You know how it is … writers … especially for newspapers … they just try to be witty. So do the folks who write the headlines.

Get this one:

Symphony trombonist overcomes horn failure

As second trombonist for Johnstown Symphony Orchestra, Dana Menser of Somerset can’t let anything slide.

Heh. Yeah. Kind of sad, isn’t it?

I’m glad the lowly trombone (ignoring what Berlioz thought*) got its moment in the sun. But geesh.

* “I regard the trombone as the true leader of the race of wind instruments which I have described as ‘epic.’ It possesses nobility and grandeur to a high degree and it has all the solemnity of high musical poetry, ranging from a calm, imposing, devotional aura to the wild clamors of an orgy. It is up to the composer to make it chant like a chorus of priests, or utter threats, then muffled groans, then a subdued funeral knell, then a resounding hymn of glory, then a piercing shriek, then a mighty fanfare for the waking of the dead or the death of the living.”

-Hector Berlioz

We all know better, of course.

And notice how Berlioz may have said that but he gave the English horn some fine, fine moments. So we forgive him his momentary insanity.