Day 236: Selfish John
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
236 — Selfish John
25-March-1972
(Samstag–Sat.)
TRANSCRIPT
Played in ensembles in morning. Good.
Practiced piano also. Went fairly well.
Only thing that bothered me was the fact that I
couldn’t work at all in the electronic studio.
Another student had to use both. Aggravates me when
we have to compete for time. I have so much to do and
it seems like I’ll never get it done. Well.
Jean-Pierre, hornist, comes back to Wien to pick up
his Vienna horn. Had a long talk about problems and
science of playing the horn. Very interesting. Must
save the “napkin” that has all this info. I think
this info will help me. Anyway, he’ll be staying in
my room for a week. No problem, but I’m not sure how
Frau Pollak likes it.
REFLECTIONS
Selfish
John, youthful John. I don’t
believe it. Me, moi, the guy who monopolizes ALL of
the time in the electronic studio—I am complaining
about SOMEONE ELSE using the studio. Come on, John!
Could I have been that arrogant? That selfish? I
thought I was a fair and a good guy. I now suspect
that this was my “youthful arrogance.” As a youth,
you get a
thing in your head that
you
must absolutely do, and if
you don’t do it, at
that exact moment or time, you get
a bit upset. As a youth, you are not looking at the
total picture—in this case, how much time “I” have
been monopolizing in the electronic studio.
Well, hopefully, I was not too bad a guy. And today
in 2009, I still may not be too bad a guy.
Jean-Pierre,
guest. My horn
colleague, Jean-Pierre, comes back to Vienna to pick
up and buy his Vienna horn. I’m putting him up in my
room. Good for me. Now, I appear to be a nice,
generous guy, compared to selfish John in the last
paragraph. It looks like my hausfrau
may not be
too happy about this. Well, it was no big deal.
Where is that “napkin” that contains all of the “horn
secrets” from Jean-Pierre? Lost to time.
Saturday
ensembles. Hmmm. Just
realized that a lot of our playing opportunities with
ensembles are on the weekend, outside of school
constraints or schedules. I am certain that Prof.
Gabler did not get paid for this extra time. Another
reason to be thankful for such a warm, generous, and
wonderful teacher.
John
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