Were very fortunate in my group, we have a good section. Looking up to principal from fourth. All know and understand strengths of each other and pretty much by mutual consent the seating just works.
I'm much more concerned about the repertoire when we get to stuff that's written for just one or two horns. That's the thing about amateur groups such as our. Every string player is playing on everything we do, regardless of skill. Now you want something that's unfair. FIX THAT. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Larry Jellison Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 5:49 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Hornlist] Alternative to auditions in an amatuer setting Valerie touches on an important issue regarding the seating in amateur orchestras. There is a natural tension between the re-seating of musicians based on performance as against maintaining the "old guard" in their tenured positions. Those of you in the "old guard" of an ensemble (Hans! are you there?) of course enjoy your vested and favored position. Do you think about how those sitting in lower seats, who may play better, how they feel, or how better the ensemble would sound with a better principal? Sometimes I have worked my way up to a principal position, but I maintained the attitude that I will only hold that seat as long as I am the best horn player, and when a new horn player shows up that can play better and has established loyalty and demonstrates reliability, then I will volunteer my seat to him. I know this isn't the way amateur groups generally run, but they would perform better if more amateur musicians had my attitude. Yes, maybe it was awkward for Valerie from a tenure-vulnerable position to ask to share in the prinicipal role. But if she is the better player, the ensemble will benefit from her request. I was in an ensemble recently where I told the director in strong terms that he needed to replace the principal horn; the director took my advice and did so, (and no, I didn't ask to be principal since we had another horn capable of doing the job). Now the horn section sounds much better. Regards, Larry _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/bgross%40airmail.ne t _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
