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A post at Horn Talk includes an extensive quote from Verne Reynolds’ Horn Handbook, pages 44-45
“Being bored in a large ensemble rehearsal says more about the player than about the rehearsal. Orchestral brass players do not play as often as woodwind or string players, and percussionists, happily, play hardly at all. During these non-playing times, we can choose to be mentally active or drift off into dormancy. Why should a horn player choose not to look and listen while the strings are being rehearsed? Is it because the possibility of musical growth ceases when the orchestral contract is signed? Why would a horn player choose not to observe how the composer, woodwinds, percussion, and conductor all combine to produce a magical sound? Is boredom really more attractive than curiosity? Why would an orchestral player not want to know more and still more about music? Why do orchestral players take pride in not remembering what was on last night’s program? Apparently there is a point where “professionalism” can block artistic development. Not to participate fully in all rehearsals during the training years is the first step in forming an apathetic attitude toward the very thing we have chosen to do. Full participation includes observing how the conductor tries to shape a phrase in the first violins. Does it matter if the phrase starts up-bow or down-bow? Why? How do the horn parts contribute to the seamless sequences of the first twenty-three measures of second movement of the Brahms Third Symphony? Why does the music of Debussy and Mahler sound so dissimilar when their life spans are nearly identical? Questions never end if they begin with a desire to discover.”
[Updated from a “Random Monday” post, 2021, JE]
