by Harriet Conant Foltinek, retired
During my university years in Alabama, I spent summers in Washington D.C. and took lessons from Mason Jones, principal horn in the Philadelphia Orchestra. After one of my lessons, Jones suggested that I go to a certain music store (which, I recall, seemed to specialize in horns) to buy a mute. When I entered the small store, there was an older gentleman lounging in front of the counter. I proceeded to discuss mutes with the clerk, and after trying a few mutes in my horn, the older gentleman commented that one particular mute seemed to him to sound the best in my small-bore horn. I agreed and proceeded to purchase it. The clerk made a quiet comment to me—I had just chosen a de Polis mute on the recommendation of the legendary Anton Horner!
A few lessons later, Jones suggested that a different mouthpiece might help my sound, and he offered to loan me one on trial. It was well-used, in need of replating, but a nice mouthpiece. There was no marking on it, so it obviously was hand-made. I decided to purchase the mouthpiece (perhaps for $10.00), and I used it from that day on.
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Harriet with her
Berv mouthpiece, 2004 |
After graduating as the first horn major at the University of Alabama, I was offered a job in western Canada with the fledgling Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. I had 2 weeks to get there for the first rehearsal of a short season. This was a community orchestra which was just beginning to import players in their efforts to become a fully professional organization. Over the following 20 years of growth, many more highly-skilled players were brought in, and as the orchestra grew, I had the opportunity to play each position in the section under a wide variety of conductors.
After a few years in Calgary, I purchased an older model Conn 8D that would blend better with the section, but my de Polis mute was too small for it. When I sold my old horn, I included the mute; but some years later, I learned that the mute was a rather rare one.
Having married and raised a family in Calgary, we moved in 1997 to the beautiful Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. After attending concerts by the area orchestra for a few seasons and chatting with the musicians, I was persuaded to get my horn out and attend an area workshop that summer. During all my years of playing, I had never been to a workshop, so I decided to do it. Lots of hard work and much practice time later, I took part in Horns a' Plenty in Salmon Arm, BC, in the summer of 2004. That led to some casual work locally as well as ten years supporting the area youth symphony horn section. In 2015, after some 65 years, it was finally time to pack up the horn for the last time; but my commitment to music did not wane, and I remained involved by doing volunteer work for the orchestra.
Fast-forward to 2022: the world is slowly opening up again after COVID, and the IHS is able to hold live workshops once more. I took out a membership again just to have a look, and while reading the August issue of Horn and More, I found an article on Dick Martz's huge collection of horns. One link on his site caught my eye: Mason Jones' Mouthpieces. Curious, I opened the link, scrolled down, and found a photo of a couple of scrawled notes in Mason Jones' handwriting with the names of students to whom he had loaned mouthpieces. Bingo! A long-mysterious connection was finally made: I am the Conant to whom Mason Jones loaned a mouthpiece back in the 1950's, as noted in the photo. What a thrill to read this story on the R.J. Martz website and finally learn that I had played my entire career on a marvelous old Berv mouthpiece from Mason Jones' large collection!
