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An excerpt from Joseph Eger‘s Around the Horn.
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[Extracted from a “Random Monday” post, 2021, JE. The video is a brief historical introduction to the horn. In the original post Bruce linked to the 2008 Dissertation on Eger by Kathleen S. Pritchett. Follow his link for more, and the below is a good introduction to Eger.]
The November 24, 1957 issue of the New York Times called Joseph Eger “one of
the greatest French horn players alive.” During the 1950s and 1960s, Eger toured the
United States and Britain as a soloist with his own group, even trading tours with the
legendary British hornist, Dennis Brain. He recorded a brilliant solo album, transcribed
or arranged several solos for horn, and premiered compositions now standard in the horn repertoire. He served as Principal Horn of the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles
Philharmonic, and the National Symphony. Despite his illustrious career as a hornist,
many horn players today do not recognize his name. While Eger was a renowned horn
soloist in the middle of the twentieth century, he all but disappeared as a hornist,
refocused his career, and reemerged as a conductor, social activist, and author. This
dissertation seeks to be the long-overdue comprehensive documentation of Eger’s career as the first American horn soloist and his contributions to the world of horn playing
