years 
ago, when the paper would print the reviewers "credentials" at the top 
of their reviews, his would read "Mr Adler took a music appreciation 
course at Eastman School of Music."


I wrote a letter to the paper, but I don't know if I should send it. 
Does this just make me sound defensive and pathetic? Here it is:

-------------

To the Editor of the _/Courier-Journal_/:

Right in the midst of reading Andrew Adler’s positive review of a 
glorious night by the Louisville Orchestra (“Fanfara is a full and 
fabulous night of fun” September 8 SCENE) I was surprised to read a 
rather odd, humorous reference to myself: “You don't often see a large 
man in white tie and tails blowing into a conch shell (do you think his 
mother beams, ‘My son, the conch player!?’).” I don’t know why the 
comment bothered me (perhaps because my mother passed away this last 
March, but yes, she was proud of me). The comment would be bad enough if 
I were, indeed, a lonely conch player, waiting by the phone for my next 
gig, but Andrew knows me – I have been Bass Trombonist of the Louisville 
Orchestra for a third of a century, have played in a solo capacity with 
the orchestra on bass trombone and euphonium (according to my scrapbook, 
he called my euphonium playing a “modest astonishment,” whatever that 
means), have had compositions performed by the LO and other groups in 
town (two that Andrew reviewed – he liked one, sort of passed on the 
other). No, not a lonely conch player, I was just handed the shell three 
weeks ago (it often falls to the bass trombonist, since the Revueltas 
work we were performing has no part for our instrument) and asked to 
learn to play it. I researched the instrument, listened to other players 
and recordings, practiced it, and did as much with the part and my 
improvised four-bar cadenza as I possibly could. Afterwards, musicians, 
conductor, and members of the audience complimented me for it, a 
composer offered to write for me and the instrument (I had to tell him I 
had already packed it up to send it back), and, oh yes, I read the 
ridicule of myself and my mom in the paper. I suppose some try to make 
the most of their opportunities, some don’t.

Raymond Horton
Bass Trombonist
Louisville Orchestra