Day 101: Good horn lesson, I want to practice
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
101 — Good horn lesson, I want to practice
11-November-1971
(Thur.)
TRANSCRIPT
Really good lesson today. Played well. Well, fairly
well. Now, if I could only feel at least that good
all of the time.
Practicing is somewhat of a problem because of the
way the school handles things. If you don’t live in
the studentenheim
[student
dorm], it seems like you’re not allowed to practice
much. One of the few things that are beginning to get
me angry. Tomorrow, in the American tradition, I’m
going to (diplomatically) let my grievances be known
to as many people as possible. Now, that my hair is
covering my ears (haven’t gotten a haircut get),
maybe I’ll become a real-live student radical.
Saw another R. Strauss opera—Arabella.
On first hand accounts, I usually don’t go crazy over
them [Strauss operas]. Actually, I probably just have
to know the work better.
REFLECTIONS
Good
horn lesson. Finally, I
feel like I am playing better and having a good
lesson. The trick and difficulty…how to
do this all the time.
Complaining.
Well, I
was beginning to wonder what would make me write a
longer post over these last several days.
Answer—complaining. Complaining about the difficulty
in getting practice time. It may be that I have been
practicing in the student dorms all this time, and
perhaps I am not allowed to since I don’t live there.
We’ll see. Nonetheless, I am up in arms, with this
being the second time I’ve threatened to become a
student radical. 
Richard
Strauss operas. Strauss
generally writes in a late-romantic, highly
chromatic, heavily orchestrated, complex style. While
I don’t remember the opera, Arabella,
I suspect
that it was not as easy to listen to as the other
popular operas. With additional listening and study,
I certainly would understand and appreciate any
musical work to a better degree. Or perhaps I was
just tired.
See ya.
John
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