Quebec-France-Vienna - my program for IHS51
by Marjolaine Goulet, Featured Artist
The program I chose for the symposium is mostly influenced by my personal taste and own musical journey.
I really enjoy horn music of all eras as well as music that is sometimes put aside, like contemporary music. In fact, my concept was to introduce the audience to francophone repertoire from Quebec composers in combination with French music.
I particularly love the spirit of French music. The virtuosity really excites me, along with the refined harmonies that bring a unique lyrical approach. I find that French music sings by itself! I suspect that my training at the Montreal Conservatory is in part responsible for this attachment to French composers as well as listening a lot to the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal playing French music !! Hahaha!!
Gougeon is a well-established composer. “Cor-Jupiter” is part of a cycle of works entitled "Six Thèmes Solaires.” It has become famous here and is a standard for horn competitions. It's a challenging piece that has effects such as playing into the piano and multiphonics.
I wish I could introduce my favorite Quebec composer, Jacques Hétu, as well! He wrote a wonderful piece called “Lied for Horn and Piano” in the 80’s. He later orchestrated it to complete his Sérénade Héroïque for horn and orchestra, which my former teacher, John Zirbel, premiered, and which I later played as a soloist with the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec.
Maybe next time!!
Viennese music has had a special place in my heart since I was 13 years old, when I discovered Mahler. I come from a non-musician family, so the way to Mahler was not an obvious one! I had learned from my high school music teacher that Bernstein had just died. When I went to public library, I saw a cassette of Bernstein and checked it out! I didn't realize it was in fact Mahler’s Second Symphony with Bernstein conducting!!
The Soul of the Bukkehorn
by Sissel Morken Gullord
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| photo by Cecilie Owren |
One of the oldest instruments in Norway, if not the oldest, is the bukkehorn. It is the horn of the billy goat, in use since the Stone Age.
Setra, the summer mountain farm, is where farmers take the animals in the summertime so that they get enough to eat in the pasture. In the old days, budeia, the milkmaid, took care of the cows and the goats there; she milked, made butter and cheese. Her instruments were the wooden lur and the bukkehorn. She used them for scaring and calling: scaring away the predators - wolves, bears, lynx - and calling the cattle and the goats. To emphasize - playing on animal horns is a human, world-wide tradition, not unique to Norway.
Anywhere in the world where people have animals, in any culture, I guess that they have taken up a horn and wondered if they could make sounds from it.
At all times, man has used horns to warn, to give signals, to scare, and to call. To communicate. They have been used in wars and conflict, as well as in religious ceremonies.
Horns from a ram or a cow, a buffalo or an antelope sound different than goat horns. In Norway, the billy goat is the main supplier of horns.
I focus on the Norwegian bukkehorn: this is my heritage, so few people are playing it, and the culture of budeias’ use of these instruments is not that far in the past.
It was not the historical facts or the strange instrument itself that evoked my passion for it. It was the sound. I was moved by this sound and got myself a horn, ready to explore the instrument. As a horn player, I of course have some advantages, like the lip technique and a way of playing that always searches for the tones to “ring”, to feel the richness of overtones in a way not all non horn players could. Another advantage I have as a natural horn player is a trained ear and practical knowledge of the natural tones, as well as the flexibility to “lip” tones upwards and downwards when necessary. And perhaps also the experience (or ability?) to let the instrument lead the way, not always fight against it.
Interview - Jeroen Billiet, Host, IHS51
Kristina Mascher-Turner: Hosting a symposium is an enormous time commitment. During this past year, how many hours a week would you say you spend working on IHS 51? How have you had to adjust your schedule to fit these demands?
Jeroen Billiet: It’s difficult to say exactly as I have never counted working hours, but I would say between 5 and 7 hours a day, so at least 30 hours a week. As an artistic assistant at the Ghent School of Arts, I fortunately have a lot of freedom to organize my work. I try to make sure that the students aren’t neglected by this excess of work, but my research activities are at the moment mainly focused on things that are useful for the symposium. And of course, it means that every night and weekend has long laptop sessions (not the most popular person in the house at the moment.)
I mainly cut a lot of playing hours, which is bad. However, I get a lot of support from my wife Nina who is charged with the coordination of the symposium, our master student Eline who helps us with communication and practical organizing, my colleague and co-host Rik Vercruysse, our dean and the entire Ghent School of Arts team, which is good. The backing of a large organization such as the Ghent School of Arts is a big relief!
KMT: It‘s always a bonus when the symposium comes to a spectacular city, and Ghent is amazing. What are some of the things visitors from far away can look forward to experiencing there?
JB: Ghent is a very important place for the history of the horn: our conservatory was founded by one of the most important horn players of the early 19th century (Martin-Joseph Mengal). It was also the place that Philip Farkas’ teacher Louis Dufrasne studied!
It is, as you say, a spectacular scene with its canals and splendid historical buildings. Our conservatory itself is housed in premises dating back to the 14th century….Don’t miss the Unesco Heritage altarpiece by Van Eyck in the Cathedral across the street from the conservatory! And of course there is good food, chocolate and great beer in this friendly and open-minded city. Ghent was named ‘Belgium’s best kept secret’ by the Lonely Planet guide, with good reason. We will have plenty of outdoor activities, concerts and flash mobs during the week. Since our venue is in the heart of the city, you won’t need to make a special effort to see a lot of Ghent during the week.
KMT: Tell us about the Historical Horn Conference taking place Wednesday-Friday alongside IHS51- how did the idea to bring the IHS symposium and this event together arise?
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Orchestras in Africa — A Survey
by Erik Albertyn, IHS Area Representative for South Africa and Professor of Horn at Nelson Mandela University
INTRODUCTION
The existence of symphony orchestras is under increasing threat world-wide. This is largely due to the challenging cost model of keeping seventy highly skilled professional musicians in permanent employ but also due to a variety of cultural and societal factors. This is also particularly relevant to the wider South African society with its renewed scrutiny of colonialism in education and society. Against all odds symphonic music has endured and even thrived in areas such as the motion picture industry and particularly in Asian societies.
As a professional orchestral musician, educator and artistic director of an orchestra I am well versed in the challenges that exist in the South African music environment. We often look to Europe as our role model, but the rest of Africa is largely ignored. My motivation for this survey was to find out what could be found in Africa, where to find it and the rationale for the existence of orchestral activities in this vast continent. The results below are largely the result of an internet search as physical publications are extremely rare.
Horns in Kenya
by Sandra Daniel
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| The Nairobi Symphony horns performing Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” |
When you think of a place exploding with classical musicians, I highly doubt Nairobi, Kenya would be at the top of your list. That was the mindset I had five years ago during my first trip to Kenya in 2014. I traveled to visit a friend teaching string instruments at a private high school with no clue as to the development of a music conservatoire, several youth orchestras, and even an adult community orchestra to accommodate all of the blossoming musicians in Nairobi. I was shocked to find enough people learning and performing instruments to form more than one orchestra when where I come from in “the developed world” I had to drive an hour in any direction to participate in simple community bands. It was both thrilling and confusing at the same time.
One of the things that drew me back to Nairobi to live was finding that among this growing world of musicians, my own beloved instrument, the horn, was almost non-existent. The instruments were not really available in the country. The rare horn players that were around were not taking students. All of the orchestras were using saxophones to fill in the horn gaps. The horn was like Bigfoot or a unicorn in Kenya. My thought was that while I do not consider myself to be an amazing horn player or teacher, at least I can do something to help fill in this obviously needed role.
Pedagogy - Eric Terwilliger
Quizás el mayor desafío al que se enfrenta un profesor es encontrar una manera de motivar a sus alumnos. A veces, incluso los cornistas jóvenes más talentosos no pueden encontrar una manera de desarrollar su talento al nivel de dominar nuestro maravilloso instrumento, mientras que un estudiante con talento promedio lo hace.
El ímpetu de motivación que los estudiantes pueden tener durante una lección cuando se esfuerzan por hacer la mejor ejecución para su maestro, o durante un concierto mientras están bajo el hechizo de una audiencia, pueden apagarse durante las largas horas de práctica que son necesarias para primero desarrollar su talento y luego conservar ese rendimiento durante toda una feliz vida como cornista.
Siempre he usado imágenes mentales para motivarme. Tuve la suerte de tener acceso a una extensa colección de grabaciones de música sinfónica cuando era un niño. El sonido heroico de Roland Berger proyectando sobre el sonido la de Filarmónica de Viena en un “Tone poem” de Strauss se convirtió en parte de mi concepto de sonido, así como el fraseo noble y el sonido aterciopelado de Philip Farkas tocando la primera frase del segundo concierto para piano de Brahms. De hecho, cuando tenía dieciséis años, escuchaba una frase y luego corría al sótano e intentaba duplicarla.
Hasta el día de hoy nunca toco una sola nota sin llenar mi mente y mi alma con el sonido de la nota que vibra en la acústica de una de mis salas de conciertos favoritas. Antes de tener la suerte de tocar en estas salas, me emocioné imaginando que lo era. Las imágenes mentales me ayudan a enfocar mi mente, eliminar las distracciones y mantenerme en el flujo del momento.
Las innumerables horas de práctica personal que todo músico aprendiz debe usar pueden ser pesadas si se hacen de manera mecánica. Siempre aliento a mis alumnos a escuchar ejemplos de grandes músicos que trascienden sus instrumentos y vuelan con la música sin importar qué instrumento o cantante sea para que también puedan aprender a cautivarse con nuestra gloriosa forma de arte. Aprenden a no solo imitar un sonido de corno específico, sino que se emocionan con la energía que cualquier gran artista logra hacer flotar en las ondas sonoras.
Inculcar hábitos de práctica positiva es parte de mi concepto de enseñanza. Siempre enfatizo en la importancia de eliminar las distracciones durante el tiempo de práctica. En nuestro mundo moderno, las distracciones digitales son una tentación constante. Los teléfonos inteligentes, tabletas, etc solo deben usarse como metrónomos, afinadores, dispositivos de grabación o sustitutos de partituras impresas.
La importancia de la preparación mental antes de tocar se hizo evidente para mí después de mis primeros errores ante una audiencia. Si quiero centrarme totalmente en el concierto, esto es por lo que me esfuerzo durante el tiempo de práctica, que es de hecho la preparación para el concierto. Si me equivoco mientras practico, me detengo, analizo el error, pienso en cómo corregirlo, me relajo, escucho la primera nota de la frase resonando en el lugar donde tocaré el concierto y luego la vuelvo a tocar. Una repetición sin esto es a menudo una repetición inútil del mismo error. ¡No estamos jugando al tenis! No hay ningún árbitro que diga “¡Red!” cuando se falla la primera nota. No hay una segunda oportunidad para comenzar la cuarta de Bruckner. Tenemos que aprender cómo hacerlo bien la primera vez.
Un último consejo para la enseñanza: la mayoría de los estudiantes tienen un detector de “tonterías” incorporado. Asegúrese de que el consejo que brinde provenga de la experiencia personal y no sea algo que haya escuchado por ahí. Practique lo que predica. Predica lo que practicas.
Si quieres aprender más sobre mí y sobre mi método, visita: ericterwilliger.com
traducción de Juan Carlos Porras Castro
