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Center Stage with Philip Myers, page 4

Why did you have the entire section switch?

First of all, not everyone on the section plays a Schmid. It stands as follows (May 10, 1998):

Not one person in this section would say that I asked them to change. First of all, this is 1998. A member of a symphony orchestra is usually hired by the conductor.   Fortunately for everyone, including (in my opinion) the first horn, any new member for the orchestra comes owing no one but the conductor for their having been hired. So no one else in the horn section owes me anything that would allow me to dictate to them. They won their job. On their own. Without me or anyone else but the conductor.

That said, we have been extremely fortunate in the brass section of the New York Philharmonic. At least since 1980, when I joined the orchestra, in every single of hiring, that conductor has shared the view of the majority of the brass committee as to whom should be hired in the brass section. For this we are all grateful to Zubin Mehta and to Kurt Masur.

But not only have these conductors been good to the brass section, they have been good to the horn section. For one example, both have expressed, in front of the orchestra, that they would rather have the horn section try for something extraordinary and miss, than be consistent. Who could ask for more support than this? Not all horn players are lucky enough to have conductors that truly think this way. I tell you that in seventeen years in New York, we have been very lucky.

Therefore, if I had walked in one day and said to the section "The Schmid is the right horn for me and therefore it is right for you" I think they either would have laughed at me or killed me. First, remember that for me the change from the Conn to the Schmid took on at least four stages:

1) two months,
    a) no more manipulation at the bottom of the slot.

2) six months,
    a) integration of air flow as it relates to intensity (too big a discussion to deal with in this article),
    b) valve change speed as relates to different goals of slurring.

3) 1 year,
    a) learning the basic fingerings of the triple horn (do you know how weird it is to think about fingerings for the first time in twenty-five years?)

4) 2 years,
    a) further understanding of fingerings, especially in alternate fluidity situations.

So it's taken me two years to get it together (sometime I play part of a piece and actually don't think about fingerings), then how in the world was I supposed to come into the section of the New York Philharmonic and tell them what they should do? IMPOSSIBLE! and wrong.

In my opinion, you are better off sifting in a section of six individuals that are happy with their own personal choices than a section of people that are unhappy with some choice, not theirs, that has been stuffed down their throat. I think many horn players might say this, I don't know. This has been my experience. I love the guys in this section and as friends. I don't want them doing anything they don't want to do.

It makes me think of something I read a couple of years ago. I can't remember who the writer was, but he said "It never occurs to me that anyone should agree with what 1 am thinking now, because I don't agree with most of what I was thinking a couple of years ago."

All that said, there is one other aspect that might somewhat influence any situation. To a certain degree, nobody in the section wants to be the champ when it comes to missing. When one of the high horn players changes from a descant to a triple, it perhaps puts a certain amount of pressure on the other high horn players in the section (asst. 1^st, assoc. 1^st, 1^st, 3^rd) because as a triple horn or descant player, you're simply not going to miss as much. To a certain degree, they are still walking a tightrope that you're no longer on.

So let me say it very directly:

1.) I DID NOT AND HAVE NOT TOLD ANYONE IN THE SECTION THAT THEY MUST CHANGE WHAT THEY ARE PLAYING. I KNOW IN EACH CASE WHY THOSE WHO CHANGED DID BECAUSE WE ARE FRIENDS AND WE TALK, BUT THEY SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

2.) THE MUSIC DIRECTOR HAD NOTHING TO SAY ABOUT THIS SUBJECT. HE IN NO WAY WAS NEGATIVE TOWARD THE CONN AND NEVER SUGGESTED TO ME THAT I OR WE CHANGE ANYTHING.

3.) NO HORN PLAYER THAT PLAYS EXTRA OR SUBSTITUTE WITH US HAS BEEN TOLD THAT THEY SHOULD PLAY OR BUY A SCHMID, NOT BY ME OR ANYONE ELSE IN THE SECTION. WE DON'T THINK LIKE THAT, WE DON'T WORK LIKE THAT.

Quite often while talking to horn players around the country I'm asked questions about changes that have taken place in New York and elsewhere. Quite often there seems to be an assumption that some kind of power play has taken place, somebody told somebody else what they must do. Other player's experiences may be quite different from mine, but in my twenty-seven years playing for money I've rarely seen it. Four of those years was as third horn. Saw it once there. Previn in Pittsburgh wanted us to change to a different brand of horn. I left for Minnesota before it happened but it didn't happen, at least not for long. When I heard a concert of the Pittsburgh Orchestra two years later, no one was playing those horns, at least from what I could make out from the audience. I've always wanted to know what happened there but I've never had a chance to find out. I think the orchestra still owns those horns that nobody is using.

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