Transitions
by Kami Harcrow
When I was eleven years old and about to enter sixth grade, the middle school band director came to visit my school. His job was to help students select an appropriate instrument for band class. I wanted to play the French horn, but my older brother was already playing horn and was first chair in the eighth grade band. Our parents would not allow me to play the horn because they didn’t want us competing against one another, so they said I had to choose a different instrument. My mother had a flute from her high school days and urged me to play that, but I did not want an instrument with so many keys. After a lot of back-and-forth discussion, my brother, in his eighth grade wisdom, suggested I play the bassoon because “you’ll always be first chair and never have to practice!” So, despite my flute trepidation, I took up an instrument with significantly more keys that was also much heavier to tote around. I often was first chair, but I did have to practice. I played bassoon through high school and for a year in college but quit after that. Since they were so expensive, I never had my own instrument, and did not play again for many years.
As I approached fifty, I prepared to retire from my career as an air traffic controller and searched for activities to occupy my time. I decided to take up playing bassoon once again. Craigslist offered up a nice, lightly-used Fox Renard bassoon which I purchased without playing (being too embarrassed to try it in front of its owner). I bought some reeds and a Weissenborn method book and started playing again. Fortunately, it came back more quickly than I expected, even after 30 or so years. I joined a community band—which was thrilled to have a bassoon player, and they did not require auditions.
Several years after retiring, I moved to a different city and joined a different band where I was once again the only bassoonist. As a small band, it had only a few of each instrument and no horns at all. Frequently, the conductor bemoaned the lack of horns and tried to cajole local horn players to join us. The band also played marching music, which usually has no bassoon part, so I pondered picking up a different instrument for those occasions. I toyed briefly with the trombone, but one day it occurred to me that I could buy a horn and learn to play. Again I perused the ads, this time on the International Horn Society classifieds, and after a little consultation with my brother (who by that time was a horn professor), I decided on a used Holton H179.
When the horn arrived, I found a teacher at a local music shop and began taking lessons at the age of fifty-six. I worked my way through Getchell’s First Book of Practical Studies for French Horn and, at the suggestion of a fellow student, joined a second local community band that didn’t require auditions. There, I joined several other horn newbies and was seventh horn. After a month or so in this band, I casually mentioned to the conductor in my first band that I was learning horn. She was very excited and encouraging, and before I knew it, I was playing horn in two bands. Meanwhile, in my lessons, I had moved on to a Kopprasch Studies book.
Playing music for two bands and keeping up with my lessons, I practiced at least two hours every day. My thumb developed a large lump where it joined my hand. To ease this, I purchased the hand strap my brother recommended. In February 2020, I played my first concert on horn. A newly-joined bassoonist had a family emergency, and this resulted in me playing both bassoon and horn for the concert. After the performance, as I helped to clean up, I lifted a table and realized that I could not lift my left arm higher than eye level. Just days later, the entire state—and therefore both bands—shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. With no band and no horn lessons, I stopped practicing as I realized that the position of the horn was either causing or exacerbating the pain in my shoulder. Three doctor visits resulted in a diagnosis of frozen shoulder. They gave me two very large shots of steroids in the joint, and I began visiting a physical therapist. I stopped playing both horn and bassoon, hunkered down to do PT, and waited for things to reopen.
A year and a half later I had not played either instrument at all.
Then, my original band began to have rehearsals outside in a courtyard and I decided to play the bassoon, thinking it would not hurt my shoulder. As I practiced, I often played the band music along to YouTube videos to make it less boring. Hearing the horn parts in the songs made me melancholy for playing horn again, but I was nervous about losing the shoulder flexibility I had worked so hard to regain. As rehearsals continued, I decided I would try the horn again. I picked one song—ironically, a medley of tunes from the movie Frozen—and I asked the conductor if I could try to play the horn part on it. She happily agreed, and I began to practice the part, always followed up with my forty minute PT routine. By concert time, I had three horn parts and ten bassoon parts to play.
Now I am back to practicing mostly horn. I set a thirty-minute timer to ensure I do not practice too long, and I do my PT afterwards. Playing the horn brings me more joy than does the bassoon (even if I sound like a distressed cow sometimes). Being in small bands means that often I am the only person playing horn. It is not as easy to hide in the texture; but being older, I do not care nearly as much if my occasional wrong notes are heard. For me, it is all about the fun of being in band and making music with others, no matter how old I am.
Vienna Calling
by Angelo Nuzzo, IHS Country Representative in Austria
The horn playing tradition in Vienna is strongly bound to the well-known Vienna horn as well as to the Classical composers who explored and established its value as a solo instrument (Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven) or who fully exploited its potential in large symphonic works (Bruckner and Mahler). This tradition is proudly continued and best performed by players in the top professional Viennese orchestras; yet there also exists a significant community of amateur players and educational systems which share the same pride and live the same culture.
In our contribution to IHS53 this past summer, we produced two videos to show how Vienna also offers non-professional players a unique environment where tradition and modernity coexist, and where locals and internationals are joined together, bound by the common passion of making music with this wonderful instrument. With that in mind, in our presentation, we took a brief historical journey exploring what an amateur ensemble might enjoy performing in the city and surroundings of Vienna, whether anchored in the most traditional or extended to the most modern.
Watch the videos
The first of the two contributions is from Hornissimum, a Vienna horn ensemble founded in Baden bei Wien; and the second is by the horn section of the University of Vienna Philharmonic. The intent of the first is to give a concrete example of the traditional, while the latter aims to provide a taste of how the educational system in Vienna offers possibilities based on more contemporary music, exploiting the talents of its community of students from all over the world.
In summary, we hope to show that no matter what level of playing ability one has reached, whatever one’s geographical origin, or whatever musical taste one has, a horn player will always feel at home in Vienna!
Introduction, Horn and More, November, 2021
Caros amigos,
Espero que esta mensagem vos encontre bem e positivos!
Com o chegar do Outono algumas boas notícias têm surgido, dando-nos uma renovada esperança que parte da vida da nossa comunidade regressará a alguma normalidade. Fiquei particularmente contente com o regresso à atividade de instituições musicais de fundamental importância, como por exemplo o Met de NY. Tenho assistido com entusiasmo ao regresso do público em maior escala às plateias e, é igualmente motivador constatar que as programações regressam à sua versão mais sinfónica. A atividade musical floresce um pouco por todo o lado, dando um sinal de maior confiança a todos.
Também os festivais, congressos e workshops de trompa estão de regresso, possibilitando que cada comunidade local possa interagir, conviver e compartilhar de novo, algo que todos sentimos muita falta nos últimos dois anos. Neste sentido, relembro-vos que coloquem já na vossa agenda para 2022 o IHS54. A anfitriã do evento, Jennifer Sholtis, está a preparar um evento vibrante e inesquecível, onde certamente ficará patente a energia e vivacidade da nossa comunidade.
A equipa de 'Horn and More' preparou uma Newsletter muito rica e diversificada: o virtuoso japonês Nobuaki Fukukawa dá-nos uma primeira amostra do seu novo CD dedicado a Mozart; Jeff Snedeker mostra-nos mais sobre o imperdível livro comemorativo dos 50 anos da IHS; Adam Nguyen partilha connosco o seu espírito radical...
Tome nota também de importantes anúncios das nossas iniciativas e vida em comunidade: bolsas de estudo e nomeações para o AC.
Uma última referência para o 'IHS53: Our One Horn Community', o nosso evento virtual foi um fabuloso êxito graças à dedicação e talento de muitos de vós. Eu continuo a vibrar com as muitas apresentações e performances, e ainda a descobrir mais. O conteúdo estará ainda disponível até dia 22 de Novembro, visita ihs53.com e navega !!
Envio um forte abraço desde Portugal!!
Adam Nguyen's Cross-Country Bicycle Adventure
Sarah Willis—Holiday Surprise
TAMUK - IHS 54 Facilites
Wrapped Up!
by Andrew Lane
How does someone describe the “sound” of the French horn? If you are not a horn player, you might say the horn has a mellow, a rich, or a brassy tone; but if you are a horn player, you might say it has a New York, a Chicago, a Berlin, or a Vienna sound.
In 1990, I joined the horn section of the Florida Symphony Orchestra. The horn section was made up of excellent players who had a clear idea of the sound they wanted to produce. Prior to my audition for the orchestra, I played a Paxman model 20. I liked the instrument very much, but I knew if I wanted a job in the Florida Symphony, I had better change to a Conn 8D because that was the sound they would be looking for in the audition. I had always liked the sound of an 8D, having listened to the great players who used them, but I was never really “wrapped up” in the horn being the deciding factor of the sound I wanted to produce. The FSO section was an established 8D section, so I didn't even consider showing up for the audition without one. Luckily for me, I won the job! Playing in that group really opened my eyes to how a horn section, with a common concept of playing, could work together to create a unity of sound that was very inspiring.
Florida Symphony Orchestra horns - Excerpts from Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4
But is it necessary for all players in a section to use the same instrument to create a unified sound? We tend to make assumptions about how a horn plays based on how it looks: if it's a Geyer wrap, it will produce a certain sound; if it's a Kruspe wrap, it will sound another way. Horns have many parts, and, when considering all the variables, it’s impossible to narrow down to just one that creates a certain sound.
These days, horn sections appear very different from sections of the past. Many have replaced their nickel horns with brass ones, and we also see a triple horn leading a section now and then. The players in the Philadelphia Orchestra might play their brass horns one week but bring out their 8Ds the next if this works better for the program. The instrument of choice in the New York Philharmonic is now a brass Schmid, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra players favor horns made by Patterson. So what has changed? Perhaps we have become more open-minded about the sound we want and less fixated on having a certain instrument to produce it.
Jennifer Montone - Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 2 opening
MET Opera and Berlin Philharmonic Horns perform Hänsel and Gretel
Since I have been building horns, I have often been asked how the “wrap” of the instrument affects the sound and feel. Does a more open wrap, like a Geyer, feel more open? Does a Kruspe wrap, like a Conn 8D, feel tighter? The answers are yes and no to both questions. The rate of taper through the lead pipe, first branch, and bell tail, plays a crucial role in how the instrument feels and plays. The wrap of an instrument is not the deciding factor in giving it an “open” blow, a “tighter” feel, or a bright or dark sound; the tapers which make up the design are crucial to determining sound and feel.
Of course, the bell flare is very important too. Spun or hand-hammered? Large, medium, or small? Certainly, a larger bell throat can give the horn a more open sound with the “edge” coming at higher volumes, whereas with a smaller bell, the player might realize that edge at lower dynamics. A spun bell tends to yield a darker sound while a hand hammered bell, with its complicated harmonics, tends to result in a brighter sound.
Phil Munds - Mahler Symphony No. 5
But all these variables considered, sound is impacted most by a player’s natural tendencies; so don't get too “wrapped up” in the “wrap” of a particular horn. When we think of all the great horn players, past and present, we may attribute a certain type of sound to the instrument they play. However, the sound they create is unique to them and very much depends on their approach and style. The most important variable to creating a desired sound is the person playing the instrument and how their instrument of choice fits their concept of playing.
Andrew Lane is the craftsman-owner of Lanstro Horns.
