Example: Should a hornist, unfortunately, have had the crazy idea of being interested in a subject concerning the trombone or the tuba, he would have had to sacrifice a session for his own instrument, which was inevitably scheduled at the same time. A cruel dilemma! The marathon was even more exhausting because certain sessions were sleep-inducing.
After a bustling day, drunk with sounds, theories, and impressions, the heroic congressman collapsed in a chair in the concert hall to face, in a last surge of energy, the rich program of the daily concert (never less than three hours!). I do not feel that I have the soul of a musical critic (generally, the concerts were successful and there was something for everyone's taste), so I would rather talk about the public. I was struck by the variety of applause that punctuated the different artists, performances and the different instruments. Strange! A hornist is not applauded in the same way as a tubist. The technical prowess is followed by a din of hurrahs; one stands, one mutilates his hands, one crushes the floor. The intimate musical rendition, in contrast, is applauded with restraint, by a long, but noble patting of one hand by the other.
Altogether, the musical programs were traditional and conservative: works of competition, pieces of virtuosity, classical repertoire; in short, for a congress nothing really new. (I had always thought a congress was an event whose purpose was to promote new ideas and techniques in a given field by submitting it to analysis and criticism by the participants; imagine for a second, at the next surgeons congress—in 1977—a famous doctor coming simply to show his agility and eloquence in extracting an appendix, and what is more, getting paid for it!)
The only ones who tried to introduce new ideas were some trombonists, jazzmen, and tubists.
The important problems (for example: adaptation of the brass musicians to the diverse, contemporary artistic evolutions; the price of maintaining the traditional musical heritage, etc.) and the important questions (for instance: for whom do we play our instruments; which image should we project to the public?) were not raised or debated. That is sad!
Is it, perhaps, the reason why the key question, scheduled for the last big debate, remains unanswered: "Where do we go from here?"