A Devil to Play: One Man's Year-Long Quest to Master the… (2008)

Rees is an engaging writer. The blend of memoir and music history is just right. I didn't feel that I totally understood why he picked up the French horn again in the first place, but I thoroughly enjoyed his narrative of what happened over the next year. ( )

41/2009. I love books about the technique and technology of music and this one imparted a lot of horn lore, for instance, players have to be able to transpose on sight. And after Handel the horn quickly supplanted the trumpet as the main brass instrument of orchestral music - forcing trumpeters to go off and invent jazz, as Rees flippantly says. There's a nice arc in his progress from restarting the instrument to playing a Mozart concerto at the Barbican, which would have made an excellent reality TV show, or series of them on different orchestral instruments. You'll want to move quickly through the twee and unfunny '1066 and all that' sections on the horn's origins and use in medieval battle to get to the better written second half. (Stockmann, this spring)

Did you play a musical instrument in high school, only to give it up as soon as you graduated? Did you ever wonder what it would be like to pick it up again and perform in front of other musicians?

Well, Jasper Rees did. As he approaches the age of 40 he pulls his old french horn out of the case and attends the British Horn Society's annual convention. After playing in the mass horn choir, he decides to start practicing again with the goal of playing a solo at next year's convention. This book is about his journey of relearning the horn. Along the way he meets and takes lessons with some of the horn world's most famous players. Intertwined with his personal journey is a history of the horn.

I am a professional horn player and I found this book pretty amusing. The author definitely embraces the horn and I would have to say becomes a raging "horn-dork". This was mildly annoying to me because I know too many people who are like this. But, it was fun to read since I've met and worked with many of the horn players in the book. I even attended the "horn camp" that he attends - twice. (Who's the horn-dork now???)

Anyway, if you ever played the horn you will probably enjoy this book. Or if you remember your high school band days playing any instrument, this book may give you a few laughs or possibly a little inspiration to give it another go! ( )