“At the first rehearsal for the Philippine concerts, one of the numbers contained a difficult trumpet part, which seemed impossible for the first trumpet player, to play. Scheel postponed the rehearsal of this number until the next day, to allow him time to practice, but next day he could do no better. So the part was given to the second trumpet very much to the humiliation of the first player. But though very stern, Scheel was also very sympathetic with his musicians, and he realized what the feelings of the man must be. He therefore addressed the orchestra, in his usual formal way, and called for the attention of the players. Then turning to the first trumpet player, he remarked: ‘I have been listening to your playing for the last two days, and I feel sure it is not your fault that you could not play that one part in the composition. I notice that whenever you play a note in which the middle valve of your instrument is used, you have no difficulty in playing the part which you were unable to do before.’ This incident was told by the player, who took his trumpet to his instrument-maker and had one-sixteenth of an inch taken off the middle valve; with the result that he could play parts that he never could play before. He then remarked, ‘It matters not what happens between Scheel and me; I will always take off my hat to him, and say ‘Master’.’ “On another occasion the tympanum was not in tune. Scheel stopped the orchestra and asked the tympanist to tune his instrument. When the man started to turn the keys, Scheel said, ‘No, it is not on that side; it is on the right-hand side of the drum,’ showing that he, at the distance of a great many feet, could tell that the false vibrations were coming from the right side of the drum. “At one of the rehearsals the harp player had trouble with her part. Scheel said, ‘Skip that one chord and you will only have to change your pedals twice in place of five times.’ “He also had the peculiar faculty of being able to get the effect of instruments that were not in the orchestra by the combination of other instruments that would give the same tone. The writer remembers very distinctly Scheel’s using the French horn and the ’cello together to play the third bassoon part.” This brief account of the first leader of the Philadelphia Orchestra explains why the Executive Committee pinned its faith to Fritz Scheel.