Quite interesting that in the Asterix comics, 2017 saw a chariot race through Italy where one team consisted of charioteer Coronavirus and his offsider Bacillus...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix_and_the_Chariot_Race
Best posts made by barliman2001
-
RE: A little humour
-
RE: BlowDry Brass System
@kehaulani Schmuck Allee in Salzburg... yes, I've seen a pic of ssmith1226 standing there, looking appropriately, with his wife looking smug... I don't think I'm telling any very personal secrets when I divulge that he just had bought a few minor goodies at the Schagerl factory shop (just a new gold plated Killer Queen flugel) and was now in honour bound to spend a reasonable sum on placating his wife...
-
RE: Woodworking?
@administrator Are you going to start building violas?? Shame on you!
-
RE: Which trumpet to buy?
@administrator Forget all the overpriced Bachs, or whatever. If you want something in the Bach style - and better lacquer quality - go for the B&S Challenger I or II series. If you want something lighter than Bach - and even longer lasting - the Stomvi Elite range is superb. And if you do insist on something from Asia - either find yourself a good used Jupiter STR1010 (comes with two bells, and can be easily retrofitted with Schilke bells) or go for the XO 1600 Roger Ingram model.
Or you can tell Ivan Hunter exactly how you want your instrument to be, and he'll adjust one from his own range exactly to your liking. www.jaegerbrass.com. After his move to Germany, his workshop is back in business. -
RE: A little humour
Now that we've relearned how to wash our hands, we can tackle how to use indicators in traffic.
-
RE: Brand-New 1971 Olds Ambassador Trumpet Possible?
@dr-go Blowing my warm air... how awful!
Reminds me of the Scotsman who took his wife to the doctor's because of her tummy pains... when the doc said, "Oh, its just wind," the Scotsman blew up: "Jist wind?? It was jist wind that blew down the Tay Bridge!!" -
RE: A little humour
@BigDub Wearing a uniform for a flight upgrade is easy. But flying internationally with just a target shooting club membership card as ID - that's tough.
Did it. In the old days, on a flight from Dublin to London Heathrow. As neither the UK nor Ireland had any compulsory form of ID, they accepted anything with your pic in it. They did not notice that that club membership card was nine years out of date!
(And no, it was AFTER 9/11). -
RE: Update on my Olds Recording
@georgeb I know that feeling well... had exactly the same experience with my Recording. And as my - by this time two - Courtois Balanceds give me the same feeling (while being much more assertive - they are more like background Wagner horns, with an incredible lower register), it might really be the balanced make that does the trick.
-
RE: A little humour
Doctor: "Your cough sounds much better now."
Patient: "Well, I'm practising enough day and night." -
RE: I bought a fairly rare trumpet
@j-jericho If it's factory new, there should be at least three different leadpipes included. Usually, the buyer visits the factory and chooses which leadpipes they want...
-
RE: A little humour
What does an out-of work philosopher say to a working philosopher?
"One burger with fries, please."
-
RE: Tough Decision to make
If the Blackburn is your dream horn, by all means get it. But be prepared - your dream horn may become a nightmare.
I'll just tell a few tales from my experience.
Many years back, a corno da caccia was my dream horn. And then, during a historians' conference in Leipzig, I stumbled upon Friedbert Syhre's workshop, and he had one just finished and ready for sale. Silver plated, with gold accents. I talked to my bank manager on the phone for about three hours, and bought it five minutes before the shop closed for the weekend, for something like $ 3,500. I had found my dream horn!
And then I slowly realized I would not be able to use it much. I was not good enough at that time to play the original music written for the corno da caccia, and there were literally no chances at all to use it in orchestra. I played it once or twice in local church orchestras, doubling for French horn. But for more than nine years, it lived a very quiet, secluded life in its case.
Until someone really needed one to replace one stolen during a rehearsal, and I sold it on for less than $ 1,000, just to have it played.Then, for many years, a Scherzer G picc was my dream horn. I saved all I could for about five years to be able to get a new one, finally bought one; nice horn, loved the sound... found an orchestra that wanted me as a soloist for the Torelli concert and as an orchestral principal trumpet for the Haendelujah (me with the Scherzer) , and I practised like mad, only to overdo things and lapse into pneumonia two weeks before the planned concert... had to take time off to recuperate, by which time the concert had been played by a sub. I used it for some more time, sparingly, until one day, after a playing break of about two weeks, I took it out of its case and the valves were frozen and I could not do anything with them, had to get them repaired and had that reoccur several times. And when Maurice André's will left me a Selmer high-G and I found that easier to play, it went its way to a new owner.
Two or three years after getting the Scherzer, I had acquired a Besson Kanstul 920 picc. Wonderful instrument, and they tell me I sounded really good on it. No problems - except that I had set my mind on a Stomvi. So I sold the Besson in part-exchange. The Stomvi was nice, no doubt about it; but somehow, it was not the instrument for me. I needed much more lip pressure than with the BessonK, put too much hand pressure on the valve cluster and thus got the valves to stick... ! Pic shows me with the BessonK.
I can tell stories like this about many of my dream horns. All of the horns I play now are horns that happened upon me somehow, without me really planning to get them, like my Courtois 154R flugel which I acquired at a trade fair when the Courtois people had a few instruments left over which they did not want to take back with them; so my advice is, don't search for a specific horn, but look around for anything that drifts your way; try, try and try again, and at some time, your dream horn will find you. -
RE: no prayer requests allowed
Moshe,
I am not taking up anything religious here. But I want to offer some practical help.
You say you neep some form of transport to get yourself and your racing vehicle (the electric wheelchair) to the venue. Can I help you by contributing to the cost of such transport? And perhaps, if a few more members contributed, we might get this problem out of the way in a few moments. I suggest that you create a crowndfunding site, and publish that here. -
RE: Early 70's Besson info wanted
@tptguy The Besson International cornet models were the first instruments Besson made after the change in the Brass Band world from High Pitch to Low Pitch (i.e. normal concert pitch). They followed the dual pitch Imperial models and were the direct predecessors of the Round Stamp Sovereigns. At the time, they were Besson's (or B&Hs) top of the line. Even today, Internationals are sought after instruments, and some first-class players in the brass band world still stick to them despite Sovereigns and Prestiges. And I know why... in 1990, I fished one out of a Scottish band's bin (put there after what they thought was irreparable damage - the connection between first and second valve had a big hole from being gripped there too often), had it restored by Hermann Ganter, and I've been playing it ever since. Tried to find a more modern one to have a back-up in case the International had a fatal accident, spent a fortune on Yammies, Stomvi, new Sovereign and such... and finally, after re-selling all of those, ended up with a second International (which is now in the market because I found a 1955 Courtois at an Ukrainian dealer). A friend of mine played in the same brass band all his life, for an incredible 71 years, 55 of them as Principal Cornet. Every ten years or so, the band bought a new set of instruments and handed him a new and shiny Sovereign, which he duly held when the appropriate pictures were taken. And at the next rehearsal or gig, he played the old International... his best friend and former band mate, Phil McCann, did the same...
-
RE: Bach Club
My experiences with Bach instruments... somehow, fate was very unkind to me in that respect...
My first ever "proper" trumpet was a Bach Strad 239 C, with additional slides for Bb, which I - as a total beginner - used as my primary horn. The C configuration was something I never used, and was the downfall of this instrument. My teacher at the time was a rotaries-only player, and then had to jump in at some musical production requiring a piston C. So he asked if he could borrow it for one day. No problem, except...
the horn was stolen from his greenroom in the theatre.
He was admirably insured, and I received the value of both a Bb and a C. I had caught the rotary bug and got myself a Ganter G5 and a Bach rotary C. That was a wonderful instrument, but still a bit too "pro" for me at the time. But - I did use it for a time, usually for Mozart masses.
Until my house in Ireland was burgled and that rotary Bach C was stolen.
My next Bach was a 37. Had it for about three months, and then, it was stolen from me in a tram... I was sitting next to the exit, with the case right beside me, and at a stop, a guy exiting the tram just grabbed the case and jumped off.
And my last attempt at Bach was a high-F that I wanted just to have the alphabet complete. One of those whims one gets. Had it ordered specially, paid through the nose, waited an ungodly time for it - almost a year! - and then it ended up in a freight aircraft that crash-landed in Frankfurt and burst into flames. Got my money back after more than a year's haggling with insurance but I never even saw that horn.
Decided that Bach somehow was not for me. Never had another mishap with any of my other horns... All other horns of my collection were not taken in that Irish burglary... even though they were on display in an unlocked, glass-fronted cabinet... the Bach rotary was half-hidden in its case... -
RE: A little humour
I'm just now enjoying the pleasure of being assistant deputy helper at the Gutenstein Master Classes (www.meisterklassen-gutenstein.com - my wife is Vice President of the show), and that entails a lot of ferrying people around: from Vienna to Gutenstein Village and back, fro and to the airport, shuttling people from their accommodation in the village to the rehearsal rooms and to the concert hall and so forth. Every master class lasts a week.
Today, I had the fun of ferrying three viola players back to Vienna. You should think that for informal master classes, you would have a small case, perhaps a suit hanger for concert dress and the instrument case. Not this lot. Every single one came with a big case, a small case, a backpack, two bags of groceries (for f...'s sake, it's an all-inclusive thing, with all meals included), the viola case (one even had two violas!)...handbags... little paper bags of souvenirs... I could not resist asking why they had that much luggage. I got a classic viola answer:
"Well, it might perhaps be snowing by the end of the week."
In Austria in July!!! -
RE: Lockie Trumpet
I've found a few hints...
www.trumpetherald.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1344869
www.brasshistory.net/Lockie History.pdf
www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/metro-lockie-music-exchange-trumpet-246893226
www.robbstewart.com/strucel-alto-trumpet
http://wwwtemp.rogerbobo.com/instruments/f_trumpet.shtml
It's a start, anyhow.
-
RE: A little humour
Like the guy who went to the dentist and was asked whether he wanted his tooth drawn first class or second class. "Well... what's the difference?" he asked. "Oh, it's quite simple. Second class, you get all the young nurses and all the old equipment, and in first class, it's the other way round."
-
RE: Your chance to own the world's most useless (yet interesting) trumpet!
Still in fairly common use in Austrian wind bands...