Klarinet Archive - Posting 000171.txt from 2002/02

From: Gary Truesdail <gir@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Olympics' Opening Ceremonies
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 00:56:53 -0500

Some of my college friends (brass players) played all the medal award
fanfares live and outdoors at Squaw Valley Olympics. They learned to
keep their mouthpieces in their pockets until the last second. One of
them learned the hard way and had to have warm coffee poured over the
MTPC to disengage his lips. They stayed in a room nearby and when the
magic moment came they stepped out on a balcony to do the honors, did
their thing, and went right back inside. They even had to experiment
with other valve oils as the normal oil got a little sluggish.

GaryT

Bill Hausmann wrote:
>
> At 09:08 PM 2/9/2002 -0800, Gary Truesdail wrote:
> >It must have been a nightmare for the players. I listened with intense
> >fear that at any moment Yo Yo Ma's fingerboard would go CRACK and fly
> >off the instrument due to the frozen glue that held it together. I could
> >not see any electronic earpieces in use so the soloists must have been
> >performing on blind faith that they were playing WITH the orchestra.
> >Did anyone notice the white mouthpieces on the brass instruments?
> >Plastic, maybe? Maybe with internal heaters and wired to pocket
> >batteries?:)
>
> There ARE special brass mouthpieces made with nylon cups, ideal for
> marching band and other outdoor performances. It would certainly not be
> nice for a trumpet player to get his lips stuck to the mouthpiece like the
> tongue of the kid to the pole in "A Christmas Story."
>
> Bill Hausmann bhausmann1@-----.net
> 451 Old Orchard Drive
> Essexville, MI 48732 ICQ UIN 4862265
>
> If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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