Saturday 2^nd December 2023

On this recent day, the outside world was remaining misty and frozen…

…it was -1°C at 12.30pm, and I was being allowed full use of my limbs again, as Soot the 20 year old cat went over to his bowl and did some loud munching. I squished myself into the little chair, by which point Mum had lit the fire and served up a slightly odd soup mixture (which seemed to contain a lot of mushrooms). That got consumed, she went horizontal on the sofa; I turned my hair straighteners on and did a very quick bit of hair tidying, and by 2.50pm – there were 66 minutes to sunset. Following his example, I decided to curl up on the rug, and dozed off until 3.35pm, when Mum had re-awoken, it was -1°C with a real feel of -3°C. I popped upstairs and saw an ambulance pull up several houses down the road, and then I boiled the kettle; Mum had a tuft of hair sticking out from the back of her head, and I sat down in the little chair with my tankard (its not very big – its a wooden mug – but I like it very much), consumed my tiffin, finished writing up my notes from 22nd November into the diary, and then I dressed myself suitably for tonight.

At 5.53pm – it was -2°C with a real feel of -5°C, the car windows were partially iced up, meaning stopping 60 seconds after leaving to spray them with de-icer was necessary, the sky was pitched black, traffic in the town was average, the home of the friend we were picking up was found, we picked him up, and driving went smoothly until – when nearing our destination – directions got very confusing and Mum started getting agitated. Eventually the car park and its correct level was found, a short walk got us to the venue of this concert, and once in the hall – my friend got a couple of flags out of his bag and I was reminded they were for waving during Land Of Hope And Glory.

The conductor’s arm waving got very enthusiastic during the piece being played as we’d entered (we’d got in there a bit late and music had already started), and a man (I wasn’t sure of his identity – and was later told he was the host) on stage then mentioned that all the instrumentalists do this in their own time and at their own expense; by the middle of the next piece I’d noticed the flag Mum was holding twitching, and the conductor was doing very enthusiastic swaying, arm waving, and some bouncing. Another man said everyone in the orchestra had some connection to the Birmingham Police family, mentioned raffle tickets, that a Fortnum & Mason giant hamper was the prize, and 1 year he’d misread it when telling the winner they’d won, and told them they’d won a giant hamster. The Cockaigne Overture came next; I wondered why French horn players have to keep one arm stuffed up the end of their horns –

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Yamaha.com – Musical Instrument Guide

How to Play the Horn

The biggest mystery of the horn-putting the right hand in the bell

Changing the pitch with the right hand

In contrast to the modern horn, the natural horn originally had no bell, and the only way to change the pitch was by changing the speed with which air was blown into the instrument. As a result, the notes that were emitted were limited to natural harmonics. C, G, C, E, G, B♭-horn players jumped around this arrangement of notes, and they could not play a phrase that included D or F. What changed all that was the hand-stopping technique.

The hand-stopping technique was devised as a solution to playing notes that were not natural harmonics. Hand-stopping entails controlling the pitch by inserting the right hand into the bell in varying degrees. This technique includes the full-stop and the half-stop, and it was made popular by Bohemian horn player A. J. Hampel in the mid-eighteenth century. Hand-stopping can change a note by a semitone or whole tone up or down, and thus makes it possible to play chromatic music on a natural horn.

 Is hand-stopping just a relic from the past?

Hand-stopping is no longer necessary to produce semitones because the horn has valves now. However, hand-stopping is still used today to support the instrument and to make minor adjustments to the pitch or timbre.

For example, playing the F horn slightly stopped with the right hand produces a tone called half-mute: a muddled, warm timbre that is a semitone lower than the note on the music.

What is the hand-stopping technique?

Using the right hand to completely seal off the bell increases the pressure of the air blown into the instrument, and a keen metallic tone about a semitone higher is produced. This is called hand-stopping, and it is used to create a certain mood in a song. Hand-stopping is indicated by a “+”.

In terms of physics, the hand-stopping technique raises the pitch to a little above the next lower harmonic, but in terms of music, it is probably easier to think of it as raising the pitch.

When blowing normally, hand-stopping will raise the pitch of the F tube by a semi-tone, and the B♭tube by a two-thirds tone.

Some horns have a gesttopft key, which lowers the pitch by the same amount that it rises. Horns with this key can play the note indicated on the score, but those that do not have this key must play a semitone lower when hand-stopping.

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.. and ceiling spot lights were rotating and creating blobs all over the place.

It was about 8.40pm when the first interval started, we all briefly left the theatre. Once re-seated, Star Trek was the next piece,  a couple of random party poppers went off during that; and then around 50 tiny little kids from Solihull Prep School came on – and ‘I’m walking in the air’ was their performance (with the orchestra).The stage lights all went red and the orchestra started up again; The Ode To The Fallen was the next piece, and during that, 8 people in black uniforms of various professions (2 in each uniform) came and stood on stage with their heads drooping, and a big Union Jack was being held by 1, with a different flag being held by another of them.

A man came on and said an exploding hamster was the raffle prize (Mum later told me he had a script, misread it, and it was a hamper), ticket numbers were announced, groups of police cadets were stood by several doors, the (female) orchestra police chairman (involved in organising the event and who is retiring this year) was presented with a clapboard and something I forgot, and then a man told us what the last piece was, and that we should all sing along. I spotted a little pink sausage balloon/some sort of popping thing flying around, and this song – from the musical The South Pacific (which was first done in America in 1949 and came to the UK in 1958) mentioned jello, being as high as a flag on 4^th July, that she was going to wash that man right out of her hair (I thought this singer was saying head), and send him on his way; and then she started singing Some Enchanted and Mum was trying to sing a bit. Sausage balloons and things causing loud popping noises continued going off during Rule Britannia – which I managed to film most of… (and warning, its loud)…

…and flag waving increased during that; it was followed by Land Of Hope And Glory (which I filmed), strange smells were being caused by party poppers, then Sleigh Ride got everyone clapping, the string players bows were lit up, deafeningly loud what I would describe as ‘indoor fireworks’ went off, more applause meant I was deafened, and I forgot when we left the theatre (we were home just after midnight).