This morning, I had to rely on experience to get me out of a jam.
I started out the day commenting on a couple of posts here on AR. But about 9 a.m., I dragged myself away from the computer and drove to Saint Paul, to perform the Dvorak Mass in D at the Church of Saint Agnes. We perform these Latin Masses with full chorus and orchestra about twenty sundays a year. The vocalists are members of the Twin Cities Catholic Chorale and many of the instrumentalists are current or former members of the Minnesota Orchestra. [Note: all of the participating musicians in the orchestra are members of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 30-73, AFL-CIO]
I arrived at the church and made my way up to the choir loft. A few orchestra mermbers were warming up and we were about ten minutes away from starting the Mass. I took my Lawson French horn out of the case and discovered that the second valve wasn't working. It was stuck!
I soon realized I wasn't going to be of much use to the orchestra with a non-functioning instrument. So I excused myself, borrowed a jeweler's screwdriver from a colleague and ran down several flights of stairs to the church basement. There, in a large kitchen, were the "church ladies", preparing coffee and setting out donuts for parishioners.
I was a bit out of breath, but I approached one of the church ladies and asked if they had any rubber bands around the kitchen. She pointed to a drawer and we found three rubber bands of various sizes there.
I think the kitchen staff folks were a bit amused at what was going on. They cleared off part of the kitchen counter so I would have a work area to repair my horn. One of the things I had figured out was that the valve spring was broken and the valve would go down but not come back up again. I used one of the rubber bands to rig a "return spring" that would make the valve work again. I had to work pretty fast, as the orchestra was starting up, beginning the Agnus Dei of the Mass.
I finished the makeshift repair and ran back up the stairs. I had missed the Agnus Dei, but I was able to pick up my part near the beginning of the Gloria and I finished the Mass without encountering any more mechanical problems.
Surprises like this one can give you grey hair! I have to thank those church basement ladies at Saint Agnes for helping me deal with a panic situation.
Copyright 2008, Eric Kodner, All Rights Reserved
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