A Devil to Play – Obsessing on the French Horn
Rating: The Half Way There Read
This is a follow-up post to my last entry, the one about the horn. I’m back at my desk and picked up the book for a lunch time read. The book’s title is “A Devil to Play, One Man’s Year-Long Quest to Master the Orchestra’s Most Difficult Instrument”. The author is Jasper Rees and the publisher is Harper. A quick overview of the book, this is lifted not word-for-word from the inside flap, is that the author tried to play the French horn as a teen but abandoned it after two lessons. As an adult, he’s overcome with an obsession to learn to play the horn and perform with a home-grown concert group one year later.
I understand the obsessive nature of the author, I’ve decided that I would learn to speak German and Spanish, learn higher math to astonish my friends and influence people, and learn a wide-variety of crafts to make tons of money. None of these things has happened, but since the author wrote the book I’m guessing he actually accomplished his goal.
While reading the book I realized I don’t know what a French horn sounds like. I hopped over to YouTube and searched for French horn performances. There are several but I chose this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUES5PA0ALg. I like the way the solo fits into the performance.
The horn sounded different than I expected, rougher and less polished than most brass instruments. I often try to match up sounds or flavors with each other, like what would a French horn taste like? I’m not thinking of licking the brass, more like trying to assign a flavor profile to the sound it makes. I thought vanilla bean, or caramel, but these flavors didn’t really catch the tone the way I heard it. I ended up with Guinness Extra Stout with its hint of toasted malt and burnt chocolate aroma. The sound is very rich, smooth but not without a good, nubby texture.
I may not give the book a Best Friend Read, even though it does have a lot of history woven through the narrative. It’s a good read but I don’t think I have enough interest in musical instruments to carry me through to the end. I will browse it, and I’ll probably go to BevMo and pick up a couple of bottles of Guinness.
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