by Ian Zook

Volume 3—Meir Rimon

Through popular vote, our latest edition of Horn on Record will journey to Israel to listen as hornist Meir Rimon and pianist Bruno Canino perform works by Arcangelo Corelli, Robert Schumann, Richard Strauss, and Yehezkel Braun.

Released in 1981, this recording was made in the studio at the Jerusalem Music Centre (JMC) under its iconic Yemin Moshe Windmill. JMC was founded in 1973 by violinist Isaac Stern and serves as an institute for the advancement of young musicians across the county and as a concert venue for both national and international artists. Additionally, its recording studios are renowned for both their state-of-the-art equipment and exceptionally designed acoustical spaces.

Hornist Meir Rimon (1946 – 1991) was born in Vilna (Vilnius), the capital of Lithuania, which historically served as a spiritual and cultural center for the Jewish people in Eastern Europe. Moving with his family to Israel at age 10, Rimon studied horn with Horst Solomon who had been principal horn of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra since its inception in 1936 under Arturo Toscanini. (Prior to 1948, the IPO was known as the Palestine Symphony Orchestra.)

Rimon joined the Israeli Army Symphony Band at age 18 and, following his discharge, performed with the Jerusalem Radio Orchestra. Rimon traveled to Europe to study with Herman Baumann and Alan Civil, and to the United States to study briefly with Dale Clevenger and Myron Bloom. He then auditioned for Zubin Mehta and was appointed principal horn of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra where he performed from 1971 until his untimely passing in 1991.

In addition to teaching at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Tel-Aviv University, Rimon taught at Indiana University for 18 months between 1982-1984. He was elected to three terms on the Advisory Board of the International Horn Society and then served three consecutive terms as Vice President. Rimon was considered an effusive “good will ambassador” for the IHS, as his touring with the Israel Philharmonic took him across the world where he passionately shared the virtues and benefits of membership. 

Rimon’s playing is marked by a velvety and sonorous tone across the range of the horn, a dedication to full-length articulations, and an unflagging sustain of tone throughout the dynamic spectrum. His preferred instrument was a triple horn made by Paxman of London, and one can marvel at the absolute consistency of his sound knowing that he likely used both the Bb and high F horns liberally.

This record features two works which have been recorded infrequently, an arrangement of the Sonata in F by Arcangelo Corelli, and the Sonata (1969) by Israeli composer Yehezkel Braun. One can read about Braun’s Sonata on the album jacket which notes that the overall melodicism of this through-composed work is influenced by “ancient Hebrew cantilation,” and the horn acts often in character as a Jewish shofar. Here a few examples from the album:

The Prelude from Corelli’s Sonata shows Rimon’s evenness of sound and broad connectivity of his phrasing:

Corelli Prelude

Later, in the concluding Gigue, the fleet passagework in the piano dazzles alongside Rimon’s easy athleticism:

Corelli Giga

The Sonata by Yehezkel Braun begins with a plaintive melody, played with an intense, searching sostenuto:

Braun Sonata, ex. 1

Rimon plays the following section in recitative style, as if it were an invocation:

Braun Sonata, ex. 2

Later, a playful lilting theme is introduced. Rimon drifts through the syncopations and scalar runs with fluidity:

Braun Sonata, ex. 3

Braun’s Sonata ends with music imbued with the gravity of the opening melody. Rimon and pianist Canino have given us a beautiful interpretation of this wonderful and neglected work:

Braun Sonata, ex. 4

Special thanks to Jeff Lang of The Philadelphia Orchestra, and former colleague of Meir Rimon in the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, for sharing personal anecdotes. And thank you as always for reading Horn on Record!

Album Release: Manu Scriptum

from Latin, meaning written by hand

by Adrián Díaz Martínez

This album is inspired by composers’ manuscripts and their first sketches and ideas for their works. Interpreting such first musical ideas is a particularly exciting task, because in this way one can trace the original idea of these sounds. Certainly, many of these ideas were later revised and partially modified by the composers themselves. If the creator had revised and corrected his work in such a way, I was in this case always of the opinion that it is not strictly necessary to find out what came before. Yet, a quote by Robert Schumann inspired me for the project achieved with this CD: “The first concept is always the most natural and the best. The mind misleads, the feeling does not.” In order to get as close as possible to this first stage of music creation, Ikuko Odai and I embarked on a long and intense search for information about manuscripts, old letters, books, and materials that were often kept in hidden drawers. It has been a fantastic journey. Moreover, it proved to be a wonderful opportunity to discover how the selected composers thought, what they dreamed of, and how they loved and lived.

The search for Gounod’s manuscripts is undoubtedly a great challenge. Despite numerous attempts to find them in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, among other places, we have never succeeded in finding his first sketches for the Six Melodies for Horn and Piano. Yet, we came across the first edition of 1839, published very soon after he wrote it. These pieces, which he composed shortly before he began his studies and travels through Europe, are of particular importance to the history of the horn since they were written for the cor à pistons, a more advanced version of the natural horn. This instrument had two valves which made it possible to play chromatic steps on the horn for the first time. Gounod dedicated the Six Melodies for Horn and Piano to his friend, the horn player and horn craftsman, Marcel-Auguste Raoux. (Shortly after their publication, Raoux subsequently wrote the first Méthode de cor à pistons, helping horn players to better understand this new instrument, which would continue to be developed in the following decades.) In the Six Melodies, the sheet music for which was discovered along with many other melodies for voice and piano in a Paris bookstore, Gounod sought simple melodies which the horn would be able to play always at a pitch typical of the male voice.

Thanks to the cooperation of the Schumann Institutes in Düsseldorf and Zwickau, we have been able to arrive at our interpretation of the manuscript of his work Adagio and Allegro Op. 70 for Horn and Piano. The first sketch is named Romance and Allegro. The greatest obstacle in dealing with Schumann’s manuscripts was his complex personality, full of seriousness, skepticism, and a lack of conformity. We found it extremely difficult and sometimes almost impossible to discern what his original idea for some passages was. Even harmonies were difficult to discern, as he crossed them out and revised them over and over again. Staying loyal to his credo (mentioned above) was thus anything but an easy task: for us as well as, certainly, for Schumann himself, whose complex and difficult psychological situation probably never allowed him to believe in his first instincts. The Adagio and Allegro Op. 70 for Horn and Piano was written in 1849, in a year when the composer wrote numerous master pieces despite his impaired mental health. It presents an enormous technical challenge for the valve horn in F. The instrument was the German-Austrian parallel to Gounod’s cor à pistons, which was still in development. At the same time, Schumann wrote the Concert Piece for Four Horns and Large Orchestra in F Major, Op. 86, in which he sought to explore the various facets of this “new” instrument with horn players from the Dresden Hofkapelle. The valve horn in F was later further developed into what we know today as the Vienna horn.

by Frøydis Ree Wekre

During the pandemic shutdown, I finished an old plan—with invaluable help from Marilyn Bone Kloss: putting most of my articles and notes together into one booklet. I have always liked to express myself in writing, and I do like to share. Collected Writings has some thoughts on this and that, topics such as performing, teaching, artistic matters, and more. Here is one of the shorter pieces. I hope it may be of interest or help for somebody out there!

Buzzing – an additional way of strengthening the lips

General thoughts
All brass players can benefit from buzzing on the lips for training purposes. This can happen with or without the mouthpiece. I will describe both ways, based on my experiences as a player and as a teacher. Some of the objections that are being raised by colleagues in the field will also be included.

When I started to play the horn, buzzing was never mentioned by any of my teachers. They had never heard about it or done it themselves. Since they had become good players without any buzzing involved, they were sceptical when hearing about it in their later years.

And, in a way, I can see their point. A couple of years ago, a prominent European trumpet teacher expressed himself this way, on the subject of buzzing in relation to actual accomplishments on the instrument: I really think I have seen it all. Some students can play well in the high range but not buzz high. Some can buzz high, but not play high. And some cannot buzz at all, but they can play very well, while others buzz rather fantastically, but they sound terrible. And of course many can buzz well and also play well. It is quite confusing.

Nowadays a good teacher is expected to get a lot out of all pupils and students, not only the ones who are especially talented, the “naturals”. I, for one, was not so physically strong in and around the lips as a young horn player. When I was finally introduced to the idea of practicing strength away from the instrument by buzzing, it helped me enormously. The variations in shape that I had experienced in my earlier days were (almost) gone, as long as I took care and gave myself some daily minutes buzzing on the lips and on the mouthpiece.

Traditionally, trumpet players seem to be the most interested in buzzing. The most famous brass pedagogue to introduce buzzing in his teachings and writings was, after all, trumpet player James Stamp. Horn players are somewhat interested, and among the low brass players, quite a few teachers seem to use it and recommend it now. For example, the bass trombone player of the Berlin Philharmonic, Stefan Schultz, recommends a little buzzing on the lips alone for the beginning of the warm up, and then he himself is aiming for approximately 45 minutes total playing on the mouthpiece in the course of a normal day.