The following text appeared originally in Roger Bobo's blog.

Monday, August 18, 2008

The Phelps Syndrome and the Gold; Dare we Dream?

Greetings from Jeju, Korea. The competition is over and more than just the very high level of performance in final rounds for both euphonium and tuba needs to be addressed!

Benjamin Pierce, a true virtuoso on both euphonium and tuba was in the finals on both instruments. He won first place in the tuba division, and in euphonium it was very close between Mr. Pierce, an American, and first place winner Bastien Baumet from France.

I was brought up and trained with the clear understanding that if we changed the rim size of our mouthpiece we were in serious risk of loosing our fine edge of performance, and that was only with tuba mouthpieces! It was more or less unthinkable that one could play at an equally high level on either a tenor mouthpiece (trombone and euphonium) or a bass mouthpiece (basstuba or contrabasstuba). Benjamin Pierce has dispelled that dogma; there was absolutely nothing compromised in his performances on either instrument.

There are rumors now of various instrumentalists in the world who can play all the brass instruments and play them well. One of these men is Australian James Morrison, who has proven to be uncompromisingly great on all brass, perhaps he and the other advocates of this new trend of versatility are simply a hint of what we might expect in the future

No one has to ask anymore if changing instruments can work well between tuba and euphonium, Benjamin Pierce proved that today, so could it possibly work equally well with trombone, trumpet or even horn? There are rumors now of various individuals in the world who can play all the brass instruments well. One of these men, Australian James Morrison, has proven to be uncompromisingly great on all brass. Perhaps he and the other advocates of this new trend of versatility are simply a hint of what we might expect in the future.

Dare we dream that in future Jeju International Competitions one might go home with the gold in Tuba, euphonium, trumpet, trombone, basstrombone, and horn? Not likely from our limited viewpoints of today, but my limited viewpoint of 45 years ago wouldn’t have thought what Mr. Pierce achieved today would have been possible either. And as a competitive swimmer 50 years ago, one wouldn’t have dreamed possible the accomplishments we’ve seen from Michael Phelps with his eight gold medals in various swimming events; in those days freestylers were freestylers and butterfly breaststrokers were specialist in butterfly! It’s the “Roger Banister and the Four Minute Mile” all over again. (See bomaestro.blogspot.com June 2004)

It’s both amazing and sad that our species is reluctant to think beyond the comforts of normalcy and that we sometimes fail to see that the extreme high achievers, the winners, are the ones who are able to think beyond those comfortable confines. Those who have the courage to dream have a better chance to be a winner.

Jeju, Korea
Posted by Roger Bobo at 7:42 PM

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