[Trombone-l] Conch shell on Reveultas

[John.McVey@frb.gov]

Raymond,

      I sympathize with you and understand your frustration. In a perfect
world, we'd all be recognized as we would like to be. However, that's just
not the way it is and there will always be relatively ignorant people who
express their ignorant opinions. I think your best course of action is just
to ignore it. You know how well you play, as well as those around you who
appreciate you and know you are a consumate professional. If you respond to
the article, he'll just respond back, probably not with an apology or
retraction. All it will probably do is escalate and get worse for you
because he'll be forced to defend his opinion, regardless of how ignorant
it might be.  The next time you speak with him privately, you might let him
know you were disappointed in his article. He might apologize privately
when he probably never would publically.

John





                                                                           
             Raymond Horton                                                
             <rayhorton at insigh                                             
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                                                                   Subject 
                                       Re: [Trombone-l] Conch shell on     
             09/10/2007 08:28          Reveultas                           
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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




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