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por Christian Morabito

¿Cómo influyó el maestro Arnold Jacobs en mí, sin siquiera llegar conocerlo?

En diciembre del año 2018 comencé a ver videos del maestro Charles Vernon (trombón bajo de la CSO) en YouTube, ya que siempre me gustó su manera de tocar, su sonido y su musicalidad. En ese momento me pareció super interesante su enfoque pedagógico desde sus explicaciones simples y también su sentido del humor. Me concentré tanto en ese enfoque que pensé… “por qué no subtitular sus videos?”. Llegué inclusive a enviarle un email porque necesitaba su permiso para hacer el trabajo, pero nunca recibí respuesta. Sé que es una persona muy ocupada. Comencé a buscar información relacionada porque sentía que mis conceptos respecto a sonido, respiraciones y demás cosas que había aprendido con mi maestro Jorge Ramírez Álvarez (ex trombón bajo de la Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires, donde actualmente trabajo como corno grave), eran similares.

Un día, buscando información similar a la del maestro Vernon, descubrí una página de Arnold Jacobs: TUBAPEOPLETV!. Ex alumnos del maestro contaban sus experiencias propias en clases privadas en el sótano de su estudio de la calle South Normal -el famoso sótano!- y también en el edificio de Bellas artes, ambos en Chicago, entrevistados por un señor llamado Michael Grose. En ese momento se me ocurrió la idea de enviarle un email directamente a la página de Arnold Jacobs ya que no había recibido respuesta del señor Vernon y no quería quedarme sin conocer más del tema. Luego de escribir el email y enviarlo, pidiendo permiso para subtitular los videos de las entrevistas en mi idioma natal el español- que por cierto, son super interesantes todas!- al rato recibí una respuesta automática diciendo “en breve responderemos a su pedido” o algo así! Y pensé…. “uffff, no me van a contestar!”. Contrariamente a mi pensamiento, recibí al otro día un email muy agradable y cálido, el cual decía… “Estimado Christian, siéntete libre de subtitular lo que quieras! siempre que sea desparramar las enseñanzas del gran maestro Arnold Jacobs, siéntete libre”... con firma…Michael Grose! ¡Me quedé con la boca abierta! Y de inmediato le pregunté…”¿Usted es Michael Grose?”…Y enseguida me contestó… “Sí”... y pensé… ¡Guau! ¡Es él!

Desde ese momento comenzó una gran amistad entre nosotros y aunque aún no hemos tenido la oportunidad de conocernos en persona, luego de estar tanto tiempo en contacto, lo considero parte de mi vida y de mi familia también.

Al día de hoy, llevo más de 160 videos subtitulados al español y juntos, Mike y yo, creamos la página web www.arnoldjacobsenespanol.com donde se puede encontrar información en formato de videos y también artículos traducidos al español.

El enfoque del maestro Jacobs es el mismo que aprendí de Jorge! Según él, en los años 1970, cuando realizó sus estudios en los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica, “todos” estudiaban con Arnold Jacobs! Dicho enfoque se basa en la simplicidad. Trabajar con la naturaleza y no en contra de ella.

Aunque Jacobs era y es aún conocido como el “muchacho de las respiraciones” considero que esta frase le queda muy pero muy chica! Él basaba su enfoque en la famosa frase “Song and Wind”, “Canción y Viento”. Siempre enfocado en 85% en la canción y solo 15% en el viento. También existe el libro con este mismo nombre Song and Wind, escrito por Brian Frederiksen, donde pueden encontrar información técnica, así como también de la vida de Jacobs. Este libro acaba de salir también traducido al español por mí y por Julio Briseño (Trombonista Mexicano).

El señor Jacobs fue una persona que tuvo muchos problemas físicos y de salud. Luego de ser aceptado a la edad temprana de 15 años en el Instituto de Música Curtis como tubista con beca completa, se le fue ofrecida, años más tarde, una beca completa para estudiar canto. Al tomar clases de canto con el maestro (ciego) y gran tenor Luccianno Bochelli, Jacobs siempre terminaba con dolores de garganta y afonía. A partir de esto, Jacobs comenzó el estudio de la función y estructura del ser humano. Fue un estudio fascinante que mantuvo hasta los últimos días de su vida! De esta manera volcó sus conocimientos a la música, pero no para ayudarse a sí mismo, sino para ayudar a los demás, desmitificando temas como el apoyo diafragmático, entre otros tantos. Innumerables estudiantes llegaban a su estudio desde todas partes del mundo para solicitar su ayuda, salvando cientos de carreras musicales.

Siendo cornista y no tubista, a medida que me introducía más y más en sus historias y enseñanzas, seguí experimentando cambios en mi manera de tocar ya que, en mis inicios, todo estaba más enfocado en lo mecánico, la fuerza física, respiraciones poco profundas y “apoyo” muscular. Descubrí algo que quiero expresar en este escrito: “Cuando se conoce este enfoque y se experimenta por sí mismo, no se vuelve a lo anterior!”. Esto sucede porque uno comienza a tocar más libremente, con sonido más amplio y resonante y uno se enfoca más en el producto final que obviamente es la música, la comunicación y no en el aspecto físico de cómo lograrlo! Es un enfoque mental, basado en el producto final.
De esta manera influyó el maestro Arnold Jacobs en mi vida… y lo sigue haciendo!

¡Gracias siempre señor Jorge Ramírez, señor Michael Grose y señor Arnold Jacobs!

by Ilir Kodhima

Albania is a country in southeastern Europe located on the western part of the Balkan Peninsula. Due to its strategic geographic location, Albania has often been part of great wars and tragic historical events; this has adversely affected artistic growth and development.

Classical music in Albania was introduced via wind orchestras. Much evidence for this can be seen in photographs from the city of Shkodra dating to 1878. The ensemble was first directed by the Italian conductor, Maestro Giovanni Canale. Three years later, the group was directed by the well-known Albanian Palok Kurti.

In the early 1900’s, wind orchestras were very popular throughout the country, becoming part of political and cultural events. The first city closely associated with wind orchestras was Shkodra. Almost every neighborhood or school in the city had its own wind orchestra made up almost exclusively of amateurs and students. One of the most popular wind orchestras was in the city of Skopje. The ensemble was supported by many nationalists, including Hasan Prishtina, Kolë Bojaxhi (St. Mother Teresa’s father), and others. This ensemble played a very important role in the inspiration and entertainment of the citizens during the fight for liberation from the Ottoman Empire.

Wind orchestras from two other cities played a similar role in this era:

Freedom Wind Orchestra of Korçë

Afërdita Wind Orchestra of Elbasan

During the 1900s, many Albanians immigrated to the United States. Although they lived in a foreign country, they established the “VATRA” association, still in existence. This association established the “VATRA Wind Orchestra” to financially support the reconstruction of houses destroyed during the various Balkan wars.

Of the many musicians who were part of wind orchestras in Albania, only a few of them graduated from music conservatories in Italy or other western or eastern European countries. Later, many of these musicians, such as Çesk Zadeja, Prenk Jakova, and others, became famous in Albania, contributing to the consolidation of cultural institutions in addition to enriching the Albanian musical repertoire.

Thoma Nasi, a notable artist who studied violin in Albania and Greece then subsequently graduated with a degree in flute from Boston Conservatory in the United States, created and conducted the first Albanian Symphonic Orchestra on April 6, 1924. Following the difficult period of Balkan and world wars, this orchestra returned in 1950, and after 3 years  became part of the National Opera and Ballet. Horn players who were part of this orchestra included Osman Banushi, Muharrem Gurra, and Kristo Kote. These artists were also quite active in other musical fields like arranging, composing, and conducting.

High Institute of Arts, Tirana

The current University of Arts, located in Tirana, was established in 1966. The first horn professors were Kristofor Qorri and Dhimitraq Gjergji. Both studied at the Military Conservatory “Vitta Needleho” in the former Czechoslovakia from 1958-1960. After graduation, they returned as the players and professors in various orchestras and music schools in cities across Albania. They were, thus, a crucial part of orchestral development and of the artistic growth of many young horn players. Local orchestras appeared across all of Albania, improving rapidly and bringing music to a much higher artistic level.

The change from a totalitarian communist system to a democratic one in Albania initially adversely affected all that had taken decades to build. Even still, many music schools lack representative professors, musical instruments, or even a library, making it very difficult to generate interest in orchestral instruments in the younger generation. An obstacle during this period has been the closure of many city orchestras, causing deep financial and artistic losses.

Since 2004, with the evolution of technology and internet access, we have had the opportunity to enrich our study methods and literature. In the past, students and professors used to copy pieces or even method books entirely by hand due to the lack of copy machines. Method books were very old and often limited in their approach in adapting to different levels of student progress. Finding an instrument or even a mouthpiece was very difficult if not impossible. Many music schools have totally closed their brass-wind departments, creating an alarming situation which will require long-term policy for reconstruction, both of infrastructure and of all necessary supporting materials and conditions.

Lately, thanks to various cultural organizations, and in particular to the Albanian Brass Festival (www.iabf.al), many horn players from around the world have shared their expertise and talent with a whole new generation, helping them improve quickly. Some of our guests have included Brent Shires, USA; Arkady Shilkloper, Russia; Gergely Sugar, Hungary; and Luca Benucci, Italy, among others.

To me, it seems that many European countries (and other nations around the world) have started to feel similar difficulties; and consequently, long-term policies must be implemented immediately for the improvement of situations that threaten the musical arts around the world.

 Ilir Kodhima is the Artistic Director of the International Albanian Brass Festival, and he is professor of horn at the University of Arts in Tirana, Albania, as well as at the University Faculty of Arts in Pristina, Kosovo.

by Richard Seraphinoff

The horn world was saddened to hear of the passing of Lowell Greer on January 5th of this year. Lowell had a stellar career as a performer on both modern horn and natural horn, and he was known as a pioneer in natural horn performance, horn making, and scholarship. This tribute for Horn and More will focus on Lowell the mentor and teacher whom many of us in Detroit got to know in the 1970s. For a longer tribute in the May issue of The Horn Call, I’ll write about Lowell as those of us who worked with him in later years knew him and enjoyed both his artistry and personality.

I first met Lowell when I was in high school and needed to find a private horn teacher. At that time, in the mid-1970s, Lowell was assistant principal horn of the Detroit symphony, and he taught a small number of students, a few of whom went on to become professional horn players, including Rob Danforth, R.J. Kelley, and myself. The three of us were members of the Detroit Youth Symphony horn section, and Lowell was our coach. Studying with Lowell was much more than just having a horn lesson each week. It often involved recitals of Lowell and his students and the parties afterwards, for which Lowell would cook elaborate meals—with plenty of Dr. Pepper. It was like an extended family, with Christmas parties at which we exchanged presents, and sessions playing quartets and chamber music throughout the year. I still have, and use, a few horn making tools that Lowell gave me for Christmas as far back as 1974.

It was at this point that Lowell started to learn about the natural horn, and of course, he had to share his exploration with his students. At lessons, after playing a Kopprasch etude, Lowell would say “Fine! Now play it again on this horn.” Then he would hand you a natural horn made from a single F horn with its valves removed. The result was that we became proficient on both instruments early on in our studies with him. We didn’t think of the valved horn as the ‘normal horn’ and the natural horn as some exotic and difficult way to play the same music. They were two different but equally legitimate ways of playing the horn, and that’s how Lowell thought of them. I played second horn to Lowell for two seasons in the Toledo Symphony, and when playing his Alexander 107 B flat/high F horn (his regular instrument), I heard totally high-tech, clean, precise modern horn playing of the highest level; and when playing with him on natural horn, it was the same remarkable musicianship and the same distinctive musical personality, but done on an authentic low-tech horn in an authentic, well-researched way.

As we, his students, became more excited about learning the natural horn, the logical result, and the very “Lowell” thing to do, was to organize an ensemble of natural horns known as the Detroit Waldhorn Society (I still have one or two of the T-shirts). This group, which included his students and a couple of Detroit professional horn players, presented concerts around the Detroit area, and we even went as far as the Interlochen Arts Academy, where Lowell was the horn teacher, to introduce audiences to the natural horn. As Lowell searched out method books and 18^th and 19^th century sources and studied them, we all learned more and more about how the natural horn was actually played. This became the basis for much period instrument playing over the next nearly fifty years. Though there were other people playing natural horn in the USA at that time (and even earlier), what Lowell developed and taught became the basis of what might be called the ‘American school’ of natural horn playing. This became clear to me at the Naturhorn Festival which took place in Essen, Germany in 1993. Also in attendance were representatives of the German school of natural horn players, led by Hermann Baumann, and the English school, of which Tony Halstead was one of the founding players and teachers. French-speaking players such as Francis Orval and Michel Garcin-Marrou represented a French school, and Lowell was the mentor and master of our American school. Hearing the players from different countries at this festival impressed upon me that, already at this relatively early date, distinct national schools of natural horn playing had developed. Lowell’s clean, singing way of playing the instrument—as can be heard on his Mozart concerto recording with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and on his superb Brahms trio recording with violinist Stephanie Chase and pianist Steven Lubin—set the stage for how we all approached the natural horn in the United States. (Listen also to his assertive, noble playing in Va tacito from Handel’s Julius Caesar.)

My own introduction to horn making took place one evening in about 1974 when I brought an old flea-market horn to my lesson. At around 8 p.m., after my lesson, we descended into Lowell’s basement; at about 3:30 a.m., we came up the stairs again with my first natural horn—which I got to try out in a concert soon after in which Lowell and I played Handel’s Water Music with the Ars Musica Baroque Orchestra in Ann Arbor Michigan, one of the earliest period instrument orchestras in North America. We eventually played Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto no. 1 and many other works with this group as I followed along learning natural horn technique, performance practice, and horn making from Lowell.

(L-R: Lowell Greer, Rick Seraphinoff, and Uwe Bartels)

I often wondered what drew Lowell to the natural horn. Was it the challenge of making nice music on an instrument that was more difficult to play? Was it the curiosity to understand how the music sounded to the composers and audiences of the time? Or was it an academic exercise of detective work to go back to the sources and figure out the horn technique of the distant past?

I was in Toledo this past week helping to catalog Lowell’s many instruments (and pieces of instruments), as well as his books and music, and his widow Patricia asked me, “What was it that made Lowell’s playing so distinctive and special?” It occurred to me, as I tried to give her an answer, that what made Lowell’s playing so special was a wide variety of colors that struck the ear like a human voice. I should preface this next statement by saying that I, like Lowell, am a total fan of the modern horn and think it’s one of the greatest instruments ever invented; but I believe that one of the qualities that intrigued Lowell about the natural horn is the subtle unevenness of colors and the vulnerability of its voice. The natural horn can be played with overly-closed stopped notes that can give it an ugly character, or it can be played, as the old treatises tell us, with only the most subtle differences between open and stopped notes, putting more musical tension on the closed notes, which are typically the non-harmonic tones in a melody. To instill emotion in the listener, those uneven colors, when skillfully managed, emulate the vowels and consonants as well as the emotional content that a singer or speaker can convey. This, I believe is the key to the magic of the wide palette of colors and emotions Lowell achieved in his playing—as one can hear in the third movement of the Brahms trio recording. This very organic way of expressing music on the horn, with its risks and with the imperfections we humans show when expressing ourselves, is what drew Lowell to the natural horn and made his playing draw us into the stories that he had to tell.

(at Kendall Betts Horn Camp)