by Esa-Pekka Salonen

photo by Clive Barda

The horn was my first love in the world of music. I was learning the trumpet when I was ten but was persuaded to change to the horn by a schoolmate a couple of classes above me. He mentioned the famous assertion by Schumann: The sound of the horn is the soul of the orchestra. I didn’t have much of an idea of who Schumann was, but then my friend came up with an even stronger argument: if I made it to Orchestra A in my school (there were three levels), I could skip PE lessons for rehearsals. At that point, I started to get seriously interested.

My school, the Helsinki Finnish Coeducational School, had access to the top teachers in Finland, and I started my studies with Holger Fransman, the dean of Finnish horn players. He had studied in Vienna with Karl Stiegler in the late 1920s; his fellow student and roommate was Gottfried von Freiberg, who would later become the principal horn of the Vienna Philharmonic and give the World Premiere of Richard Strauss’s Second Horn Concerto. In 1937, Holger was appointed by Robert Kajanus as the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra’s first Finnish-born principal horn.

It is not an exaggeration to say that meeting Holger Fransman changed my life. Suddenly I had a direction and an authority to guide me along the path. After my first year as his student, I understood that music was the only thing I wanted to pursue as a profession and career.

Many of my early attempts at composing were horn pieces. My first published work was Horn Music 1, which was also the score I showed to Einojuhani Rautavaara when I asked to become his student.

The idea of writing a Horn Concerto has been in my mind since those distant days. As is mostly the case to make a project like that happen, a confluence is needed: the right time and the right people. When Michael Haefliger of the Lucerne Festival got in touch in 2021 and asked if I could write a concerto for Stefan Dohr, I knew that this was the moment for which I had been waiting. I have long admired Stefan’s artistry, both from the podium and in the audience, and I knew that his track record performing and commissioning new works for the instrument was second to none.

The actual composition process took eighteen months, but some of the sketches are much older material, ideas that finally found a home in this project.

Memories of the famous horn moments in the repertoire seemed to repeatedly invade my imagination. I first tried to resist, but ultimately decided to embrace them and use them as material. In some cases, I embedded a well-known piece into my own harmonic world, such as Mozart’s Second Horn Concerto in the first movement, or the opening solo of Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony in the second movement. In the finished Concerto, those moments appear and disappear like fish coming to the surface to catch an insect before diving to the depths of the sea again: fleeting moments, almost too short to register.

The first movement starts with a motif, or theme (or Leitmotiv as in Wagner), that appears several times throughout the piece, here played on natural horn (not using the valves) against a synthetic overtone harmony. After a short interlude of descending string texture, a recitativo section begins: the solo horn in dialogue with the wind instruments. After a short moment of the soloist simultaneously playing and singing the Leitmotiv, an accelerando section leads to faster music: my homage to Mozart (and his friend, horn player Ignaz Leutgeb, without whom the horn repertoire would be so much poorer). The music calms gradually. At the end of the movement, the theme is heard again, this time played by piccolo and English Horn.

The second movement is essentially an Adagio: slow, singing music that oscillates between calm and more agitated phases. The initial horn monologue against a heavily pulsing string accompaniment metamorphoses into a distant memory of the famous solo in the opening of Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony. (That was the symphony I conducted in my diploma concert at the ripe age of 21). The long horn line is interrupted by two suddenly more-dramatic orchestra interludes before the movement ends with echoes of the Leitmotiv.

The third movement opens with music that is related to the final section of the first movement, this time a mirror image: a gradual process from calm to playful, sometimes feverish, activity.

A scherzando orchestra interlude in 12/8 meter leads to the main material of the movement, virtuosic horn solos accompanied by string rhythms from the previous interlude. The harmony is partly based on the “mystic chord” used by Scriabin in Prometheus. The motif/theme returns against slow, microtonally sinking strings.

A playful solo section follows, where the unique hand-stopping technique of the horn is used to produce rapid changes of tone color. The 12/8 music returns: this time the solo horn forms a trio with the orchestra horns, flashbacks of Eroica. The Leitmotiv is heard again, played by tutti orchestra. The hand-stopping music reappears with more active orchestra texture. A new, singing theme is introduced. Then, there is another orchestra interlude with accelerando to a very fast tempo.

Finally, a virtuosic coda where the horn is pushed to the very limits of what is physically possible. Somehow, when writing the final minutes of the concerto, I was taken straight back to my childhood and teen years. Very powerful nostalgia, but not of the sad kind…more like a pleasant dream.

by Grace Salyards (BM Eastman School of Music, MM Penn State University; Faculty, Dickinson College)

For many young musicians, their first audition can feel overwhelming—a high-stakes event that challenges not only their musical skills but also their mental resilience. Auditions are more than just a means of placement; they are significant opportunities for growth. I have developed four core strategies to guide my students through this process, helping them build skills that extend far beyond the audition room.

1. Teach Them How to Practice

Knowing how to effectively practice a passage of music is vital, and often overlooked in early years of playing an instrument. Young musicians often play an extensive passage over and over despite imperfections, which leads to reinforcing bad habits—strained phrases, rhythmic pauses, or poor intonation. These bad habits are highlighted in high-pressure situations like auditions, so one of the first things I do in lessons is teach them to break the music into very small, manageable sections, practicing slowly and slurred. This allows students to focus on the air support, which is the foundation of solid brass playing. Depending on the student's level, I will often play alongside them in the beginning, helping them feel supported. Once their air support is consistent, we gradually add articulation and build tempo. Think of it like ice cream: you start with the solid scoop, and you can add all the different sorts of sprinkles (articulation, phrasing, dynamics, and so on). For particularly technical passages, we isolate even smaller sections—sometimes just 2-4 sixteenth notes at a time—and aim for seven perfect repetitions at a very slow tempo with a metronome. Then, we increase speed just two clicks at a time. This kind of focused, goal-oriented practice shows students that even 20 minutes of concentrated effort can produce discernible results. More importantly, it provides structure they can apply to successfully learning any piece of music they approach in the future.

2. Teach Them How to Perform

Confidence in an audition is key! I often encourage my students to exude confidence in their playing, no matter whether it is authentic or acting. Performance is part music, part theater. The skill to project confidence—real or prepared—can thoroughly transform an audition. By practicing effectively, students deserve to feel confident. However, conveying this takes discipline and conviction, which we pursue in lessons. I offer students affirmations of their playing and abilities, and I also require them to verbally acknowledge their own strengths, training their inner thoughts.

3. Prepare Them for Nerves and Pressure

Nerves are inevitable, but we can prepare a response to them. In lessons, I condition their heart rates to rise under pressure as students do 30 seconds of jumping jacks or running in place, then immediately play their excepts with no recovery time. This mimics the physical effects nerves can have in an audition.

Usually the first attempt to play post-exercise is shaky, breathless, and almost certainly not very musical. But that's the point! We use these discouraging moments to discuss how nerves can affect all aspects of our playing, and I assign this kind of practice at home daily in the weeks leading up to an audition. In their audition preparation, I also encourage students to play for as many family members, friends, and teachers as possible—with “bonus points” if their audience tries to distract them! This strengthens the mental ability to focus under pressure.

4. Teach Them to Be Gracious, No Matter the Outcome

Long before the audition day arrives, I remind my students that their value as musicians is not determined by a ranking or chair placement. Whether they walk away with first chair or last, auditions are not a final judgment but, rather, a snapshot of one moment in time. Results are beyond our control, I remind them; what we can do is present our abilities the best we can. Learning how to practice with intention, perform with confidence, manage nerves with perseverance, and receive results with graciousness towards oneself and others are not just musical skills—they are life skills that will serve them for years to come.

Chamber Music Corner—Neikirk’s Blue Ridge Horn Trio

by Layne Anspach

Anne Neikirk’s Blue Ridge Horn Trio will be the focus of Chamber Music Corner this month. Anne Neikirk (b. 1983) is an American composer and educator. She completed degrees at Hamilton College (BA), Bowling Green State University (MM in Composition), and Temple University (DMA in Composition). Her works have been performed by ensembles including the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, Duo Thalassa, The Orchestra of the Eastern Shore, the Arneis Quartet, and the Serafin Quartet, to name a few. Neikirk is a member of several professional organizations, she is currently editor of the Journal for Music Scores, and she is Associate Professor of Theory/Composition at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia.

Blue Ridge Horn Trio (2011) was written while Neikirk was studying at the Brevard Music Center Summer Festival in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Paralleling Brahms’ nature-inspired trio, Op. 40, Neikirk was inspired by the nature surrounding her during that summer in Brevard. The first movement, Andante, starts with a horn solo imitative of hunting calls. The violin and piano enter, building momentum and excitement. A short passage in 6/8 segues to Più mosso in 4/4 which displays a meandering run between violin and piano before giving way to a horn melody. Meno mosso (2:02) shifts back to 6/8, providing a short breather before returning to Più mosso. The original horn solo returns (3:17) prior to the final push, Furioso al fine, to the conclusion of the movement.

Neikirk is particularly drawn to the slow movement of Brahms, Op. 40. The slow movement of her work has “echoes of motives from his Adagio mesto.” Pastoral begins with a sustained pitch by the violin with piano figures alongside. The horn plays a short melody before the violin takes over (0:48) and is instructed to play “like a fiddle.” The horn joins, and the movement continues with moments of counterplay between the two. After a climactic ascending line (3:04), the two continue their dialogue with piano accompaniment. The movement dissipates, losing rhythm and volume, arriving at a still conclusion.

The final movement “reworks material from the first two movements in a fast and driving fashion.” The piano starts Allegro and is joined by the violin to evoke the texture described by the composer. The violin ventures on its own (0:46), propelling the movement to a middle section described as “sparce and timbrally contrasting.” This section includes trills and various techniques that add to the prescribed timbral change. An accelerando brings back the opening tempo and character (2:23), but it is eventually interrupted by a reworking of the horn solo from the first movement. Driving sixteenths from all players bring the work to a strong conclusion.