Air without an E-string
Sir: Anthony Burgess's story of Toscanini and the double-bass player with a broken E-string (10 July) is a variation on an equal- ly implausible one, doubtless also originating from that inveterate manufac- turer of musical anecdotes, Ben Trovato. As generally told (and I last heard Sir Adrian Boult relating it), it concerns a bass- clarinet player. 'Maestro, my E-flat key has broken off. I am afraid I cannot play tonight.' Maestro closes his eyes and knits his brows in a few moments' concentration: 'Oh yes, you can play, my friend. There is no E flat in your part.'
This, of course, is told as an example of Toscanini's phenomenal memory. But (if true) it also illustrates his evident ignorance of how wind instruments function. He must have thought that to play a certain note one simply presses the requisite key, as on a piano; whereas, of course, a broken-off key
puts practically the entire wind instrument out of action. Incidentally, it would be in- teresting to know the contents of that con- cert whose second half did not make use of the lowest string of the double-bass; and which orchestra had a double-bass section whose members were unable to muster a single spare E-string between them.
Fritz Spiegl
4 Windermere Terrace, Liverpool
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