Spitballs and Trumpets pg. 4, A Day in the Park with Haydn Mr. Smith suggested different images to Eric Nathan, age 16, who played the first movement of Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto. “You’ve got to put yourself back in the days of old. With Haydn, all is well with the world,” noted Mr. Smith. “It’s like a summer day in the park. Life is great. It needs to be happy and free.” For one phrase in the piece, he suggested that Eric imagine that he was bowing gracefully at a fancy ball, saying, “Will you have this dance with me?” Mr. Smith also explained that this concerto, composed in 1796, was the first piece written for a brand new kind of trumpet, one with keys, that could for the first time play all the notes in a scale. Before then, trumpets had no valves or keys and could play only some notes in the scale. “Now Haydn comes along and the very first notes of this piece are the whole scale,” Mr. Smith explained. “There was incredible excitement about that. Everyone in the audience back then went, ‘Oh, be still my heart!’ That excitement needs to translate into the tempo. It needs to be lighter. A faster tempo.” After he had Eric try it again a little faster, Mr. Smith said, “Very good. You’ve got the excitement and the naiveté.” Then he worked with Eric to clean up some sections where notes were a little out of rhythm. “Don’t rush,” advised Mr. Smith. “It just keeps chugging along.” To get his point across, Mr. Smith clapped the rhythm, sang it, played it himself, and then turned on his metronome. “Never leave home without it,” he advised. More-->	Inside the Philharmonic Philharmonic Journal Spitballs and Trumpets pg. 4, A Day in the Park with Haydn