An amateur, though very good, orchestra with which I played regularly for a long time had four very good horn players; any one of them could have played any of the parts. But, one was the recognised 1st horn, one was 2nd, one was 3rd and the other was 4th and, when all four were available, that was the part they played, there was no swapping around.
No one was unhappy and everyone knew their place. When the principal was unavailable for a concert, any one of the others could take his place, but, guess what - usually they didn't, a principal horn was brought in (usually me) and the others continued to play their own part. The orchestra ran like this successfully for over 20 years and, for all I know, is still running successfully in the same way, despite the death of two of the original players and the retirement of another. Cheers, Lawrence -- Lawrenceyates.co.uk _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
