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"item_title" : "A Devil to Play",
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"item_description" : "One rusty instrument, twelve impossible months, and the mad quest to master the orchestra's most treacherous brass.A charming and deeply funny memoir of musical obsession, A Devil to Play is the story of Jasper Rees, a man who unearths his childhood French horn, and begins a quixotic but obsessively serious challenge: to play a Mozart concerto--alone--for a paying audience within one year's time.It's an endearing, inspiring tale of perseverance and achievement, relayed masterfully, one side-splittingly off-key note at a time.Music Memoirs: Rees embarks on his year-long obsession after impulsively joining seventy horn players in Handel's Hallelujah chorus at the British Horn Society annual gathering.History of Music: Deep instrumental lore is woven throughout, tracing the horn from prehistoric rams' horns and Roman battlefield signals to the colourful exploits of Mozart's favorite hornist, Joseph Leutgeb.Raw Honesty: From conquering Farkas warm-ups in a derelict West End office to suffering lip fatigue in front of critical players at a New Hampshire camp, every humiliating technical failure is laid bare.Against the Odds: Armed with a student-grade Czechoslovakian instrument, Rees faces down sheer performance panic before the world's elite brass players at London's Guildhall School of Music.",
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A Devil to Play : One Man's Year-Long Quest to Master the Orchestra's Most Difficult Instrument
by Jasper Rees
Overview
One rusty instrument, twelve impossible months, and the mad quest to master the orchestra's most treacherous brass.
A charming and deeply funny memoir of musical obsession, A Devil to Play is the story of Jasper Rees, a man who unearths his childhood French horn, and begins a quixotic but obsessively serious challenge: to play a Mozart concerto--alone--for a paying audience within one year's time.
It's an endearing, inspiring tale of perseverance and achievement, relayed masterfully, one side-splittingly off-key note at a time.
- Music Memoirs: Rees embarks on his year-long obsession after impulsively joining seventy horn players in Handel's "Hallelujah" chorus at the British Horn Society annual gathering.
- History of Music: Deep instrumental lore is woven throughout, tracing the horn from prehistoric rams' horns and Roman battlefield signals to the colourful exploits of Mozart's favorite hornist, Joseph Leutgeb.
- Raw Honesty: From conquering Farkas warm-ups in a derelict West End office to suffering lip fatigue in front of critical players at a New Hampshire camp, every humiliating technical failure is laid bare.
- Against the Odds: Armed with a student-grade Czechoslovakian instrument, Rees faces down sheer performance panic before the world's elite brass players at London's Guildhall School of Music.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9780061626623
- ISBN-10: 0061626627
- Publisher: Harper Perennial
- Publish Date: December 2009
- Dimensions: 8.02 x 5.22 x 0.79 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.56 pounds
- Page Count: 336
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