Random Monday: Strike Over, Star Wars Horn Player and Poking Fun at Trombone

Reflections from the past week.

• WSO strike over

  It is very nice to see that the 7-month Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra strike has been resolved. It is a bit odd however that neither side is revealing details. Long strikes tend to have a lasting impact — let’s all hope that there are only minor repercussions in this case.

• David Cripps

  NAU Horn Professor David Cripps gets a nice write-up at Flagstaff Live.

  One of the recordings that inspired me to play French horn as a youngster was the original 1970′s Star Wars soundtrack. Mr. Cripps was the principal horn. I wore out over 9 copies of vinyl records, listening to it over and over again.

• House kills the tuba player

  A tuba teacher in a lesson is demonstrating The Carnival of Venice to a student. Suddenly, he begins to cough. The coughs become violent — he spews blood on the music stand. He passes out and dies on the spot.

  “Too many notes,” I guess.

  This was the fictional scenario in a recent re-run of the popular television show House. The doctors even pull out the poor dead guy’s brain and poke surgical tools into it looking for answers.

  I did a little Googling and discovered that the actor/tubist was an amateur tuba player. The actual tuba-playing — which can barely be heard over the soundtrack — was supplied by Jim Self. He tells an interesting tale about the process behind-the-scenes.

• Poking fun at the trombone

  A hilarious cartoon over at Basic Instructions pokes some lighthearted fun at trombone players. The guy must have played trombone at one time or another.

• In praise of solidarity

  An excerpt from a Washington Post article “U.S. Workers’ Wages Stagnate As Firms Rush to Slash Costs.”

  By Annys Shin
  Washington Post Staff Writer
  Sunday, May 3, 2009

  In December, Timothy Owner, a trombone player with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, called his landlord to tell her he might have trouble paying rent around May. He and the orchestra’s 53 other full-time members, many of whom are paid less than $30,000 a year, had agreed to a month-long furlough.

  The furlough, which ended yesterday, was rough, Owner said. But he and other musicians acknowledged that the alternative could have been worse. “We’re less unhappy if this means the orchestra will survive,” he said.