Horn on Record
by Ian Zook
Volume 14—Zdeněk Tylšar
This month’s entry honors a paragon of the horn’s Bohemian heritage as we celebrate Zdeněk Tylšar’s recording of Ignaz Pleyel’s Sinfonia Concertante No. 5 in F major. This recording was made in the Concert Hall of the Czechoslovak Radio in Bratislava, October 1980, and reissued by Musical Heritage Society in 1983.
Zdeněk Tylšar (1945-2006) was a deeply influential Czech hornist who performed for forty years (1963-2003) as solo horn of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. With his older brother Bedřich, the two performed and recorded as a horn duo, touring across the world and highlighting the large repertoire of concerti for two horns and orchestra.
Zdeněk Tylšar was born in Prostějov in the Olomouc region of Czechia. He began horn studies at the Brno Conservatory in 1958, and then continued onto the Janaček Academy under the tutelage of František Solč. After graduating in 1964, he was immediately engaged by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, initially playing second horn alongside principal horn Miroslav Štefek. Zdeněk was appointed solo horn in 1968 and led the Philharmonic section for the rest of his career, retiring in 2003.
Zdeněk Tylšar also gained acclaim for his successes in solo competitions, winning third prize in the 1962 Prague Spring Competition when he was only 17 years old—stunning, as he was under the minimum allowed age limit of 18. In 1968, he returned to win first prize at the same competition, as well as first prizes at the Munich Competition (ARD) and the Geneva Competition.
The Tylšar duo first joined to perform the Haydn/Rosetti Concerto for Two Horns for Bedřich’s graduation recital from Brno Conservatory in 1962. The brothers then began a recording legacy of solo, duo, and both multi-horn concerti and chamber music that stretched from 1967 to 1994, highlighted by the duo concerti by Josef Fiala, Zavier Pokorny, and Franz Anton Rössler. Zdeněk was even more involved as a soloist, having been featured with the Czech Philharmonic over thirty times and recording a vast array of repertoire for horn with a catalog of twenty-eight records between the Supraphon, Pony, Canyon, and Essex labels.
Ignaz Pleyel’s Sinfonia Concertante No. 5 In F Major For Flute, Oboe, Bassoon, Horn and Chamber Orchestra dates from 1805. Pleyel, born in Austria in 1757, was a pupil of Franz Joseph Haydn, and made his career in Strasbourg, France, as kapellmeiseter of the cathedral orchestra. In addition to being one of the most popular and frequently-performed composers in the late 18th century, he opened his own publishing house in Paris in 1797 (inventing the paperback orchestra score), and established the Pleyel piano manufacturing workshop 1807. Pleyel pianos are still being produced today, with over 350,000 units sold annually in China alone.
The Sinfonia Concertante has the same solo instrumentation as Mozart’s version for winds, K. 287b from 1778. However, Pleyel provides a much greater degree of soloistic writing while retaining the light and virtuosic nature of this genre. The performers are flautist Miloš Jurkovič, oboist Lothar Koch, bassoonist Klaus Thunemann, and hornist Zdeněk Tylšar.
Our first example follows the four solo instruments as they introduce the melodic material for the first movement in turn:
As the music shifts into a minor key, we can hear Tylšar’s ability to blend and balance his sound from the broad opening solo, to transparent when paired with the flute, and then robust when paired with the bassoon:
A short solo allows Tylšar to showcase his uniquely supple and vibrant tone, all phrased in the singing style so prized in the Bohemian tradition:
Pleyel’s work concludes with a cadenza for the winds, recapitulating the melodic material and then launching vigorously into an ending that quizzically then fades away—an odd touch from Pleyel.
As mentioned, there is a great treasure trove of recordings from Zdeněk Tylšar as soloist as well as those paired with his brother. Many can be found on the Supraphon and Naxos websites. Among the most essential listening are the 24 Trios for Horns, Op. 82, by Anton Reicha, which the duo recorded in 1988 with Zdeněk Divoky and which won the Czech Golden Record prize.
Thank you for reading Horn on Record!
Research to Resonance—Turning Struggle Into Skill
by Katy Carnaggio
Honestly, it gets to be easy. Okay…it is a little hard, but what follows makes it so much easier.
If you’ve ever wondered how great musicians have managed to turn their deep struggles into awe-inspiring strengths, consider this to be a kickstart. But instead of giving you vague, general advice like “Enjoy the process!” “Take it one day at a time!” and “Focus on the music!” we’re going to get a little gritty, because you’re never ever going to trill like Tryon if nobody teaches you how to work through the inevitable setbacks.
And speaking of the lovely Denise Tryon, next week, in collaboration with the Office of Wellness at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, I’ll be hosting a workshop that not only features her (along with Demondrae Thurman, euphonium, and Grigory Kalinovsky, violin) but was inspired by her, focusing on how each musician transformed struggle into expertise.
The first step? Seek evidence you’re not alone.
Earth shattering is how I describe my first lesson with Denise. And when you’ve unintentionally built your world with fear, doubt, frustration, and disconnection, a wake-up call can be a good thing.
At 12:52 p.m., I made my way to the lesson with her, weary from a long battle with embouchure issues that arose after an untimely surgery. At 1:14 p.m., my earth was shattered. Fear and doubt and frustration and disconnection had all become visible for Denise to see. But in place of all these were validation, self-knowledge, hope, belief, and a horn sound I actually kind of liked! Not only did somebody see me and understand what I was going through, but she knew exactly the way forward—because she had been there, too.
It gets to be that easy.
Whether facing a technique overhaul, injury, heartbreak, or simply exhaustion, the presence of struggle isn't the issue. These often signal that you're undergoing change. The issue lies in our fear that our struggles mean we’re inadequate. We fear that these experiences might confirm our worst suspicions about ourselves. Out of fear, we withdraw into the practice room, hesitate to pursue new opportunities, or conceal our experiences to avoid judgment or rejection. The fear that we are inadequate leads us to a limited world, where the solutions to our struggle seem just as limited. However, struggle more often reveals our talent rather than our shortcomings. “What is talent?” Grigory Kalinovsky mused during a preliminary discussion. “It’s not just ability. If you have natural ability, great. But if you have ability and burning need? That is talent.”
Talented to say the least, each of our panelists shares a burning need and sense of integrity in their stories of struggle. Am I doing the music justice? Am I doing myself justice? When the answer was no, each faced the vulnerability, resistance, or discomfort of change. But instead of withdrawing in self-doubt, they stepped out towards self-knowledge. In doing so, they connected with somebody who sparked a pivotal shift in their perspectives.
When you find yourself entangled in a struggle, consider taking a little time to expand your world beyond the practice room. Whether through books, podcasts, lessons, Facebook groups, or a simple conversation, you’ll soon find that a shift in perspective shared by somebody who's been there before is exactly what you've been missing. Cheers to all solution-finders and puzzle-solvers, with special thanks to Denise for holding my missing piece!
The IU Jacobs School of Music Wellness Workshop mentioned above is in person only, but it is open to the public if you are in the area and interested in attending. For details and information, see https://events.iu.edu/musiciub/event/1382103-expert-roundtable-how-to-turn-setbacks-into-skills.
IHS 56—Horns on the Horizon
by John McGuire
Hello fellow hornists!
This month has seen a flurry of activities in preparation for our August IHS 56 Symposium. The team has spent several weeks crafting what we believe will be a very strong schedule for the week. We have many wonderful performances, presentations, masterclasses, and other exciting events, and I would encourage everyone to go through the schedule—which is now posted at www.hornsonthehorizon.com—and find all the sessions and concerts that interest you. I guarantee that there are many opportunities for everyone to learn and be inspired!
Of course, we are all excited about the Featured Artists’ performances and masterclasses—who wouldn’t be! But I would like to draw special attention to a few other exciting offerings. Notably, there will be a large number of outstanding Contributing Artists sharing their talents and new works for horn, and presenting research that pertains to all of us. I personally can’t wait to see and hear them all…or at least as many as I can physically attend!
Additionally, we will be hosting late-night sessions after the evening concerts. These sessions will be informal interviews with many of our Featured Artists. It will be a chance for all of us to sit down with these icons of the horn world and get to know them in a more comfortable, relaxed atmosphere. (If you have ever had the chance to see the American television program Inside the Actors’ Studio, that’s how I envision these gatherings.)
Last, please make plans to attend what will surely be a wonderful and emotional tribute concert to Hermann Baumann, who recently passed away. Undoubtedly one of the finest horn players in history, Hermann’s impact on players around the world cannot be overstated, and it’s difficult to imagine someone who has had a greater influence on so many. This concert will be the featured evening performance on Thursday, August 1st—which would have been Baumann’s 90th birthday. There will be many terrific individual performances and tributes, and I’m sure there won’t be a dry eye in the house.
Please register now for IHS 56, if you have not already done so. We look forward to seeing you in Colorado!
Student Column—Preparing for Performance Anxiety
by Inman Hebert
Whether playing for juries, recitals, or even important concerts, many collegiate horn players have felt the effects of performance anxiety. Symptoms may include dry mouth, shaking muscles, shortness of breath, sweaty palms, and more. Experiencing performance anxiety is perfectly normal; however, learning how to prepare for and manage nerves is critical to the evolution of horn students in elevating our performances.
Musical preparation and visualization are the initial steps to managing anxiety. If a student cannot play a piece consistently in the practice room, no amount of managing nerves will overcome poor preparation. After a piece becomes second nature, performing the music in our practice sessions, including others (fellow students, for example) as our audience, and being creative in simulating performance conditions can give us the confidence to perform under pressure. Aside from regular musical preparation, visualization of successful performances can also help mitigate anxiety. Imagine warming up pre-performance, stepping on stage, and playing the music. These steps can make a performance feel familiar instead of foreign, and this helps a horn player stay focused in the moment which leads to more success.
Recognizing and accepting performance anxiety symptoms as our body’s normal reaction to pressure allows us to refocus our energy on coping strategies. Physically, hydrate with water and limit caffeine intake the days before a performance since caffeine can raise adrenaline levels and worsen the effects of stress. Anxiety can trigger dry mouth, muscle tension, and shallow breathing; however, incorporating stress reduction techniques into our pre-performance can alleviate these symptoms. Stretching releases tension and helps improve posture. Deep breathing lowers our heart rate and blood pressure, and reduces stress hormones. Airflow is foundational to our horn playing. Take a deep breath, exhale slowly, and connect to the present moment.
Mentally, reframe your emotions and develop mindfulness. Interpret your anxiety as excitement, and create a mental checklist of positive performance memories. Hear the music in your head and remember how you want it played. Having the right mindset before and during the performance can help mitigate anxiety. Accepting that mistakes may happen, not all performances will go well, and perfection is unrealistic helps us not to panic and to stay in the moment. Instead of dwelling on a mistake just made, an upcoming phrase, or pending feedback, refocus on the present. Your audience will most likely appreciate your authentic self who communicates a convincing musical message over technical perfection.
Many horn professionals share experiences of overcoming performance anxiety. As horn students, we cannot see anxiety as taboo. Instead, we must view it as another area to navigate. With proper mental and physical preparation tools, we can manage performance anxiety, allowing our musical selves to shine.
Ambitious Amateurs—Being Organized
by Marty Schlenker
Dear Fellow Ambitious Amateurs,
This month, I tackle a topic that affects us all: organization.
I am a member of the “players just wanna play” crowd. If I had all the time in the world, I’d have horn-to-face each day until I couldn’t stand it, anywhere, with anybody—like a songbird in a tree, regardless of the technical and interpretive limitations. I know that I am much like my fellow amateur readers of Horn and More. Horn is more than just this thing I do on Monday nights when I go to community band.
Those of us in the “players just wanna play” school, of course, owe a debt of gratitude to those from the “let’s get organized” school. If we are to walk in, get our horns out, and sit down to a stand of music, a member of the “let’s get organized” school will already have been on the job.
I am fortunate to be in the company of such people as a member of Brass Triumphant. Brass Triumphant is remarkable in its longevity for an amateur group, active continuously since 1985. The founding members (trumpeters Becky Speck and Mike Stahl—who continue to lead the group—plus horn, trombone, and piano) were brought together as pit musicians for passion plays put on by the Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) chapter of Youth for Christ. When the organization chose to dispense with a live pit, the players had to find other outlets for performance.
Members of four different churches, the players had the advantage of being able to take repertoire “on the road,” and steady participation in church worship services followed. Performances at retirement centers, weddings, and other events came, too. A big motivator to staying organized is having those performance dates on the calendar. Nearly all dates have come via members’ personal connections, but we’ve had business cards since the 1990s and a website for 7 or 8 years.
 |
|
Brass Triumphant at a summer church service on a well-known riverboat in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
|
Instrumentation is currently a well-balanced 4 trumpets, 2 horns, 3 trombones, and tuba, but it has varied over the years. Brass Triumphant could fit into members’ basements for rehearsals when the group was smaller, but we now rehearse in the showroom of Mike’s commercial flooring business on Saturday mornings at 8:00 a.m. sharp. Organizational advantages include a sufficiently spacious and reliably available rehearsal site, and a consistent time slot.
The group was fortunate to add trumpeter and arranger Dave Rutman in the early 1990s. He has adapted dozens of pieces to whatever the instrumentation has been at the time. Dave is modest about his arranging skills, but he has Finale software, a can-do attitude, and a sense of humor that can surprise you.
His most common adaptations are to insert additional trombone lines into brass quintets (which trombonist Jeff Schwartz will also do, ad lib) and to simplify unnecessarily challenging lines for the benefit of players and listeners alike. Dave states, “If I can mess with it before it gets passed out, no one feels like they’ve had notes taken away.” In 39 years, Brass Triumphant has assembled a library of close to 200 selections, much of which has been scanned for space efficiency and to reduce the risk of a lost folder; this is another investment of time that continues to yield organizational benefits.
Being the least-tenured member of the group, I was introduced to its history over a post-rehearsal breakfast, and one of the things that struck me was the matter-of-fact way in which the ensemble’s well-oiled functioning is organized. Things that are intimidating to many, especially for players new to self-promotion, are routine here. Want people to play with? Go find them! Want gigs? Cultivate them! Want to be asked back? Set clear expectations and come prepared. You don’t have to be virtuosos, but being organized surely helps.
And for anyone still paying attention to how my re-started lessons are going…uh…I am still far from practicing the organization that I preach. I returned last week from three weeks away from Pennsylvania, during which I was only able to practice a couple of times. I’m not back at square one but the irregularity sure isn’t helping. The good news is that the coming month will be much more settled. Check back!
And as always, please get in touch and share your stories! marty.schlenker@cavaliers.org
Marty Schlenker, Amateur Hornist
Composer Spotlight—Radie Britain
by Caiti Beth McKinney
Hello everyone!
This month, I’d like to introduce you to a composer I’ve only learned about very recently, Radie Britain. Born in 1899 in rural Texas, Radie (pronounced RAY-dee) was a highly successful composer during her lifetime who specialized in orchestral music with a Southwestern flair. Originally a pianist and organist, by the time she was in her mid-twenties, Radie had traveled to Europe to study composition with German composer Albert Noelte. Britain’s works for orchestra are very much in the style of late-Romantic German music while featuring subjects from the United States. Among her output are pieces such as Southern Symphony, Cowboy Rhapsody, Cactus Rhapsody, and Musical Portrait of Thomas Jefferson which would later be renamed Epic Poem. One of my favorites of her recorded orchestral compositions is her Heroic Poem, written in 1948; it features a lovely horn solo at around the 7-minute mark that is well worth a listen!
Although many of her works are for large ensembles, Radie also composed an impressive number of chamber works for a wide variety of groupings, several of which involve or feature the horn. First and most notably is a piece entitled In the Beginning, which is available both for unaccompanied horn and for horn quartet. It is unclear at the time of this writing whether the piece began as the solo version or vice versa, but, luckily for us, both are published and available for purchase online. Britain also composed a brass quartet called Adoration, several brass quintets including Ode to NASA (yes, the American space agency NASA!) and Awake to Life, and at least one woodwind quintet, Four Sarabandes. Although, to my knowledge, none of these chamber pieces has been recorded, if they are even half the quality of her outstanding orchestral pieces, any intrepid horn player who wants to dust off these long-neglected works is sure to be in for a wonderful treat.
The International Horn Society Composition Contest
Encourage your favorite composer to submit works to the 2024 Composition Contest.
The winner of each division will receive a prize of $1250 U.S.D. The winning compositions will be performed or featured, if possible, at an International Horn Society Workshop. The winning composers will have the option of having the work published by the IHS Online Music Sales.
For the 2024 Contest the Instrumentation of the Divisions follows:
FEATURED DIVISION:
- Compositions for Solo Horn (alone/unaccompanied)
VIRTUOSO DIVISION:
- Compositions for Solo Horn with Vocal Ensemble
- Compositions for Horn Ensemble (two or more players, all horns)
- Compositions for solo horn and keyboard instrument. (Keyboard instruments may include piano, harpsichord, organ, electronic keyboard, or mallet percussion.)
- Compositions featuring Horn with chamber ensemble of three or more players (one horn part only). (The chamber ensemble may include any combination of electronic instruments, acoustic instruments and/or voices. Electronic instruments may be live or pre-recorded. Acoustic instruments may include Wagner Tuben.)
- Compositions featuring Solo Horn featured with large ensemble. (The large ensemble may include any group of electronic, acoustic instruments and/or voices. Electronic instruments may be live or pre-recorded. Acoustic instruments may include Wagner Tuben.)
Information and application procedures may be found at-
https://www.hornsociety.org/about-the-ihs/composition-projects/composition-contest
Entries must be received no later than December 1, 2024.
For more information about the International Horn Society’s Composition Projects, please see the Book: The International Horn Society: The First 50 Years: Chapter Four: The I.H.S. and New Music for Horn, as well as reading the ongoing reports in The Horn Call—including articles in previous issues. Also, please attend the International Horn Society Composition Contest Program on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, at our Symposium IHS56: Horns on The Horizon.
