From the CNN article: Philip Myers, French hornist: | 'Practice attacks'
By Beth Nissen
Note: This was the sixth entry in an exclusive 10-part series at CNN Career, on the working lives of musicians who play with the New York Philharmonic, one of the world's premiere symphony orchestras.
Phil Myers, principal horn. Myers has played the horn, commonly called the French horn, in four orchestras over a 30-year career. He is in some ways like the instrument he plays: brassy, complex, distinctive. He has a soft voice and a ringing laugh that is inadequately described by the word "ringing" or any other adjective. He talks about fear of losing his "lip," losing his hearing, loving band music, and living large.
Player Profile
Philip Myers, principal horn
Hometown: Elkhart, Indiana
How did you come to play the French horn?
At that point, it was all about being in a group. I was always playing on a football team, a basketball team -- and I think this was sort of like another team to join, as opposed to "I want to express myself through the instrument." I don't think I had the ability to express much of anything until I was about 20.
When did you realize that classical music was something you wanted to pursue?
I was sort of a late developer in that area. In my house, when we'd go to bed at night, my father would always put on a classical record, so I was getting (exposure to) the music. But my orchestral knowledge was elemental. When I went to college, if somebody had said "How many symphonies did Beethoven write?" -- I think I would have known that was nine. But if somebody had said "How many symphonies did Bruckner write?" -- no way would I have known that!
Once I got to college, and started feeling the competition of wanting to be better than the next guy, I started to think I wanted to (play) professionally. But it wasn't until the beginning of my senior year at Carnegie-Mellon (University, in Pittsburgh), that I started to think that maybe I was actually going to be able to do it.
At Carnegie-Mellon, you had to take a five-year course. That seemed to me an advantage, because the Vietnam War was going on, and it gave you one more year for the war to end, so you didn't have to go to Vietnam. I was in college when the first lottery draft took place. I remember one trumpet player, man, he got the number six and the next time I saw him, he was wearing a uniform.
My number was 356, I think. I really got lucky. Nonetheless, I went to Canada: my first job was (in the Atlantic Symphony) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. My parents were sort of embarrassed that that was where I was for my first job. I felt that my father absolutely minimized telling people where I was when I was in Canada, because they would think I was up there dodging the draft. But when you're coming out of college, the first job is the hardest one to get and you've got to take it wherever you can get it.
How difficult an instrument is the French horn?
Actually, (playing horn) is a life of failure in a way, because quite often you can't technically do what you can imagine intellectually. You go out onstage and almost every night you fail, in effect: "Oh, damn, I had a better thought about that than I was able to produce -- I failed." And that, of course, makes you feel horrible. But you can never get tired of trying.
Myself, I seem to have a five-year cycle: for about two months every five years, I really feel like I lose my ability to play the horn. And it flabbergasts me! It happens in the '2s and the '7s -- like '82, '87, '92, '97. When things are flowing and you're able to play well, then it seems like the instrument's easy. But in those two-month periods, it seems like the instrument's impossible.
How much do you practice?
You can over-practice. I'll tell you something my teacher told me about the French horn that has turned out to be very true: He said, "If you're having any kind of difficulty, it's probably because you're playing too much, not too little. Consider putting the horn down and playing as little as possible. Entertain that solution."
What's your ritual for practice, if you have one?
Some brass players talk about hitting "clams" when they hit a note poorly. Do you have a term for a note that comes out in a way other than you'd intended?
Brass players come up with a lot of terms -- "I nicked it," "I clipped it." I don't use those terms. I didn't "sort of miss it" or "almost get it." I either got it or I missed it!
Do you consider yourself a perfectionist?
When the orchestra is on summer break, do you take a vacation from your instrument?
Absolutely -- I just don't feel like playing it! If we've been sitting here playing for 37 weeks or so, and we've got nine weeks off, I'm probably not going to play that horn for the first eight weeks. I usually start to play again about a week before the Philharmonic comes back. But other than that, not a note.
When you haven't played for a while, what skills get rusty?
In the music the orchestra plays, how often is the French horn showcased, or given a solo?
The principal horn is showcased a lot, in short phrases -- more than the concertmaster, more than the principal cello, I'd say.
But for every time you've got any wind instrument as the soloist in front of the orchestra, you've already had 10 violinists, 5 cellists and 55 pianists.
Who are the composers who wrote the music you most enjoy playing playing on the French horn? The music you think takes the best advantage of the instrument?
My real pleasure, frankly, comes from looking at music, not playing it. I spend four or five hours a day looking at music, analyzing music. For me, that's joy. Last week, I was looking at a piece by Benjamin Britten and, as I saw what he was trying to communicate and how he did it, my respect went waaaay up for this guy!
Do you ever get bored playing the most popular, frequently programmed symphonies?
But if you ask me "Have you ever played Beethoven's Seventh the way you want to play Beethoven's Seventh?" No, I haven't. I never have. And so I still want to play it, to keep trying to play it the way I imagine playing it.
How many French horns do you own?
Finally one day, I walked in this room, and I couldn't walk in the room because it was full of horns! And so, I sold off a dozen. I think I'm down to five horns.
Do you have one primary horn?
Every instrument has certain limitations -- certain things you can do on it, certain things you can't. And I was tired of the things I couldn't do on that instrument. I just had 25 years of fighting to do those things and I wanted an instrument that allowed me to do them. Because I knew I could do them, and I could.
What's required by way of maintenance for your instrument?
Are there any occupational hazards in playing the French horn?
You have tenure in the orchestra, so are you spared from the common workplace worry of losing your job?
Oh, I share that fear of losing my job. Tenure doesn't mean anything if you lose your ability to play, and on a brass instrument, that's a real possibility. If I'm doing well, I will not lose my job. But I fear a time coming when I can't do well, and then I would rightly be replaced.
Assuming that you can't play forever, what are your plans?
Do you do any teaching now?
Is it hard, with this job, to balance your professional life with your personal life?
Nahh. C'mon! It's easy! We're here 19 hours a week! That's what makes strikes around here impossible -- every time we have any kind of labor dispute, it's a public relations nightmare. Go out into the United States and say to most people "I want you to work 19 hours a week, and make no less than $100,000." If anybody doesn't think that's a gravy train, then you're talking to some spoiled people, as far as I'm concerned!
Yet as many of your colleagues would point out, that 19 hours a week doesn't include practice time, or the time reed players need to make reeds, for example. And the orchestra schedule -- rehearsals during the day, concerts at night -- can be a strain on orchestra members with small children, or with partners and spouses who aren't musicians and work more traditional hours.
It may be harder for people with children -- I've never had children, so I don't know. And I guess I don't know what it's like to be in relationships with non-musicians -- I've always been with musicians. That's a function of the fact that I'm very large. By and large, if I go out on the street or go into a bar, I don't think there's going to be a lot of interest in me, 'cause I'm a fat guy, ya' know? So my relationships tend to grow out of people getting to know me because we're trapped in the same place. My girlfriend now, she's a cellist with the Philharmonic.
Up until the time I left college, I never weighed over 240, and that's too heavy for my size; I'm 5 feet 10. I went to the first job (in Canada) at 240 and came out three years later at 290. I went to Pittsburgh at 290 and came out four years later at 330. I went to Minnesota at 330 and came out a year and a half later at 360. I came here, and right now I weigh somewhere in the 430s. For sure, I'm one of those people that food puts into nirvana -- food is peace.
Does your weight affect your playing?
But your ordinary French horn phrase doesn't last very long. In an orchestra piece, maybe I'd be playing for 20 seconds, then have time off, then play for 20 seconds again. Even if I was going to play a concerto, the average horn concerto lasts about 15, 16 minutes -- there aren't 45-minute horn concertos.
There is one other concern: you've got to make sure you got shirts your size with you, 'cause that's not something you're going to be able to run out and buy at 7:30 before an 8 o'clock concert! And if that happens, and it has, what I have to do is take an ordinary shirt and I split it down the back, and just wear it covering my front. And I get by that way.
It's not a professional issue for me. I've tried to figure out all my life what kind of personal issue it is (laughs) -- that remains unresolved!
People who are heavyset or obese often feel discriminated against in the workplace, feel like second-class citizens. Do you?
The New York Philharmonic's performance home is Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York.
Still, you really make an effort to get along with your fellow worker in this orchestra. I mean, in an orchestra like Pittsburgh or Minnesota, if you didn't get along with someone, big deal! Because chances are, they were going to be moving on, or trying to. But when you get here (to the Philharmonic), you're with people that you're going to be living with for the rest of your life. And everybody knows that.
When you go out onstage with that group of lifelong colleagues, what are you usually thinking?
That if I play the music purely enough, the thought and feeling that the composer had as he wrote the music is going to be communicated to the audience. To have somebody come up afterward and say, "You played beautifully," well, of course that's nice. But that's not what I think I'm there for. It would be wonderful for me if somebody came up after a concert and said, "I can't tell you how that made me feel."
Original Article can be found here: | ||