Customer Reviews

A Devil to Play: One Man's Year-Long Quest to Master the Orchestra's Most Difficult Instrument

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have played the horn for 25 years, but reading this book was a whole new education for me. Not only is Jasper's quest amusing in its overkill, but it's a horn lesson for the rest of us too. I strongly recommend it to fellow hornists, and to those who wonder about the strange world we musicians live in.

A book that any musician who has ever tried to master an instrument will enjoy, but it will be especially enjoyable for horn players (and probably most brass players). One will learn the history of the horn, horn literature, and a look at the horn's most notable masters both living and deceased. Don't get the wrong idea, though, this is not a dry, academic exercise. It is filled with humor and a whole host of interesting characters and experiences. Highly recommended.

Could he do it?

A British journalist who had played the French horn (not very well) for about seven years while an adolescent decides, 22 years later, to pick up his old dusty Lidl horn, study and practice for a year, and then try to play movements from a Mozart horn concerto in front of the British Horn Society. But could he do it?

This is Jasper Rees' story -- surely an inspirational one for anyone (this reviewer included) who ever attempted to play this difficult instrument. It's a wonderful book, both humorous and serious. At one point I laughed so hard my eyes were tearing and my nose was running! But chapter 7, which discusses Dennis Brain, is rather sad. One of the finest horn players ever, Brain's life ended in 1957 at age 36 as a result of a car crash.

The last chapter is the grand finale -- the recounting of that nerve-racking, gut-wrenching experience in front of all those horn players, including some of the world's finest. As I read the last couple of pages in which Mr. Rees gives a blow-by-blow description of his mistakes, triumphs, and final bow, tears came to my eyes. He had done it. Jasper achieved his difficult goal.

I think the book is a must-read for horn players, past and present, good and not-so-good, but its appeal is broader than this. Probably just about anybody who tried to play a musical instrument in a band and/or orchestra as a youth would find it a pleasure to read. It can certainly bring back memories. Its appeal to lovers of the French horn in general is obvious.

So thanks to Jasper Rees and his publisher for giving us this delightful book. Finally, a personal thank you to a Jasper Rees-like horn player, Craig Kowald, for making the book known to me.

Tim Koerner February 2009

'The info about the horn is excellent, and overall I enjoyed the book. I would have preferred more Dennis Brain and less Beatles, but that's just me. The genre is slightly hokey - it falls into the whole "I decided to do something crazy for a year in order to write about it" genre of book that's become more and more popular lately - but his writing is solid and it never feels cliche.

Jasper Rees' book was highly entertaining, and should be read by all "serious amateurs", at any instrument. He manages to meet many of the most influential people in the horn world, and discovers that there is joy in learning (or re-learning) a skill, even if perfection is currently out of reach.

If you play the horn, have ever played the horn, or just played any instruemnt at all you owe it to yourself to read this book. It is a delightful blend of real life, history, musical banter, and comedy as one man attempts to pick up the horn again after decades away from it and make himself good enough to perform solo in front of an audience full of internationally renown professionals. Full of interviews with many of those professional horn players, playing experiences, daily frustrations, comedic interludes, historical scenarios (mostly fictionalized and often humorous), and ultimately triumph. I could hardly put it down. Very easy read in the way it keeps your attention, never dwelling on any one subject very long, bouncing around but never losing cohesion. Buy the book, buy a recording of Mozart's horn concertos (shouldn't you have multiple recordings of those already anyway?) and then go to town on them both. You won't regret it. :)

I can't add much to other reviews, except this. I ran across this book after I also decided to return to horn playing after decades away. What an inspiration! It can be done! I'm not booking any public performances, but I'll see where I am after a year and hope I can get as far as Rees did. His determination and courage are an inspiration.

Rees's book is informative - it's full of odd facts - and funny. Rees's self-deprecating style reminds me of Bill Bryson's writing. I'll add this supposed fact about that famous solo Beethoven wrote for the 4th horn in the slow movement of his 9th symphony, which Rees mentions. Robert Greenberg says that Beethoven gave the part to the 4th horn because at the first performance, only the 4th horn player had one of those then-new fangled valved horns.

Having been treated to so much insider detail, it seems one might almost be able, without any previous experience, to pick up the horn and play an impeccable rendition of the slow movement from Mozart's Concerto for Horn #3, K447, but it would be impossible to play and laugh at the same time.

Like Jasper Rees, I stopped playing the horn in my teens, only to pick it up again after a nearly 30 year hiatus. I discovered "A Devil to Play" at about the same time and the book instantly transported me back to those earlier years of musical study. The book is an amazing compendium of all things French horn, although its thoroughness works against it at times (I found some sections to contain too much technical and historical detail). Nevertheless, Rees' humor more than makes up for the slow parts -- I often found myself shaking with laughter at his self-effacing encounters with the horn or with horn-playing professionals. I plan to give this book to every lapsed horn player I know (as it turns out, there are quite a few of them).

I was at the British Horn Society meeting where Jasper Rees - incredibly bravely - played Mozart in front of some of the legends of the horn playing world. Barry Tuckwell was in the audience, Frank Lloyd had just performed. That takes amazing determination, or perhaps foolishness. Maybe a bit of both. So, this book is for all those of us who took up music again as part of our mid-life crisis, and all those parents who wonder why they bothered fighting over practice when their children give up playing as they hit their teens. It's engagingly written and contains some lovely anecdotes and music trivia. Altogether a very well-rounded read.