Pedagogy—Nury Guarnaschelli
English version* Como prepararse para audiciones de orquesta
** Pensamientos que pueden guiarte
por Nuri Guarnaschelli
Si eres joven y estas pensando en que te gustaría tener un trabajo como cornista ( Hornplayer) en una orquesta profesional , debes pensar ya en orientar tu modo y ritmo de formación en esta dirección y con este objetivo.
Muchas veces lamentablemente el estudio que haces durante años y años está muy lejos de prepararte para este fin, para ser un buen músico de orquesta o para demostrarlo que o eres en una prueba ( Probespiel ) profesional.
En la orquesta no se buscan en primera línea solistas , se buscan instrumentistas que sepan del trabajo en grupo, en fila, que sean sensibles a lo que pasa a su alrededor. Y dos aspectos fundamentales son ritmo y afinación en primera línea, al que se suman tantos otros por supuesto , pero sin estos dos no puedes tocar en una orquesta ni con otros músicos. Si quieres ganar una audición deberás básicamente ser una persona que escuche muchísima música , muy diversas versiones y conozcas las obras profundamente, pues en una audición ,un buen jurado ,escucha este aspecto en tu modo de presentar los solos.
El prepararse para una audición tiene varios aspectos a tener en cuenta : el técnico, el artístico y el corporal. El técnico incluye tu perfeccionamiento al punto de tener un modo de tocar limpio, afinado y una articulación precisa y adecuada al estilo que estés presentando en cada obra o los solos. El aspecto artístico incluye el conocimiento de los estilos con la articulación, el sonido, el fraseo y el carácter que sean acordes al compositor y obra. Y por último el tema físico es algo que deberías tener en cuenta y considerar en hacer alguna actividad que colabore a que te sientas tonificado y mentalmente fuerte , recuerda el famoso “ mens sana in corpore sano “ ! . Puede ser yoga ( a mi ésta práctica personalmente siempre me ha ayudado mucho a estar equilibrada en todos los sentidos , mental y corporal ) o algún deporte de tu agrado. El estado mental y que tengas confianza en ti mismo es fundamental al momento de audicionar. Algo muy importante que quiero recalcar es que todos estos aspectos los debes tener en cuenta para tu estudio diario y durante todos los años de estudio y mas tarde profesión. No te servirá mucho el prepararse de un modo especial para una prueba 1 mes o dos meses antes de la misma, eso no te llevara a tener éxito, solo cambiar tu modo de tocar será lo que te llevará a que un jurado se decida por ti o por otro en el cual escuchen mejor técnica y personalidad musical.
Recuerda que en 5 minutos máximos de una primera ronda deberás convencer al jurado que vale la pena seguir escuchándote y en las próximas rondas lo mismo. Debes convencer con tu técnica impecable y tus calidades musicales y de sonido. Lo que mas valorará el jurado en la primera ronda será : ritmo , afinación , articulación y sonido. Ya en las próximas rondas , cuando estos aspectos antes mencionados ya estén claros , comenzarán a evaluar mas tus conocimientos de estilo y tu calidad artística. Piensa que ellos están buscando al “ colega “ ideal que mejore la calidad de su fila y de su orquesta y no están buscando un estudiante adelantado, buscan un profesional que conozca el trabajo para el cual te estas ofreciendo! Otro consejos es que todos los días escuches obras importantes de nuestro repertorio sinfónico , pero también mucha música de cámara , música para cuerdas y opera, ésto cultivará tu sentido musical y te desarrollará como músico.
Si no te emociona escuchar música y no estás ahora mismo dispuesto a hacer música en tus tiempos libres con amigos o colegas , te recomiendo darle un vuelco a tu vida y pensar en estudiar otra cosa… nuestra profesión es muy dura y sin pasión , aunque logres entrar a una orquesta, te Estos pensamientos que estoy escribiendo aquí son el producto de mis propia preparación para pruebas ( Probespiel) en Alemania , Francia y Austria. Y también mi experiencia en las orquestas donde fui corno solista y participé como jurado : Filarmónica de Stuttgart durante 4 años y Radio y TV de Viena ( RSO) durante 16 años. Pero también de mi experiencia como docente desde hacer 10 años en la Brass Academy Alicante en donde intento ayudar a mis alumnos.
La formación que damos todos los profesores en esta Academia internacional está básicamente orientada a formar músicos profesionales ( orquesta , música de cámara o solistas) y a preparar a nuestros estudiantes técnica y estilísticamente para que en un largo o corto plazo sean capaces de hacer una buena audición y poder contribuir como buenos músicos a la orquesta que lograrán entrar.
Para eso no solo hacemos clases individuales sino mucha música de cámara y repertorio orquestal en grupos , no es lo mismo conocer los solos y partes que escucharlos y tocarlos en el contexto armónico y musical como son en la orquesta. Las clases en grupo además entrenan el aspecto escénico , desarrollando experiencia de atril y firmeza emocional.
Lograrás solo presentar bien tus solos en una audición si conoces el contexto en el cual están escritos. Quiero compartir con vosotros algunos ejemplos auditivos de nuestras clases de repertorio orquestal en la Brass Academy Alicante (pinchar los links).
Fidelio , Nury Guarnaschelli y sus estudiantes BAA
3 ª Sinfonía de Mahler
Lohengrin
8. Sinfonía de Bruckner
Por ultimo quiero dejaros un pequeño plan diario de puntos a tener en cuenta en vuestro estudio diario.
La idea es que SIEMPRE estés preparados y listo para hacer una buena audición y que no te debas preparar especialmente. Tu estudio diario debería entrenarte automáticamente para este fin.
- Técnica ( Flexibilidad , respiración, ataques, etc.)
- Estudios técnicos ( ritmo , afinación , articulación, fraseo )
- Conciertos
- Solos de orquesta , solo y tocando junto a una buena grabación.
- Escuchar a diario buenas orquestas con mucha concentración y quizás con una partitura en la mano si fuese posible.
- Ir a escuchar conciertos y funciones de opera regularmente.
- Tocar lo mas posible música de cámara o en orquestas ( jóvenes o profesionales)
- A diario yoga o deporte.
EXITOS !!!
NURY GUARNASCHELLI
Brass Academy Alicante
Meet Our New President
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
