Re: The Yorks-Jake -Joe Novotny


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Posted by Rick Denney on March 02, 2001 at 11:46:36:

In Reply to: The Yorks-Jake -Joe Novotny posted by Dr Ray on March 01, 2001 at 19:53:51:

As I said below, a great tuba is great only in the hands of a great player.

But I don't think that many of the top orchestra pros today, many of whom are playing instruments similar to those Yorks, are doing so because they seek the holy grail. I think it's because those instruments match a sound in their head, a sound that they will not rest until they have found it in their own playing. That drive motivates many players (but not all) from top orchestra pros down even to mediocre amateurs like me. They achieve that goal by years of hard work, to be sure. But their choice of equipment does have an effect.

I also participate in triathlon, and write articles about bicycles in the triathlon press. I've seen literally thousands of comments about bikes being fast. Bikes are not fast. Legs are fast. But bikes can either let those legs be their best or slow them down. It's no different with tubas.

There's another component as well. Sometimes, we get an instrument because we appreciate its maker, its history, its beauty, or its rarity. I own an old Rolleiflex camera that I sometimes use. It is not nearly as capable as the newer roll-film cameras that I own, but it is elegantly designed and built, and I appreciate that.

So, I think it is okay for us to appreciate the special nature of those instruments in the same way that we might appreciate the violin used by Pagannini. Part of the reason that Jacobs has garnered the fame that he has is because he was uniquely successful in imparting that skill to other players, and partly because his playing situation gave him a large stage (in the figurative sense). By being a premiere player in a symphony that recorded aggressively late enough such that recording technology could reasonably record his sound and early enough to take advantage of the popularity of the new medium, Jacobs established himself as the quintessential American player, though that is a description he probably would have frowned upon.

Lots of folks have played the instruments made famous by other players. The King CC that Bell played still has a devoted following, but orchestras have changed and that instrument is no longer effective in competing with audience expectations for loudness rivalling their megawatt home stereos. The Miraphone that Roger Bobo played spawned a whole generation of Miraphone players, many of whom still own a Miraphone (I do). The Besson 983 is enjoying the glow of popularity that stems from Patrick Sheridan's virtuosity on the instrument. These players have in common a celebrity that is enhanced by being larger-than-life characters. Not all great players have pursued that sort of celebrity, including such players as Chester Schmitz, Warren Deck, and even Gene Pokorny. When a player of that magnitude in orchestral circles does something unexpectedly wonderful using a horn based on a different concept than the current practice, then that new concept will spawn a new generation of followers.

It is natural and forgiveable that we hope to achieve some measure of the magic imparted by these celebrities when we play using the same equipment. In a playing sense, we are deluding ourselves. But bicycle racers who believe that their new bike is faster work harder to prove it, and so it happens. Then the funniest thing happens, they give the credit to the bike, when it was really their own hard work that made the difference.

Rick "I'm slow on the bike, too" Denney


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