Post-Cruise Crud and Horn Baths

 My husband and I, along with our son, daughter-in-law, two-year-old grandson, and the other grandma, went on a Caribbean cruise about two weeks ago. We had fun, played with monkeys, went to a beach, and visited the oldest synagogue in the Western Hemisphere. 

Immediately upon returning to Illinois I got the worst cold I have had in decades. I have obviously lost my teacher immunity. My son calls it the ship crud. 

The main problem with being sick was that I had agreed to play a concert with a local community orchestra because they were short of (French) horn players. Not only that, but I agreed to play first horn on the Dvorak's New World Symphony. It's a well-known, popular work with really fun but challenging horn parts. 

Playing a brass instrument is somewhat similar to being an athlete. If you don't work out (practice), your muscles lose strength and flexibility. So as sick as I felt, I practiced every day once we got home. Cutting to the chase, the concert went well. First horn players often have assistant horn players who fill in on the loud tutti parts so the first horn can back off and save their chops for the exposed parts. I was so lucky and happy to have a friend playing assistant. 

So I have been blowing my germs into my horn for the past 8 days. Now my horn needs a bath to wash out those germs. 

Years ago I read a blog post online written by a British horn player about cleaning his horn after being sick. Actually, as I recall, he couldn't seem to shake the illness and kept getting sick repeatedly. The blog post was hilarious. He wrote about washing the horn in his bathtub and expelling a blob of something while soaking the entire bathroom, while laughing at the whole calamity. It was more dramatic than trying to wash a cat, (which I have done). (His blog post is no longer on line or I would post the link. I'm not naming him in case he wants to forget the whole horn bath experience.)

Once I stop coughing and sneezing, it will be bath time.

The Fateful Number Nine

 I just read franmcveigh's interesting post on numbers. I am not into sports, so my numbers will be differently oriented.

I am currently playing in the Waukegan Symphony (Illinois) and we are performing Dvorak's Symphony #9 in a few weeks. Nine has turned out to be a fateful number in classical music. Beethoven wrote nine symphonies before he died. Antonin Dvořák wrote nine symphonies. Gustav Mahler called his ninth symphony "The Song of the Earth" (Das Lied von der Erde) in order to escape the curse of the ninth. However, he then wrote his Symphony #9 and died before finishing number 10. Who else? Franz Schubert. Anton Bruckner died after his ninth symphony, but his first symphony is number zero (Symphony #0), so that makes ten in total. There are a number of lesser known composers who also wrote only nine symphonies ("only nine," as if that is somehow lacking!)

Dvořák's ninth symphony is subtitled "From the New World." He wrote it while living in NYC in 1893. He was working as the director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City. He was fascinated by the music of African-Americans and Native Americans; these influences show up in the symphony. I will add that it's challenging but also really fun to play!

In researching who wrote nine symphonies, I came across the interesting trivia that Midsomer Murders has an episode (Synopsis: http://midsomermurders.org/curseninth2.htm) titled "The Curse of the Ninth." I have never watched this series, but now I might have to have a look.

If you are interested in who else wrote only nine symphonies, here are at least some of the composers: Alexander Glazunov,  Ralph Vaughan Williams, Alfred Schnittke, and Malcom Arnold.

On the other hand (more numbers), Franz Joseph Haydn wrote 106, Mozart wrote 41 numbered symphonies (there  is some dispute about exactly how many), Johannes Brahms wrote 4. Tchaikovsky wrote 6. Some well-known composers, like Frederic Chopin, wrote none, zero.