Introduction

Acknowledgments, Foreword and Preface

Extracted from the published edition
(Originally PhD thesis, Oxford University, May 2000)

by Ken Shifrin, Former Principal Trombonist, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Dedicated to my mentor and friend Professor Jarmil Burghauser, 1921-1997

Acknowledgements

This thesis would not have been possible without the assistance and encouragement of many individuals to whom a debt of gratitude is owed. While I have tried to acknowledge in the text all those who provided source material and shared their expertise, there are a number of individuals who deserve special recognition:

• The eagle-eyed, razor-sharp John Wagstaff, my friend and head librarian of the Music Faculty, Oxford University, who led me out of the darkness;
• the patient, understanding Dr Peter Franklin, without whose help the pages that follow would not have been written;
• Professor Brian Trowell for believing in me and the inspiration I derived from that;
• Jeremy Montagu, for not believing in me and the inspiration I derived from that;
• Dr Hélène La Rue, my academic supervisor;
• Bruckner expert Dr Crawford Howie from Manchester University;
• Fiona White, for whom the small fortune she received was meagre recompense for her word-processing skill and advice;
• graphic-artist Nigel Pennington;
• calligrapher David Cunningham;
• Dr Joanna Archibald for her meticulous proof-reading;
• Robert Parker, music librarian of the British Library, who sang to me in Czech over the telephone;
• Berlioz specialist, Dr Hugh MacDonald;
• Andrew Knowles of Alfred A. Kalmus/Universal Edition (UK) who moved mountains to procure unprocurable autograph scores and first edition publications;
• Wolfgang Penzias and Anna Azmi of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce who ran interference for me whenever I came up against Austrian bureaucratic red tape;
• Helmut Braunlich who untangled some of the knottier German text and provided translations;
• William McElheny and librarian Clement Hellsburg of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra;
• Rudolph Buchmeyer, librarian of the St Florian Stift;
• Klaus and Elisabeth of Thomi-Berg Musik Verlag in Munich;
• Dr Michael Struck, Head of the Brahms Institute at Kiel University, for his time, patience, expertise and lunch;
• the librarians and staff of the National Library and Gesellschaft Library in Vienna (especially Frauen Liess and Hrdlika);
• Director Marketta Hallová of the Prague Dvořák Museum and her assistant 'Mrs E', so dubbed because her surname is unpronounceable even to her Czech colleagues;
• Zuzana Petrášková, Music Librarian of the Czech National Library;
• the British Academy of the Humanities, Linacre College and the Music Faculty for their generous financial assistance;
• Edward Solomon, Webmaster of the British Trombone Society, for his constant encouragement and expertise, proofreading the French and German language extracts, consultative advice and inspiration for the title and ultimately publishing the current work on the Internet;
• and above all my parents for their unstinting support and who still cannot get over the fact that someone could write an entire thesis just about the trombone.

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