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Ein Statement für das Wiener Horn

Als langjähriger Musiker und 1. Hornist der Wiener Philharmoniker (in Wien gibt es kein „Solohorn“) – wie auch als Lehrer an der Musikuniversität Graz, war und ist für mich der Klang das Allerwichtigste am Musizieren.

Wie allgemein bekannt, liegt die herausragende Bedeutung des Wiener F-Horns weniger an der technischen Spielbarkeit als an der Tonqualität – insbesondere werden die weichen Bindungen so geschätzt und bewundert.

Doch woher rührt die Qualität des „Wiener Horn-Klanges“?

Die Weichheit des Tons hat einerseits mit der Länge des Instruments zu tun; es schwingen mehr Obertöne mit – und dadurch klingt es voller. Zum anderen liegt sie an der Mensur. Und als weitere Faktoren sind zu nennen: die Luftführung; ebenso der Stoß, der nicht zu hart sein darf. Und natürlich kommt es auf die Bindungen an, die beim Wiener Horn besonders schön sein können.

Die meisten Menschen glauben, dass die Möglichkeit, so weiche Bindungen zu spielen, von den Ventilen abhängt, das stimmt aber nicht. Die Qualität der Bindung liegt an der Rohrlänge, die zwischen dem Mundstück und den Ventilen liegt. Die Länge der Luftsäule vom Mundstück bis zum Ventil ist beim F-Horn ca. 1m 60cm / 1m 80cm lang; wohingegen es beim B-Horn (beim Doppelhorn) so um die 40cm oder 30 oder 20cm sind. Eine so kurze Luftsäule kann freilich nicht so komprimiert werden wie eine fast 2m lange, die ist beweglicher. Dadurch klingen die Bindungen am Wiener Horn so viel weicher. – Aber man muss natürlich auch wissen, wie man das macht, also wie man die Töne anblasen bzw. den Luftstrom bei der Bindung „führen“ muss. (Und das alles muss man „üben, üben, üben…“)

Aber auch die Form des Mundstücks (und hieran ist vor allem die innere Form hervorzuheben) ist ein wenig anders als bei einem Doppelhorn-Mundstück; sie ist nicht so bauchig, kesselartig, sondern trichterförmig. Des Weiteren kommt es auf die „Seele“ des Mundstücks an, also auf seinen mittleren Teil [die „Seele“ ist der zylindrische Teil des Mundstücks], und die ist beim Wiener Mundstück sehr lang und endet am Schluss dann wieder trichterförmig.

Deep satisfaction and happiness overcame me when I was challenged by my dear Prof. Ab Koster to give my contribution to the Pedagogy Column of the IHS Newsletter. Standing out as a brilliant idea, this column has presented very interesting and inspiring articles, It demonstrates once again the IHS’s role and what a truly International Society it is. Without dwelling too much on the matter, I would like to share with its readers some of my main ideas about the horn and about playing it.

The way to success is very complex and depends on a variety of interconnected aspects. As with anything in life, it requires balance and stability. On this occasion I should, however, point out a few factors which I deem to be crucial:

1 – SOUND

This is, in my opinion, what distinguishes the horn most from all other instruments. It is certainly what makes us hornists fall in love with it and what delights the audience. There will always be more powerful instruments than the horn, which might be more virtuoso, produce more high notes, lower ones, and so on. But few instruments are capable of giving delight with just one simple sound and to touch any soul. Take some of our most acclaimed orchestral solos, such as Brahms’s Symphony No. 2, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (4th horn), Mendelssohn’s Nocturne from ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream’, Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 , and so on. Although these might not be the best examples of virtuosity, they represent outstanding moments of the orchestral repertoire which any audience is likely to surrender to. Why? For no other reason but the instrument’s sound capacity. To sum it up, the first fundamental is, in my opinion, sound quality. It should be something that identifies us, our voice and our soul. Regardless of the different concepts of sonority, what matters to me most is that sound is centred, clear, and that it projects itself. Embouchure, the position of our hand in the bell and the way we breathe and use the air play a decisive role in the quality of our sonority.

2 – EMBOUCHURE

Embouchure is crucial and defines our essence as hornists. A strong and stable embouchure is fundamental. The objective is to play competently the whole of the horn’s register and to be flexible while preserving the quality of sound and tuning. I recommend practising lip vibration every day, with and without the mouthpiece. Studying long tones is very useful as it strengthens the embouchure and improves resistance and the quality of sound.

3 – AIR

Air has to be flowing all the time so as to ensure horn playing is a natural action, not a forced one. It is important to apply the appropriate quantity of air for a given musical sequence, the speed of air necessary to avoid vibration disruptions and ensure enough expertise and support for the high register or intervals to not cause any problem.

4 – TECHNIQUE

Individual technique should be practised every day. I consider it important to start exercising it already during the daily warm-up period. The better and more complete our warm-up is, the better will we be prepared. It is essential that we are fit and that every technical aspect is covered. In case of difficulties in organising one’s studying time, I recommend using a table where the type and the amount of work done every day and/or week can be specified and followed. Anything we practice less will be more difficult for us to accomplish.

5 – PERSONALITY

In music, as with any other form of art, the personality of each performer influences their work. When working with my students, I try to share my experiences with them, my knowledge and my ideas, and I try to encourage them to be individuals and to add their personal touch. I have learnt to appreciate, respect and admire different ideas and concepts. Uniformity allows for predictability, but it reduces creativity and interest. Musical choices and options should be grounded and understood in order to be credible and consistent. Nowadays it is very easy to have access to information, to travel the world physically or virtually, to discover different traditions and concepts. It is for us to observe and absorb what we have learnt and to create our cultural background. A musician is an artist who transmits a message or feelings to someone listening. For the message to be successful, it has to be felt and personified. We need to be courageous enough to take the risk of being different and unique.

Much more could obviously be said. I have shared some of my thoughts and some of my main fundamentals of horn playing. Horn is something we fall in love with, either as a listener, or as a performer or professor. The will and the fun involved in discovering and learning more are a daily tonic. Enjoy it all!

J. Bernardo Silva April 2017 (Translation: Filipe Costa)

J. BERNARDO SILVA

He has been member of the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música, in Portugal, since 2000. He is horn professor at the University of Aveiro and the Espinho Professional Music School.

He has presented himself in several countries across Europe, as a solo performer, chamber musician and orchestral player. He performed as a guest artist in several brass and horn festivals and symposia, including of the International Horn Society and Lieksa Brass Week, in Finland. He has been a very active chamber music musician, is a founding member of the horn quartet Trompas Lusas.

He was awarded the First Prize in the Philip Farkas Competition organized by the International Horn Society in Lahti, Finland in 2002.

His discography has several solo works, chamber music and as an orchestra member.

J. Bernardo Silva is a Dürk- Horns artist.

www.jbernardosilva.com

Online presence is a frequent topic at the Office of Entrepreneurship & Career Development at the Jacobs School of Music. Like everything in the world of technology and music today, it’s an ever-evolving project, but there are some constants to keep in mind. Your website can be the most important public-facing ‘front door’ to your target audience(s), so it’s good to prioritize your content there based on what you want them to know.

• Here’s where we start, as we advise our students and alumni:
• Who is your target audience?
• What do you want your website to do for you, as a professional musician?
• Are you hoping for more gigs and performances?
• Do you hope to sell recordings or services [lessons, workshops, products]?
• Are you hoping to raise awareness for current projects?
• All of the above and more?

Top Ten Tips for Musician’s Websites

1. Your website doesn’t have to be an expensive or laborious proposition. Website-building tools like Weebly, Wix, Woodpress, or Squarespace offer options for a sleek professional look with drop-and-drag functionality, and ease of updating.  Later, if you need more complex tools or functionality, you can hire a designer to customize a new site.
2. Consistency in page design, use, colors, and images is key to helping your audience get to where they want to go.
3. An electronic press kit (EPK) strengthens your hand.  Things to include: downloadable bio(s) [with word counts noted], CV/resume, headshots and other images. If you’re a performer, be sure to include one or two high-res action shots. You want to control these important elements, but make them easily accessible to the publicity team at your next performance venue.
4. A few high quality media examples, both audio and video, are a must-have. Visitors to your site want to see and hear representative samples of your best or most notable works! Be sure to include only those that present you at your best.
5. An Events section highlighting upcoming performances shows you’re active and in demand. Include a link to an archive of past performances—you’ve been in demand for a while!
6. Visible links to your social media channels help your audience follow your career.
7. The Contact form on your website should forward inquiries automatically to an email account you check daily.
8. If you have Personal Projects that effectively represent your unique professional strengths and qualities, be sure to include them on a separate page or section of the site.
9. Throughout your website, use high quality images that support the professional identity you’re cultivating.
10. Periodically, Google your own name and see what’s out there about you. Is it consistent with the professional identity you’re cultivating?

On the Vienna Horn

by Günter Högner

As a lifelong musician and as first horn of the Vienna Philharmonic (in Vienna there’s no “solo horn”) – as well as professor at the Music University in Graz, sound was and still remains the most important component of music making.

As most people know, the outstanding importance of the Vienna F Horn lies less in its technical possibilities than in the tone quality – the smooth slurs in particular are appreciated and admired.

Where does this “Vienna Horn Sound” quality come from?

The softness of the sound, on the one hand, has to do with the length of the instrument; more overtones are able to vibrate, and through this the sound is richer. The diameter is another component in this formula. Additional factors include the way to blow the air through the horn as well as the articulation, which mustn’t be too hard. And of course it’s also about the slurs that can be so especially lovely on the Vienna horn.

Most people believe that the possibility to play such smooth legato comes from the valves, but this is not true. The quality of the slurs lies in the length of the pipe between the mouthpiece and the valves. The length of the air column from the mouthpiece to the valves is around 1.60-1.80 meters (63-71 inches); in contrast, the Bb horn (on the double horn) is around 20-40 centimeters (8-16 inches). Such a short column of air obviously cannot become as compressed as nearly 2 meters’ worth – the longer tubing is more flexible. It’s because of this that the slurs on the Vienna horn sound so velvety. –But you also have to know how to do it, how to blow the sound as well as how to “lead” the airstream over the slurs. (All this you must “practice, practice, practice…”)

However, the form of the mouthpiece (with the emphasis on the inner dimensions) is a little different then for a double horn; it’s less bulgy, less barrel shaped, more like a funnel. This depends on the shape of the “soul” of the mouthpiece, the middle part (the “soul” is the cylindrical part of the mouthpiece), and on a Vienna mouthpiece this is very long and concludes at its end once again in a funnel shape.

There are also certain variables – on the instrument as well as the mouthpiece – that are responsible for the different sound and method of playing. In addition to this comes the transmission of tradition from teacher to student; see Hans Swarowsky, 1979, who in his book “Preservation of Form” (page 258 in the German edition), emphasizes how valuable it was to him that so much direct tradition was passed down to him (for example, the cultivation of song, going back to Johannes Brahms).

Most conductors highly treasure the horn sound of the Vienna Philharmonic. Here’s a little anecdote from my everyday professional life with one of the (for me) most important conductors, Nicolaus Harnoncourt: A horn player cracked a note unmistakably in a rehearsal. (It was probably me.) Immediately, the cellist sitting in front of him turned around confrontationally. Right away, Harnoncourt – who seemingly wanted to defend the horn player – stopped the cellist with these words: “Don’t turn around! Your colleague is playing on the F horn – not on a double horn, that you…um…that you…um, er, that you can buy anywhere.”

Enough with the anecdotes. Frequent “clamming” is of course the trade-off for the otherwise celebrated sound quality. Because of this, neither can the F horn compete soloistically nor technically with the double horn.

So why do I give so much worth to the Vienna horn?

Well, in the Romantic era, almost everything is written for the valve horn in F, which was, back then, the most commonly available orchestral instrument. I play (and teach) it because of the already addressed tone quality and beauty of sound.

I’d like to emphasize the importance of transposition skills – thus the ability to read the parts in their original keys!

In my view, it is immensely important to play the orchestra and solo parts from the scores in their original keys. You can then more easily recognize the original “stopped” and “half-stopped” tones – and musically interpret them accordingly.

In conclusion, I would like to give students one more piece of advice for the road: Don’t go to too many courses with different teachers! Every one of them will have a different point of view. You will be more confused than enlightened.

A good teacher needs (roughly) at least 1 to 2 months to be able to judge all the strengths and weaknesses of a student. A horn course, in contrast, is usually over in 10 to 14 days. There are students who “collect” courses the way other people collect stamps. And then they wonder why a longer-term success evades them.

About me: I was born on July 16, 1943, in Vienna. At age 13, I received my first instruction on the horn at the Conservatory of the City of Vienna with Prof. Franz Koch (Wiener Symphoniker). A few years later, I began my serious studies at the Music Academy with Prof. Leopold Kainz (Vienna Philharmonic). There followed after this a few “learning years” with smaller orchestras in Austria. In 1965, I came to the Vienna Folk Opera as first horn, and a short time later, to the Vienna State Opera in the same capacity. In 1971 I also became first horn in the Vienna Philharmonic.

In addition to my orchestral activities, I played in several chamber music ensembles, including the Ensemble Wien-Berlin. I took over as professor of horn at the Music University in Graz in 1982 and taught there until 2011.

Translation: KMT