Borsdorf became professor at the Royal College of Music when it was founded in 1882. He also taught at the Royal Academy of Music. He soon became the best horn player in London. He was playing principal horn in the orchestra which Henry Wood conducted at the very first Promenade Concert in the Queen’s Hall in 1895 (the fourth horn was A.E.Brain, grandfather of Dennis Brain). He was also in the orchestra when Richard Strauss’s "Till Eulenspiegel" was given its first performance in England in 1896 with the composer conducting.
In 1913, he became ill and had to have teeth removed. There was also another problem for him: World War I broke out in 1914 and there was a lot of anti-German feeling in England. After the war he rarely played in public.
Borsdorf died in 1923. He had done more than anyone else to improve the standard of horn playing in England. He taught many talented pupils, including A.E.Brain Jr., Aubrey Brain, Frank Probyn and his own three sons: Oskar, Francis and Emil who all became professional horn players.
Mute (instrument)
A mute is an object used to make a musical instrument quieter.
Alfred Edwin Brain Sr.
Alfred Edwin Brain (born Turnham Green, London, 4 February 1860; died London, 25 October 1929), was an English player of the French horn. He was the founder of a great school of English horn playing. His grandson Dennis Brain became perhaps the most famous horn player of all time. He is known as A.E .Brain Sr. (Senior) because one of his sons, who also was a famous horn player, had the same name.
A.E. Brain was born in 1860. His father fought in the Crimean War and was invalid. Alfred was not well educated. When he was 12 he joined the Scots Guards and played the horn in the band. He married in 1880 and had seven children. Two of the children became great horn players: Alfred and Aubrey.
He played in several orchestras, including the Philharmonic Society, the Queen’s Hall Orchestra and Covent Garden. He played a lot for Henry Wood in The Proms. In orchestras he nearly always played fourth horn, so his nickname was “George IV”. In 1904 he became a founding member of the London Symphony Orchestra. The four horn players in that orchestra: Adolf Borsdorf, Thomas Busby, Henri Van der Meerschen and A.E. Brain, were often called “God’s Own Quartet” because they blended together so well.
He died in 1929 after a short retirement.
Alfred Edwin Brain Jr.
Alfred Edwin Brain Jr. (born London, 24 October 1885; died Los Angeles, 29 March 1966) was an English player of the French horn. He came from a family which included many famous horn players, including his nephew, Dennis Brain who became perhaps the most famous horn player of all time.
A.E.Brain Jr (Junior, to distinguish him from his father who had the same name) was born in 1885. His father, Alfred Edwin Brain Sr. was a well-known horn player. Alfred started to learn the trumpet when he was six, but when he was twelve he changed to the French horn and learned from his father. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Adolf Borsdorf and also learned the piano from G.D.Cunningham who was to teach his nephew the organ some forty years later. His first professional job was with the Scottish Orchestra. He then played in the Queen’s Hall Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra.
When World War I broke out he joined the Scots Guards, but later, in 1917, he did a lot of dangerous work in France where the fighting was taking place. After the war he was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal for his bravery.
When he returned after the war he got jobs with several of the London orchestras, including Covent Garden where he played for Sir Thomas Beecham. His brother Aubrey, also an excellent horn player, returned from the war after him. By this time Alfred had got all the best horn jobs in London, so it was difficult for Aubrey to find the best jobs.
In 1923 he emigrated to the United States. He played in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and later for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. In his later years he recorded a lot in movie studios, including for 20th century Fox.
Skimboarding
Skimboarding is a form of shallow water surfing.
When the waves at shallow water were poor, surfers would often attempt to surf in shallow breaking water. This led to the making of smaller, lighter boards, named skimboards for the way they allow the user to skim across the surface of the water. Lifeguards were quick to adopt these new boards and used skimboarding as a way to quickly move up and down the beach in shallow water. Skimboarding has progressed and is now a recognized sport. Competitions are held each year around the world and produce large amounts of revenue for the market interested in this sport. These competitions also allow skimboarders to exhibit maneuvers that technology, evolution and skill have made possible.
Arminius
Arminius, also known as Armin or Hermann (b. 18 BC/17 BC in Magna Germania; d. AD 21 in Germania) was a chieftain of the Cherusci. He was able to unite a group of Germanic tribes together to fight the Romans. They destroyed a Roman army in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. This was the greatest military disaster the Romans had ever suffered.
After the battle, Arminius immediately sent Varus' severed head to Maroboduus, king of the Marcomanni, the other most powerful Germanic ruler. Arminius offered an anti-Roman alliance. Marobod declined the offer, sending the head on to Rome for burial, and remained neutral throughout the ensuing war. Only later did a brief, inconclusive war break out between the two Germanic leaders.
Later, in 14 AD, the Roman general Germanicus, nephew of the Emperor Tiberius, led a huge 8-legion army (a legion was up to 5,000 men) into Germania against the coalition of tribes led by Arminius.
After visiting the site of the disastrous Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, where 15/20,000 Romans had been killed in 9 AD, and burying their remains, he launched a massive assault on the heartland of Arminius' tribe, the Cheruscans.
Arminius initially lured Germanicus' cavalry into a trap and inflicted minor casualties, until successful fighting by the Roman infantry caused the Germans to break and flee into the forest. This victory, combined with the fact that winter was fast approaching, meant Germanicus's next step was to lead his army back to its winter quarters on the Rhine.
In spite of doubts on the part of his uncle, Emperor Tiberius, Germanicus managed to raise another huge army and invaded Germany again the next year, in 16. He forced a crossing of the Weser near modern Minden, suffering heavy losses. Then he met Arminius' army in an engagement often called the Battle of the Weser River.
Germanicus's superior tactics and better trained and equipped legions inflicted huge casualties on the German army, with only minor losses. One final battle was fought at the Angivarian Wall west of modern Hanover, repeating the pattern of high German fatalities, forcing them to flee.
With his main objectives reached and with winter approaching Germanicus ordered his army back to their winter camps, with the fleet occasioning some damage by a storm in the North Sea. However, only a minute number of Romans died due to this storm. After a few more raids across the Rhine, which resulted in the recovery of two of the three legion's eagles lost in 9, Germanicus was recalled to Rome and informed by Tiberius that he would be given a triumph and reassigned to a different command.
Five years later, Arminius was killed on the orders of rival Germanic chiefs. Although Arminius could not keep unity among the Germanic tribes, the loss of Roman legions in the Teutoburg forest had a far-reaching effect on the Germanic tribes and the Roman Empire. Germanicus' campaign was the last major Roman military effort east of the Rhine.
Doctor of Medicine