Posted by Rick Denney on March 07, 2001 at 18:09:56:
In Reply to: Tubists and Baseball Players posted by Daryl Hickman on March 07, 2001 at 17:53:20:
I think even more than the modern instruments are the modern expectations. August Helleberg was compared against ophicleide and early basstuba players. He established a standard for playing that was the best of his day, and he may have thought that was the pinnacle of achievement. Who knows what he might have accomplished if he studied the playing of Pilafian and Sheridan, or Schmitz and Pokorny. Each generation builds on the previous generation.
Just look at high-school players these days. Normal kids are playing stuff that only the exceptionally gifted players of yesteryear would tackle, and they are doing it because they expect to be able to.
The instruments themselves make such comparisons hard, but the playing standards make it even harder. It is likely that Helleberg would have been fired if he made the sort of sounds that are expected today, because he would have buried the rest of the orchestra.
Are athletes better now, or should we be surprised that, for example, figure skaters to quadruple turns routinely? Maybe they are better; maybe not. But they expect to be better.
Rick "an interesting topic" Denney