Day 065: William Tell, meet Bonanza
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
65 — William Tell, meet Bonanza
06-October-1971
(Wed.)
TRANSCRIPT
Had my horn audition. Was terrible. Very
nervous—mainly because my lip was in bad shape. Well
anyway, because I embarrassed my teacher, now I am
really determined to overcome my deficiencies and, by
the end of the year, I want to play for these guys
and hear them say:
“Is that the same kid?”
Tomorrow starts the long job—it will be frustrating.
Saw [the] Vienna Symphony [Philharmonic]. Excellent
and enjoyable concert. They did the “Lone Ranger”
[theme], I mean the William Tell
Overture. In fact, Mike (my
friend), told me that a girl who spent 1 year in the
States, turned around during the often-played
“fanfare” and said, “Oh! Bonanza.” Ha, I should mail
that to Reader’s Digest.
Also did Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.
5—beautiful. One of my
favorite symphonies.
REFLECTIONS
Another 2007 photo (iPhone) of a digital recording
mixer at the AES show in New York. There is a
connection here (see below), if you remember that all
TV and other broadcast media use such mixers and
other audio equipment that is the heart of the show.
Go Lone Ranger.
Poor
horn audition. Ok, I must
have purged this event from my memory. I was
obviously beyond nervous and totally blew my
audition. The fact that I say that I embarrassed my
teacher must mean that it must have been bad. What
surprises me, is that I immediately garner up some
determination to keep going at it and improve. Wow, I
even surprised myself. That’s it, John! What’s your
slogan?—Never give up.
Life lessons? Here is
what I can say about today. This
kind of thing happens to everyone, a lot, and all the
time. That’s
life. So, I
messed up an audition. Not to take away that it WAS
important, it was still not the end of the world.
Hey, I’m alive 36 years later, writing this thingy
here. I went on to play horn for many years and I
don’t remember too many people yelling out, “you,
suck.” So, what are the life lessons here?
• Life is full of frustration. Look at this
journal—at certain things like playing the horn, I’m
a frustrated dude.
• Nothing is so bad that it ruins everything.
• We all have bad days, poor auditions, and such.
• Regroup—keep plugging away, keep working at it.
• Don’t give up.
• Be realistic — maybe I was learning that I was
never going to be first horn in the Vienna
Philharmonic.
• Life goes on.
On to better things.
Vienna
Philharmonic plays soul. What is
the saying? Music
soothes the soul. Looks like
I needed a lot of soothing after my audition. What
better way to return to humankind? Music. How about
the William
Tell Overture by Italian
composer, Gioachino Rossini,
and
Symphony
No. 5 by Piotr
IliychTchaikovsky? That did it. My soul is
soothed. Symphony
No. 5 has a
beautiful horn solo opening in the 2nd movement, if I
remember correctly. I should have played that solo in
my audition.
Piotr
Iliych Tchaikovsky. It doesn’t
matter what you say. You’ve heard Tchaikovsky. A
Russian composer of the Romantic period, Piotr’s
style is often characterized by lush, lyrical,
melodies, powerful symphonic passages, and that full
Romantic Russian sound (whatever). His symphonies and
orchestral works are a favorite of all orchestras.
You’ve heard his music—1812
Overture. Think
fireworks on July 4th in the nation’s capital.
Or The
Nutcracker, one of the
most popular ballets performed during the Christmas
holiday period.
Think men
in tights and women in tutus. Or the reverse.
William
Tell, meet Bonanza. For those
of you who are too young, you may not know the TV
shows, Bonanza
and
The
Lone Ranger. They both
had distinct opening musical themes, recognizable by
many viewers around the world. Too bad the
lady-friend was wrong on this one. The
William
Tell Overture theme was
used on the The
Lone Ranger TV show,
not Bonanza.
Ha.
It’s a bit
funny. Here’s the first part of the Bonanza
theme—dun, da-dah, dun, da-dah, dun, da-dah, dun,
da-dah, dah______ dah_______.
Here are some web and Wikipedia links for you:
•
The
Lone Ranger
Theme (requires
Quicktime)
•
The Bonanza
Theme
•
Tchaikovsky’s
Symphony No.
5
•
William Tell
Overture
•
Piotr Iliych
Tchaikovsky
•
Gioachino
Rossini
Other slides available in the Slide Show section of this site. Remember, these were taken with my iPhone and cropped in iPhoto.
John
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