by Marty Schlenker
Dear Fellow Amateurs,
Recently, I wrote that I bought a horn, a one-owner 700,000-series Conn 8D from the mid-1950s. The owner was Jim Tyson, a lifelong music teacher in central Pennsylvania, who taught my wife and her two brothers 40-50 years ago.
I had been motivated to add an Elkhart 8D or similar horn to my roster ever since I borrowed a friend’s excellent Hoyer Kruspe copy years ago. In my circle of community bands, Holton and 8D players are the majority. It would be helpful for timbre matching if I had a large bore nickel horn too. Finally, opportunity and motivation intersected.
Overall, I was pleased. The price was fair. The valves and corpus are in fine shape. The bell needs a little straightening. I was able to achieve the classic 8D mellowness, and there were no bad notes. But the 8D is far less centered than my 28D or, as I recall, my friend’s Hoyer. Lip slurs, especially at first, were frustratingly random, and overall, the 8D seemed to require a lot more effort. To use a baseball analogy, it seemed like swinging a bat with a weight on it. So, I use the 8D when I’m in sections where that timbre prevails.
In early July, I hit the road with the 28D. Every year, the First Coast Wind Symphony of Jacksonville, FL, takes a tour, and partners up with a community band for a joint concert in its chosen destination. Even though I don’t live in Florida and am not a FCWS member, I get invited by my wife’s brother who organizes the tours. This year, FCWS was hosted by the Burlington Concert Band of Burlington, VT which has been in near-continuous operation since 1851. The combined band played July 3 in Burlington’s Battery Park Music Shell, with beautiful weather and one of the best fireworks displays I can remember. Here are a few highlight photos:
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Battery Park, with Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks in the background, and the 28D
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Four family members: brothers-in-law Larry and Alan, my wife Lucy, and me
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The combined section: Benny (Burlington), Ann (First Coast), Noah (Burlington), Bobbie (First Coast), Marcela (Burlington), and me (Have-horn-will-travel)
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As patriotic programs sometimes do, this concert got LOUD, and Marcela is a very strong player. It was all I could do to keep up with her to balance 4th horn to her 3rd. Two days later, I noticed that my whole rib cage ached. But guess what? I don’t mind playing the 8D one bit now. All I needed was a real workout.
Please write with your how-I-stay-in-shape stories, where-my-horn-has-been stories, or anything else from your amateur horn world! marty.schlenker@cavaliers.org.
Your servant and kindred spirit,
Marty Schlenker, Amateur Hornist
