Interview of the Month - John Ericson
John Ericson received a 2018 Punto Award from the IHS. Individuals selected for the Punto Award shall have made a major contribution at the regional or national level to the art of horn playing. This contribution can be in any of a variety of areas, such as performance, teaching, research, or service to the IHS. John was recognized for his contributions as a performer and scholar, his past service to the IHS, and his promotion of the horn and its music through his online activities.
Mike Harcrow: "The mission of Horn Matters is: to encourage, inspire, inform, and challenge horn players; and, to promote the best musical instrument ever, the French horn." The Horn Matters mission statement is terrific, John, although a non-hornist might see the second goal as arguable. Do you believe the site is fulfilling its mission?
John Ericson: Our goal certainly is to fulfil that mission—and I believe we have—in that Horn Matters is a site with a positive tone and a big reach worldwide, presently toward 1,500 page views every day.
A word not to miss in the statement is “promote.” One thing every horn player needs to embrace is promotion of our instrument; we certainly could use more players! We hope that the information on the site is supportive to building the overall horn and “middle brass” community.
Of course, HM did not happen overnight. The site launched in September of 2009, making use of content from two existing blog sites: my own Horn Notes Blog and the Horndog Blog of Bruce Hembd. My blog content reaches back to June of 2004, with the underlying site that started it for me being my Horn Articles Online site, launched twenty years ago in August of 1998. Bruce has been online even longer; in 1996 he started the Hornplanet site of Thomas Bacon and the IHS Online. With those varied experiences, the mission of Horn Matters evolved over time as we developed the site you see today.
MH: What are the real strengths of HM, as you see it?
JE: On one level it is a huge website with over 1,500 articles. It has a little of everything in it, not just on the horn but on all the middle brass including mellophone and Wagner tuba.
However, looking a bit deeper, there is a “point-counterpoint” element to the content as well that gives it a bit of extra spark. Bruce and I met as students at Eastman way back in 1984. We are different people but have long had a good working relationship. Either of us, individually, would not have built Horn Matters, but together we were able to create something unique.
MH: Is there anything, as we approach ten years of HM, that you still hope to improve about the site or its content?
The Horn in Jazz History: 100 essential recordings for the Hornist
by Steven Schaughency
The following is a brief synopsis of the presentation given at the International Horn Society’s 50th Symposium. The intent was to introduce the audience to a sampling of the wide variety of musical situations the horn has found itself in over the last 100+ years. Since this space does not allow for an exhaustive or thorough overview, what follows will hopefully provide some basics for further exploration.
Often, a traditional education for hornists lacks any kind of basic overview of jazz history and more significantly, how correct performance practice (to use a classical term) applies to the diverse styles found within the idiom. As outsiders, we occasionally hear something played in a jazz style and think ”oh, that’s nice” but then return to playing and listening to music that our instrument is most associated with. Or we play the wonderful music of Alec Wilder, Doug Hill or some Fripperies and believe that we now have gained all we need to know about playing jazz style music. One can argue, in these situations, that most hornists have never seen the deep, jazz forest through the slightly jazz influenced, classical trees. Where does one start to discover the multitude of musical situations throughout jazz history that have included our instrument? Fortunately, almost the entire history of jazz music has been thoroughly documented through recordings. While performances of jazz certainly do involve on-the-spot improvisation and large sections of music that are never written down, recordings can still give us solid documentation of a moment in time in the development of the music.
The accompanying pdf list of 99 recordings(88 KB) is intended to give players a starting point for finding historically or musically significant tracks. The list is divided into 3 sections: the horn in big bands and orchestras, the horn in small group situations of less than 10 players, and the hornist as group leader.
- Big bands are often referred to as the orchestras of jazz music. They give composers and arrangers an opportunity to create more organized sounds. The horn has provided more possibilities in the palette of sound available to these writers.
- Small group situations, including those with hornists as group leaders, also provide similar possibilities, on a more intimate scale. We can easily consider this the chamber music of jazz.
- Last but not least are the many individual horn players who have participated in these recordings. While some tend to specialize in one particular area, others have taken part in scores of recording sessions over a wide spectrum of styles and groups.
Javier Bonet Video
Taking and Ending Breaks from Playing Horn
Thoughts from Richard King (Cleveland Orchestra), David Cooper (Berlin Philharmonic), and Jeff Nelsen (Canadian Brass).
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| Richard King Cleveland Orchestra |
As summer begins, we horn players may find ourselves gently slipping into the familiar seasonal routines. Students who are happily having a break from the classroom may also have an interruption of private lessons or not have access to their school-owned instruments.
Teachers and performers, novices or experts, amateurs and pros could have an entirely different schedule from the rest of the year—Maybe we have some outdoor band concerts. Maybe we travel to a chamber music festival. Maybe our orchestras move into their summer home. Maybe we teach at clinics. Maybe we have a various combination of all these things.
Probably the one thing that most of us will have at one point or another this summer is- a BREAK from HORN PLAYING!!! Whether or not it is intended, all of us will find ourselves with time away from our instrument now and then. Family vacation? Road trip? Cruise? Didn’t get around to it? Didn’t feel like it?
As a thirty-year veteran of the Cleveland Orchestra, I have seen most every situation that has caused me to hit the pause button and find myself on some type of horn playing hiatus. Most common to me however, especially as a twenty-year principal horn player, was the INTENTIONAL hiatus! My whole being would cry out for relief from the grind, both physical and mental. With my orchestra work schedule I eventually fell into the habit of taking two larger yearly breaks of about two weeks each. In June and December at the end of a long run of concerts, I would put my Conn 8D in the case and put it out of my mind. I closed down those weeks in my schedule book and very rarely took outside work, saving those rare exceptions for very special opportunities.
At first I would wonder if I would remember how to play at all when I returned to my instrument. Would all my skills be gone forever? How long to get back to normal--- a day? A week? A month? Would I be able to find a fingering chart? Would the valves be frozen? Where did I leave my Kopprasch and Gallay books?
IV Edition of the International Course of Natural and Modern Horn.
by Joel Arias, IHS Representative for Panama and Venezuela
The International Course for Natural and Modern Horn begins as a teaching project for horn players in Venezuela in 2010.
Since the beginning, it is presented as an initiative that helps the artistic growth of students and provides an international event for the cultural development of the country with classes, talks, concerts and other related artistic events.
It is intended, once a year, to have the presence of musicians of the highest level for the specialized teaching of the instruments and to offer through this project a contribution to the musical culture of the country.
In this first edition in Panama, we will be offering -through students and invited teachers- master classes, conferences and other related activities, it will be an intensive academic experience for the participants of the course and an unforgettable cultural proposal to the general public.
The participants will have all the comforts in adequate facilities, equipped with the most modern technology, to receive the maximum information during 4 consecutive days of master classes, conferences and concerts.
Students will receive a certificate of participation endorsed by the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Panama.
Panama, due to its privileged location, is one of the most important tourist and business centers in the region with an excellent system of air and sea connections to the whole world.
It is known for its beautiful natural settings and also has multiple accommodation options and gastronomic variety.
Panamá with its constant economic, social and cultural development makes this place a very attractive destination.
For more information about the event, go to: hornstudiopty@gmail.com
English translation by Gabriella Ibarra
Pedagogy — Javier Bonet
IHS Members Only: Bonus Video - Javier Bonet
Still waiting to join the IHS? Do it today!
English translation coming soon.
Javier Bonet began his studies in Spain under the tutelage of his father and M. Rodrigo in Valencia, continuing his studies in Essen, Germany, with Hermann Baumann. Bonet is a tireless a world-wide soloist and chamber musician. Among numerous recordings stand out a version of Mozart’s horn concertos with the Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hermann Baumann and his latest recording, “Just For Fun” which contains his own transcriptions of some popular music for piano, violin, cello or voice. Being a prize-winner himself in various international competitions he is now active in the jury of the most reputed competitions (Porcia, Geneva or the ARD in Munich)Javier Bonet belongs to the national Orchestra of SPAIN and teaches natural and modern horn at ESMUC in Barcelona.
Pedagogy — Javier Bonet
IHS Members Only: Bonus Video - Javier Bonet
Still waiting to join the IHS? Do it today!
English version
Mi admirado y querido amigo Ab Koster me anima a escribir un apunte pedagógico para la Newsletter de la International Horn Society.
Me gustaría hablar de la importancia que tiene para mí, el conocimiento de la trompa natural y sus fundamentos acústicos para el estudio y el desarrollo tanto técnico como musical del trompista contemporáneo.
Como muchos sabéis, en la Escuela Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC) de Barcelona, donde desarrollo mi labor pedagógica desde hace casi 20 años, enseñamos tanto la trompa moderna como la trompa natural. Además en el caso de esta última, puede ser abordada no sólo como complemento de la formación en trompa moderna sino como instrumento principal. (www.esmuc.cat)
En este breve comentario y en el vídeo que se adjunta, (que recomiendo visionar pues es de gran ayuda para comprender todo mejor) trataré de explicar por qué considero que hoy en día es imprescindible para cualquier profesional conocer estos fundamentos.
