O.J.'s Trumpet Page Artists and personalities

Harry Glantz

Harry Glantz
 
Harry Glantz (1896 - 1982)
Harry (Hersch was his first name at birth) Glantz was born on first of January, 1896, in a small town (probably Proskurov) in Ukraine.

He died of a chronic heart ailment Saturday, December 18, 1982 in Bay Harbor, Florida.

Moved to USA
In 1901, at age 5, Harry Glantz his mother and older sister moved to USA. His father, Pinchus Glantz, had moved 9 months earlier to avoid serving in the Czar's army again.

Student
Harry Glantz grew up in a musical family. His father was a violinist and string bassist. His uncle, Nathan Glantz was a well known saxophonist.
His first teachers were elder family members. He started on violin and then cello, both of which he disliked.

His first teacher (listed in Louis Davidson's survey) was Jack Borodkin at age 11. When he was 12, Max Schlossberg (1873 - 1936) was his teacher. But he also had Max Bleyer as a teacher at this age (1907-1909 at Julliard School of Music). Christian Rodenkirchen (1st trumpet with Chicago Symphony Orchestra) was a teacher that Glantz spoke highly of. Precisely when  Glantz studied with him is unknown.

Harry Glantz, was also a student of Gustav Heim. On one incident (see ITG Journal, February 1996, page 14) Heim was rude to him (due to Glantz being a jew) and Glantz probably left his studio after this episode.

Symphony orchestral trumpeter
SFSO brass section 1928
San Francisco Symphony brass section 1923.
Frist row: Percy Code (2nd); Harry Glantz (1st), Otto Kegel (3rd), Bert Dering (4th)

Harry Glantz played principal trumpet with the following orchestras:

Russian Symhony Orchestra in New York (under Modest Altchuler, at age 15 in 1911)
Philadelphia Orchestra (1915 - 1917),
San Francisco Symphony (1922 -1923),
New York Philharmonic-Symphony, now the Philharmonic (1928 - 1942),
NBC Symphony (under Arturo Toscanini, 1942 - 1954),
He also performed with Symphony of the Air.

Time off from the symphony
Harry Glantz would take every summer off and would pack up the trumpet. This left the principal chair in the NBC Symphony open each summer. The 2nd chair would move to 1st, and the 3rd would move to 2nd. Harry's top students would take 3rd chair and 4th when required. Joe Alessi spent a few happy summers playing 3rd chair this way and gained valuable orchestral experience. One day, a very young player was warming up back stage to play the 4th chair. He was only about 18 or 19 years old, but even during his warmup, Joe and the others could tell this guy was something special. They just stopped playing and took in his jaw-dropping warmup. They had no idea who this guy was, but his name was Carl Severinsen. They certainly remembered him soon after, as Doc became one of the most famous trumpeters ever.

Teacher
His first student was Philip Fisher (assistant first with Philadelphia). Fisher later helped with the "Harry Glantz Mouthpiece".
Other well known players who were students of Glantz are Seymour Rosenfeld, Frank Kaderabek, David Zauder and Robert Grocock.

Joe Alessi Sr., the father of the famous NY Philharmonic trombonist Joe Alessi Jr., was a student of Glantz. Joe was born in 1923 in Brooklyn and according to the preface to his book of drills, Joe studied with Schlossberg, Vacchiano, and after winning the Ossip Gabrilowitsch Memorial Scholarship, studied with Glantz for two years. This was probably in the late 40's or early 50's when Glantz was with the NBC Orchestra.
"Hello Harry"
Joe would come into his lessons and say politely, "Hello Mr. Glantz!"  Mr. Glantz would reply in a friendly tone, "Call me Harry!"  They would get down to business, and of course, out of respect, Joe was not going to call him Harry.  Next lesson... "Hello Mr. Glantz!"... "Call me Harry!"  This went on for some weeks. Joe finally got up the courage to enter the lesson and said "Hello Harry!"  To which Harry shouted "Call me MISTER GLANTZ!!"
 
After moving to Florida in 1958, Glantz continued as a lecturer and teacher. In 1972, he was appointed an instructor and lecturer at the University of Miami Graduate School of Music.

Equipment
Parduba Bb trumpet (1929 - 1940)
Conn - "my wonderful C Conn"
Later years a Benge Bb medium large bore.
Bach 3C and 6C mouthpiece.

The "Harry Glantz Mouthpiece"
Glantz first workede with Conn. In 1935 they made a stock Conn 4 trumpet mouthpiece with Glantz name on it.
After Wold War II Glantz started working with Dominick Calicchio.


The Glantz Etude book
Charles Colin, NY 1974: (CCMS02) "48 Studies - The Complete Harry Glantz". 
Challenging trumpet studies, etudes, and solos of the legendary trumpet maestro. Studies cover single, double and triple tonguing, slurs, intervals, scales; and develop technical facility, endurance, breath control. The solos introduce the player to the bravura  style of playing for which Glantz was so admired.

Harry Glantz's volume of etudes, many of which are technically difficult, are very challenging to play cleanly. Joe Alessi Sr. was struggling with one of the hardest etudes, so Harry stood up, stepped about six feet in front of Joe (his back toward Joe), and proceeded to play the entire etude to absolute perfection. Joe asked Mr. Glantz if he could play it once again, but facing him this time, since Joe wanted to see how he played it. To which Mr. Glantz replied, "What, are you crazy?"

Recordings
Harry Glantz is heard on records with the NBC Symphony...

Francis Poulenc: Sonata For Horn, Trumpet and Trombone
Harry Glantz trumpet,
Arthur Berv horn,
Gordon Pulis trombone

Glantz's vibrato
On the NBC Symphony recordings, you can hear Harry Glantz's beautiful vibrato. Vibrato was much more common in the symphonic playing in those days. Joe Alessi Sr. explained that Harry would use only hand vibrato. He would start shaking the hand while inhaling, so that the vibrato was going even with the first sound out of the horn.
As a role model
Glantz was William Vacchiano's role model as a young player:
"I remember when I went to school for four years I used to play a record every morning because I used to love the sound of this particular player. It was Glantz playing March of the Prophets by Meyerbeer. I used to play that record every day to get that sound in my ear."
(ITG Journal, May 1995, p. 11)

Links
Sources:

* Bill Shunk (inspiration to make this page)
* Edward H. Tarr "Die Trompete" 4. edition 2005
* Edward H. Tarr "East meets west:the Russian trumpet tradition from the time of Peter the Great", 1. edition 2003
* ITG Journal (May, 1995)
* ITG Journal (February, 1996)
* Louis Davidson, Trumpet Profiles (1975 - p.36)
* Ken Saul, owner Ultra-Pure Oils (info about his teacher, Joe Alessi Sr.)
* Lois Glantz Rosenfeld commented about her fathers first name: "Since the first name was recorded, no doubt, in Hebrew or Russian, the �Hersch� was Yiddish, and he was never called that except as an affectionate term by some older family members and friends."
o.j.2010