[Harp-L] Larry Adler stories

[ozharp@xxxxx]

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNI_meWl9to

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Hunter" 
To:"harp-l at xxxxx" 
Cc:
Sent:Sun, 11 Nov 2018 07:05:38 -0500
Subject:[Harp-L] Larry Adler stories

 Richard Hammersley wrote:
 I started my career researching memory and I am sympathetic to Larry
 Adler's view that recall is stories and that many people do not
appreciate
 that they are storytelling. But in the podcast he also says he cannot
read
 music. Yet he performed classical pieces written for the harmonica.
How?
 Did someone play the harmonica part on a piano so he could memorise
it? Any
 thoughts anyone? My first guess is by "not read music" the great
raconteur
 meant "not sight read at speed" rather than no knowledge at all.
 ***
 About 50 years ago I bought a book in which Adler presented some of
his
 favorite music with comments on how to perform. I don't have that
book
 now, and I wish I did. There were lots of interesting comments in it,
such
 as his observation that if you can't play a piece easily, you
shouldn't
 play it in public, because the audience will know how hard you're
working
 and will not enjoy it. (It may surprise some people to learn that
there was
 music Adler couldn't play easily, but that's what he said.)

 In that book, Adler made it clear that for most of his career to that
point
 he could not read a note. He recounts at length an episode in which
the
 conductor of an Australian symphony orchestra trapped him into
revealing
 that by showing him a section of a score and asking him how he wanted
it
 conducted. As we all know from recent comments on this forum, Adler's
 stories are not exactly gospel, but my guess is there was more than a
grain
 of truth in that one.

 In that book Adler claimed that he had learned to read later in his
 career--remember this was 50 years ago, so it would have been long
before
 his death. He said that doing so had opened up new worlds for him,
and he
 advised his readers to do the same. Whether that was more fabulation
from
 a master fabulist I don't know. If anyone has a picture of Adler
reading
 from a score, I'd like to see it.

 Regards, Richard Hunter
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