Happy Birthday, Dad
My dad died in 2019 at the age of 104.
Last Sunday morning one of my sons called. “Today would have been your dad’s 110th birthday,” he said. “Why don’t we celebrate with lunch at Philippe’s?” That was one of my father’s favorite restaurants. It features French Dip sandwiches and has been a Los Angeles landmark for almost as many years as my dad was alive.
A celebration lunch sounded like a great idea, so a few hours later Daveen and I joined Steven and his son Noah at Philippe’s. Lunch was delicious. Afterwards I found myself in a contemplative mood.
Back home I rummaged through my office to find a copy of the 64-page paperback book, Essentials of Brass Playing by Fred Fox, which Dad self-published in 1974.
I’ve read that if you want to be immortal you must either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about. My dad did both. Long before writing his book, he was Solo French Horn of many orchestras, including the National Symphony in Washington, D.C., and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He was not only an outstanding French Horn player, but a teacher for the ages.
I observed him teach at many colleges, and so I was able to personally witness the magic. He began by asking a student playing a brass or wind instrument to play a few notes. That was all he needed to hear. After only a few notes, Dad would interrupt and begin to make suggestions. In every case his students became much better musicians after only three or four minutes.
To quote the final paragraph in Dad’s book:
“What is achieved on one note, is then extended to a phrase and then to a solo. Naturally it takes time and practice to develop the mental endurance to retain this total involvement in every note of a performance. Without it, playing is mundane, pedestrian. With it, it is alive and vital. Once the performer experiences how to make the sounds live, if he is really sincere, he has no choice; he must retain and develop the ‘LIFE‘ in playing! ETERNAL VIGILANCE!!!!!”
Dad taught life lessons that extend far beyond a French horn or clarinet – lessons on how to live that still resonate with thousands of his students. And certainly, in me.
Happy Birthday, Dad. I love you.
Alan
Comment ( 1 )