Doing His Part, And Playing Yours Too!

A Conversation with Assistant Principal Horn Fritz Frozz

by Neil Kimel

Every section of the orchestra has an assistant principal who is an “understudy” of sorts in the principal’s absence and plays principal on certain operas as well, but in the horn section, Fritz Foss has quite a big job. Buckle up as you’re about to learn about the treacheries of transposition, the Wagner tuba, and what it means behind the scenes to be supremely flexible in moments of need.

1. What are the responsibilities of the assistant principal horn?

Assistant principal horn covers not only principal horn, but also doubles on principal Wagner tuba when required and the other four horn parts if anyone is rotated off or can’t play for any reason. During Covid times that can happen without much warning.

2. What elements make the job most challenging?

People say the French horn is the hardest instrument to play. I’d offer that Wagner tuba lies up there too, perhaps higher. You’ve spent your 10,000+ hours learning the horn, here’s a pretend tuba with a horn mouthpiece, so see how good you can make it sound in a few weeks for a live audience. Oh, and we’ll secretly record it and put it on Spotify! The instruments notoriously aren’t in tune with themselves, so it takes some talented players spending lots of individual time with Lyric’s Wagner tubas, and one or two extra sectionals apart from the orchestra to get it to sound good.

3. Having to "understudy" for so many different "roles," how do you prepare and keep it all straight?

Fortunately, we don’t have as many notes as the violins! One thing that helps me is being flexible! Just spending a bit of time regularly on the fundamentals really helps me: high/low, loud/soft, transparent/full, light/heavy, fast/slow. For the different “roles,” I start learning the 1st horn part, then move my way down the line. I work up the challenging stuff, like solos or technically difficult parts or transpositions (horns often have to read music in one key and play a specified interval up or down from what we see on the page). I figure out when parts are doubled, in octaves, harmony or melody, and how it fits with the singers or other parts. It helps to play along with a good recording. I’m over-simplifying, but each part has its challenges.

4. Is it exciting or nerve-wracking when you are asked to step in, and do you have any favorite stories of when this happened?

It’s exciting because you’re laser-focused playing a new part that you haven’t played in rehearsal. A couple of years ago, we had a bunch of brass players out on Verdi’s Don Carlos due to Covid proximity exposure in the pit. I moved over to principal from assistant and we brought in super-players Gail Williams and Matt Oliphant from the off-stage banda into the pit to fill in for the other two horns who were not allowed to play. Fortunately, we had a sectional before, and the horn quartet that opens Act 2 went really well. The horn is a transposing instrument. In that particular spot, the four horn parts are written in four different keys, but it sounds in unison before going into 4-part harmony. That transposition is not easy, and the horns did a marvelous job! It could have easily been a train wreck.