First Solo Piece

Youtube has just recommended me a video from deep in the past. The video is a recording of the piece En Ireland by Eugene Bozza. It is a solo piece for f horn that was written to be performed by horn players at Conservatoire de Paris to be performed as a bit of a test before different juries. Now, it isn't only that to me. In between the years of sixth and seventh grade, it was the first big solo piece I learned and performed for a large audience. Not only that, but I learned it for an overnight camp at a university across the state. Something about the smell of the wood of the concert hall and the dry summer air sticks in my head. The smell of cork grease, valve oil, and barbecue at the nearby park. The coppery nosebleeds and the coppery lip-chapping from the dry, crackling heat. The sunscreen and very special ice cream that the music performance professors walked us to try. I've never told anybody this, but Dr. King feels sort of like a father to me. Even as I am now not eligible to go to that camp because I am too old. I decided to not be a part of that music program there at that school, and I now regret it. Where I am now, there is very little music, and what little there is isn't encouraged and hardly can gain an ear to listen to it and bear witness to its brief existence. If I had Dr. King as a professor, I would feel much more supported in what I want to do. I would get to play for people on that same stage with that same old wood and that same dry air as I did in middle school. I don't know why I made that decision not to go to that university- or, really I do, but it's embarrassing to admit a case of private college-elitism when one has it. I miss those idyllic warm days with their rolling hills and barbecues and people trying their damn hardest to forge their playing into something sharp and specialized. Anyhow, here's the piece that this whole series of thoughts began with.

It's Got a Nostalgic Melody to It