Once in a lifetime - odd moments with the horn

[Seymor B Fudd]

Just wanted to share a special New Years Eve because of this virus from Hell.
My grandparents bought a cottage in a forest lake district 1950. revamped quite a lot since then. 7 years ago I built a little (13sqm) guesthouse mainly used as my practice room.
Anyway, because of Covid 19, all gigs and most social life put on stand by we´ve lived here, in the middle of nowhere 150 days during 2020, still do. Not a single soul within 2 km. And as our usual New Years Eve companions are grounded what to do?

Meaning just the two of us celebrating New Years Eve. pitch black outside, clock approaching midnight we can see and very very faintly hear rockets being shot up far beyond the trees on the closest ridge.

So the thought comes to my mind: what if I were to.....So standing on the wooden deck I built 20 years ago, pitch black, a faint light in another cottage far away, I pulled out my practice cornet, Yamaha 2330II and played, loudly, the sound bouncing echoing along the lake, Oh Holy Night (Adam) in F. Could probably be heard many kilometers away. Eerie but in a peculiar way quite an experience. Those who heard, will they wonder for years to come - where did this music come from.....since this area usually is so quiet so quiet...wind blowing through the forest, branches swaying, now and then a woodpecker, sometimes trains on the far away railroad can be heard during the night.
Hopefully next New years Eve will be celebrated in the good old fashioned way. This one was rare! Probably one of a kind.

Maybe you guys also have some unusual horn moment to share??
_________________
Cornets:
Getzen Custom Series Schilke 143D3/ DW Ultra 1,5 C
Getzen 300 series
Yamaha YCRD2330II
Yamaha YCR6330II
Getzen Eterna Eb
Trumpets:
Yamaha 6335 RC Schilke 14B
King Super 20 Symphony DB (1970)
Selmer Eb/D trumpet (1974)

[cgaiii]

Great story. Thanks for sharing.
Where I live is also about 2-3 km from the nearest neighbor and I have been known to echo Taps down the valley on special occasions.
_________________
Bb: Schilke X3L AS SP, Yamaha YTR-6335S
C: Schilke CXL, Kanstul 1510-2
Picc: Kanstul 920
Bb Bugle: Kanstul
Bb Pocket: Manchester Brass
Flugel: Taylor Standard
Bass Trumpet: BAC Custom
Natural Tr: Custom Haas replica by Nikolai Mänttäri Morales

[WxJeff]

Wonderful word picture... I enjoyed your writing.

I have to think the experience was good therapy for you, too, as you performed. We can all use some of those experiences right now.

[Seymor B Fudd]

[DJtpt31]

Seymor B Fudd I envy you. That's my dream to get my own place away from everything and not be disturbed.

[nieuwguyski]

Decades ago I drove from southern California up to the Oregon coast to go camping with some college classmates. We agreed to bring our trumpets and I brought some trumpet trios. Playing in the open being our only option, on the second day we decided to walk away from the campground to give the other campers a bit of a break (and ourselves a head-start on potential torch-bearing mobs).

It turns out it's hard to nonchalantly mosey through a campground carrying trumpet cases and folding music stands. We hiked to the far side of the ocean inlet we were camped by and found an isolated clearing overlooking the ocean. Then we had to warm up, horns were compared, high notes might have been attempted, and we looked at the music I had brought.

We all agreed that trying to play low notes was better than high notes in that setting, so we read through a Hidalgo Press arrangement of Bach's "Air on a G String" that called for Low F's in two of the three parts. My memory is that we weren't terrible, though we were all hobby players, the other two players were sight-reading, and we might have had to restart a time or two.

Satisfied that we had checked the box that we were going to play during our reunion, we walked back to camp. As we walked through the campground, one of our neighbors called out,

"When you started I was worried, but that turned out to be nice!"
_________________
J. Notso Nieuwguyski

[WxJeff]

Ah, camping with the horn. Loved your story, New Guyski!

For several years, a group organized a 5K race and a Veteran's Day memorial at a state park in southeast Georgia. A few times I was privileged to play "Taps." Typically I camped in my tent Friday night before participating Saturday morning. One year I couldn't resist the idyllic setting as the sun was going down. I walked from the campground to the dock on the small lake and wafted out some long tones and a bit of soft "doodling."

As much as I was trying to make this simply a moment of self-indulgence without bothering my neighbors, I did receive a couple "That was beautiful!" accolades as I walked back to the tent. One unexpected outcome was that I met a retired military officer and was able to tell him about the upcoming event the next morning.

This fine gentleman and his family joined us and it was gratifying to watch him engage the high school JROTC color guard kids at the memorial's conclusion.

[deleted_user_02066fd]

Back in the mid 80's my family would get a place at the shore for a month. Relatives would come and go and it was always a lot of fun. On the fourth of July we had a big bash and some of the other cottages did the same. After the town fireworks had finished I grabbed my horn, stood on the deck and played America The Beautiful. Must have been 75-80 people singing along.

[Bflatman]

I have for many years wandered the streets sharing my music with all those unfortunate enough to be at large at the time.

Consequently I have many many experiences that inspire and move me so I will relate just a few of the most memorable moments.

I was playing a piece in the street and when I reached the end of the piece a construction worker standing unnoticed on his break exclaimed from across the street "You stopped", I said "It was the end" and he said "I was transported by your playing"

In a local park in which I played through the covid lockdowns a woman came to me and said that she was a choir singer and had heard me earlier and thought my playing was a choir singing somewhere in the distance, and now she realised it was me.

Another time in the same park I was told I had made the park famous as the place to hear fine music in these troubled covid times.

And perhaps the most moving, in the city a woman came to me and very emotionally said to me she was so happy to meet me finally. She lived not far from there.

One day she was very depressed and contemplating the end. Then she heard me faintly and the experience so lifted her that the cloud that enveloped her was gone and from that point on she was full of hope.

When I contemplate the long hours of practice I must endure I simply recall these moments and others besides and I know that I am so lucky to have the instrument of the angels that has allowed me to help others many of whom I am not even aware of helping. And in so doing I have perhaps justified the space that I take up on this rock.

We do not know the many lives that we touch with this instrument of angels.

I have been begged more than once never to give up sharing my music with the world and I promised I never will. I have so many wonderful memories but none live with me so vividly as buzzing into a mouthpiece in the city central square with 20 homeless people who have nothing but the clothes on their backs and empty bellies laughing and dancing around me as I buzzed out their favorite tunes.

Life is a series of golden moments that we cherish to the end of our days.

I have been so very lucky to have so many. The trumpet has been a gift to me and my music has been a gift to others. Both are without doubt the gift that keeps on giving.

May it go on forever and never end.
_________________
Conn 80a Cornet
Boosey & Hawkes Emperor Trumpet
Olds Fullerton Special Trumpet
Selmer Invicta Trumpet
Yamaha YCR 2330II Cornet
Selmer Student Trumpet
Bohland and Fuchs peashooter Trumpet
Boosey and Hawkes Regent Cornet
Lark M4045 Cornet

[WxJeff]

Great word pictures... thank you!

Are you typically playing the same genre of music or is there a lot of variety depending on the circumstances and perhaps how you're feeling that day?

I was playing softly and morosely at a heavily wooded park while my daughter was meeting with a counselor. I had hoped to be alone with the horn but a lady on a path nearby encouraged my playing. I have no doubt my playing was that day influenced by the <<stuff>> our daughter was going through (and putting us through) at the time.

[huntman10]

Thirty odd years ago I was a scoutmaster. Our troop went to a camp in the New Mexico mountains, not Philmont, but not far form there. Anyway, it was a deistrict camp with about 8 or 9 troops, all in separate campsites, and we would gather in the cool mornings in a meadow for a flag ceremony, and I would bring my old Connstellation 38A cornet for my "bugle", since it could really bounce off the mountainsides. Anyway, as we were all in position, the color guard marched across the grass to the flagpole, and after the had the flag clipped, I started "To the Colors". Just as I finished, a pari of F15's from an airbase a few hundred miles to the south came in low over the mountain tops, afterburners roaring. It was not unusual at that camp for the planes to practice in the mountains, and we suspected it was to encourage the boys. Anyway, the timing could not have been more impressive, before the salute was released. It rattled the mountains, and made us all slack jawed. Not sure whether it was times or not!

I actually had lots of memorable moments playing bugle calls in various situations in camp for about 15 years. Like the first day of camp, hitting Reveille and the boys stepping into the cold air, flocking to the latrine!
_________________
huntman10
Collector/Player of Fine (and not so fine) Brass Instruments including
Various Strads, Yammies, Al Hirt Courtois, Schilkes,
Selmer 25, Getzen Eternas, Kanstuls (920 Pic, CG)
Martin Custom Large Bore, Lots Olds!, Conns, etc.

[Bflatman]

@WxJeff

I m not sure if your q was aimed at me, in case it was ill answer it

I have played most genres over the years but always the best music I could find.

My first was Evita, then easy listening showtunes jazz and blues sinatra abba carol king stevie wonder adele and many contemporary hits If it was beautiful I played it green leaves of summer concierto de aranjeus theme from jurassic park theme from schindlers list and ashokan farewell.

I built a reputation of being able to play anything named at the drop of a hat wrongly of course, on one occasion a guy asked me to play concierto de aranjeus and I cranked t right out to his joy.

He said he had asked many musicians to play that and I was the only one who could. That was a golden moment

Another time a guy sprang a request for minnie the moocher and I cranked that one right out.

I always have a bluesey three blind mice for the kids and the adults love that too and I always have a rousing when the saints with a raggy jazzy improv and high hung note blasted out to finish

I had a repertoir of around 110 melodies for a few years

An impresario told me once that he prefers a set of 22 so I always had at least double that number in my set

I was told more than a few times that I always played new material and it always fitted the mood of the day.

I have recently reduced my repertoir to a handful of mostly blues numbers cry me a river summertime motherless child careless love st james infirmary and some improvised blues but I like variety and I might crank out st james followed by green leaves of summer followed by some salsa rhythms and some vangelis.

Beauty tames the savage beast

I was in a park and a dozen youths on bicycles told me to play and started making funny trumpet noises so I played something slow and full of emotion, they all fell silent and when I finished they all applauded and the one who was the most noisy said simply "you touched me man".

I am very lucky to have this
_________________
Conn 80a Cornet
Boosey & Hawkes Emperor Trumpet
Olds Fullerton Special Trumpet
Selmer Invicta Trumpet
Yamaha YCR 2330II Cornet
Selmer Student Trumpet
Bohland and Fuchs peashooter Trumpet
Boosey and Hawkes Regent Cornet
Lark M4045 Cornet

[WxJeff]

Definitely aimed at you and well answered. Thank you.

[PMonteiro]

I have a couple of notable experiences. The first is timely: I marched in the 2017 inaugural parade with my college band. Admittedly this was with my saxophone, but I had my trumpet ready to go with the music memorized in case the trumpet rank needed an extra player. The politics didn't matter, it was just the music, bonding with my band family, and love for the nation. Marching down Pennsylvania Avenue past the President of the United States while doing what I love was an amazing experience.

Second, I had the opportunity to render Taps at the burial of Henry Morgenthau III. He was an Army captain and son of Henry Morgenthau Jr., of post-WWII Morgenthau Plan fame. Every time I sound Taps is special and I have more great stories, but this one stands out.
_________________
YTR-6335HSII
YTR-2320
Accord in C

[Seymor B Fudd]

Noon yesterday my cell phone rang. Was the chairman of our brassband.
Told me that our principal since 1970 died in the morning, of side effects of Covid 19. I was somewhat stupefied. Occupied chair next to him during 25 years, then another 25 years at the other end of front row (youngsters between us). Outside, raining but eventually clouds drifiting away.
Mood deteriorating during the afternoon I went on practicing, in my guest shack - very fainltly hearing some minor harmonies - kept lingering on but it was not until later that I realized the harmonies were those of "When Johnny comes marching home"... and it dawned upon me that of course, he always played the solo so many times we almost nicknamed him Johnny. By now I was really sad - what to do - oh yes I knew.
So one more time, never thought I was myself returning to the OP so quickly I stepped out on the wooden deck, again, now pitch black again, the trees on the ridge opposite me hardly visible but sky now full of stars, far away, at the horizon faint lights from the distant village. And I played the solotheme a couple of times and then I cried, leaning backwards against the panel, 50 years of memories sweeping by.
Playing released my feelings.
Being able to play our horns is indeed a blesssing. So emotional.
On Wind of Songs!
_________________
Cornets:
Getzen Custom Series Schilke 143D3/ DW Ultra 1,5 C
Getzen 300 series
Yamaha YCRD2330II
Yamaha YCR6330II
Getzen Eterna Eb
Trumpets:
Yamaha 6335 RC Schilke 14B
King Super 20 Symphony DB (1970)
Selmer Eb/D trumpet (1974)

[BGinNJ]

The most touching moment I can remember was 5 years ago, at the Clifford Brown Jazz Consortium. The whole 20+ group of us trumpeters played a brass choir arrangement of "I Remember Clifford" at his graveside.