Paul was out of order at Quintet

Just when things are going nicely, someone has to upset the applecart. Quintet was thrown into abject turmoil this evening by Phil who's now defected from horn to euphonium. In mitigation, he brought Mike along who played very well; it was a pleasure to meet him and have his tones in the blend. Two cornets had sent their apologies and a third was very late which left Joe on his own for the first three pieces. Now that's tough and he did well especially as everything was either new or nearly new tonight; nothing from repertoire. Well done Joe - sterling effort. 
Paul was a man on a mission tonight. We hate it when he's got his enthusiastic hat on - there's no peace. In keeping with his relentless pursuit of achievement, he suggested the Sortie (originally in E flat), by Lefébure-Wely be tackled. All was going well, except for the cornets who had too many notes to play, until Paul's new ordering system for pages led to a catastrophic discrepancy. His new 1-3-2 approach clashed with the traditional 1-2-3 preferred by the rest of the ensemble. The other players beat him into submission and unity was resumed.
In his dual role of euph player and assistant to Sue, Robin assumed the mantle of the latter to lend assistance to Sue. (Desist with this pompous drivel - Ed). Horn parts transposed and made playable on the euph, thus was Sue assisted (Oi! I told you to desist - Ed).
Fair play to the organisation of the rehearsal, totally focussed on Quintet's first public performance on 08-Jun. A shame that a few key players couldn't come tonight - they'll have lots of catching up to do.