Revisiting Dick Martz's Collection
by James Hampson
Single horn by Gessner, ca. 1918.
Imagine walking into a new place, a room filled with people you’ve never met before, and the first thing you encounter are tables upon tables of antique horns. That was my first experience with Dick Martz’s collection. In 2008, I was fortunate enough to attend the American Hunting Horn Workshop that took place at the Chautauqua Institute in Chautauqua, New York (where I also first met Lowell Greer), and as I walked through the entrance, I saw this incredible horn collection which still amazes me today. I was an undergraduate student, just learning about some of these instruments, and seeing and playing them made me feel like a kid in a candy shop. During my master’s studies at Rutgers University, I spent many days at Dick’s house learning more about the horns and playing as many as I could. I have even helped find horns to add to the collection over the last few years. Dick has stopped touring with his outstanding presentation, but what makes this collection truly special, whether seen in person or online, is the detailed research done on each instrument, the makers, and the performers throughout history who have used them—and it’s all easily accessible: http://www.rjmartz.com/horns. Enjoy your virtual visit!
Overcoming Difficulties, and Learning by Listening (Part 2)
by Félix Dervaux
I have adhered to the following principles since the beginning of my career. They are the foundation of my horn playing: the way I achieved the quality of my sound, the accuracy, the resistance, etc., follows these tips. I have written a brief summary of these principles. (The complete list is very long, so I won’t list everything.)
Know yourself. It is very important that you get to know the strengths and weaknesses of your horn playing as accurately as possible before anything else, so be honest with yourself. This will help you to know where you are starting before moving forward. Each bit of progress is like a long trip, and not knowing yourself is like booking a flight without knowing which airport you are leaving from.
Have very precise goals. Once you know your starting point, it’s time to decide exactly where you want to go. In your journey to become a better horn player, it’s important to know which airport you are leaving from, but it is crucial to know where you want to go. If you are uncertain about this, you won’t get anywhere—you will be a rudderless ship. This means, for example, you must know what kind of sound you want to produce (that’s why it’s important to listen; knowing what is already out there can give you a clear idea of what is possible and thus a clear target to set for yourself). If you don’t establish that as a goal first, you will never actually get to it (the same goes with all your personal goals). You also need deadline goals: concerts, exams, lessons, etc., anything with a deadline. Once you have goals and deadlines, it will be much easier for you to identify if you are on the right path or not. And this leads to the next tip….
Always be in progress. Every evening, at the end of the workday, ask yourself, “Did I make any progress, no matter how small?” And the answer should be yes. Thinking this way will force you to discover your own reference points, and it will teach you to focus everything that is blurred. This may sound like a trivial task but remember that there are only two possibilities: at the end of each day, you improved, or you didn’t. As a horn player, there is no middle ground, no “neutral progression;” your level is always evolving, either for better or for worse.
Stay healthy. Since the horn is a very demanding instrument both physically and psychologically, be healthy! Exercise is good for your posture, your concentration, your resistance, your morale, etc., so don’t ignore this.
Absorb. Never forget that your brain is like a sponge. That means that for each of us, whatever we do, experience, or think, our brain will record it somewhere in the subconscious—even if it doesn't feel like it. Your “brain recorder” is kind of stupid and will not, most of the time, register the difference between something that is wrong and something that is right—it merely records what happened. If you practice a piece of music, and you don’t care about the mistakes you make when you play, you can be sure your subconscious will remember the good as well as the bad, and that will lead to confusion in future performances. Think of it this way: the level you can expect each time you play a piece is the average level of all the previous times you played it, whether you are practicing at home alone or performing on stage.
Remain lucid. Practice with a crystal-clear mindset. Be in control of your thoughts and of your playing. If you think, “I can’t do that, this will never work, I’m bad, etc.” every time you arrive at a specific place, your subconscious will note: “OK, I’m here,” and this will slowly become reality. Instead, try to keep your thoughts in control and try to replace negative thoughts with positive ones.
Build new skills. Start with something that is easy for you. You can only master new skills (have a better tone, clearer articulations, more nimble fingers, etc.) if you build them on top of the those which have already been mastered—on top of the things that are now easy for you. You actually can decide to practice pieces that are too difficult for you right now, provided your work can be broken down into smaller steps that are easy (by practicing slowly or in small sections, for example).
Learn from your mistakes, especially the little ones. The default mindset when something little happens—a wrong note, for example—is: “Oh, that’s too bad, but that was just something meaningless. Let’s move on…that won’t happen next time.” When those little things occur, this is the best time to stop and think again about what happened. There is so much to learn from those tiny accidents! Was it poor airflow? Are you playing too timidly? or too aggressively? Did you hear the melody before you played it? Are you thinking too vertically? How consistently are you phrasing? Are you tired, and should you take a break? Each little accident can be seen as a mini riddle you have to solve before moving to the next riddle.
Visualize. Contrary to what the word implies, visualization does not only involve sight—it can include all the senses. Visualization is the act of being mentally conscious of as many parameters as possible, away from the horn, just in your mind. I used to learn all my new pieces this way, from memory, and then only afterward play the piece on the horn. This forces you to imagine as accurately as possible, in advance, how you want to play, from the sound to the style to the mastering of technical difficulties, while saving practice time on the horn for later. Visualization is also important even when you are actually playing. Before I play each note, I am mentally playing it. That way, when I begin to play for real, it’s like playing for the second time, except nobody heard the first one but me. If there is such a thing as “horn technique,” to me it would be this visualization process. This can’t be replaced by any other technique and is one of the most important aspects of horn playing. Many of us do it naturally some of the time but being aware of it all the time is even better. Think about it next time you must play a big solo or a dangerous entrance; visualization will make you much more efficient!
Simplicity. Contrary to what you might think, becoming a more skilled horn player does not mean making things more complicated. Keeping it simple takes time and real skill. The biggest difference between a beginner and a seasoned professional is that for the former, every element of an interpretation will be a novelty; every tiny indication, fingering, nuance, articulation, technical parameter (lips, air flow, posture, tongue, breathing, etc.) will be something new and overwhelming that the beginner will have to think about. Professional horn players, on the other hand, will have learned to simplify their thinking and playing. This does not mean that you should play as blandly as possible: everything is in the nuance. Two quotes summarize this principle very well. The first is from the abstract expressionist painter Hans Hofmann: “Simplifying is eliminating the superfluous in order to let the indispensable speak for itself.” The second quote is from Antoine de Saint-Exupery: “It seems that perfection is reached not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to subtract.” This is what you must aim for. Horn playing is so perilous that you must learn to think more simply, and the good news is that simplicity will serve your artistry.
Don’t go it alone. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of having someone at your side who can give you feedback, even if you have been a professional for many years. Believe me: I know what I’m talking about. There are things I would never have achieved without my teachers and friends, but also things that could have gone even better if I hadn’t decided to go it alone.
Be open to new experiences. Read, go out, go to concerts and shows, and explore the world. In the end, your job as an artist will be to entertain people, to make them think and dream. You have got to find inspiration somewhere!
Brazilian Horn Conference VII
Finally, two years after the pandemic began, the Seventh Brazilian Horn Conference will take place in person at the headquarters of the MB Cases industry in Bragança Paulista/São Paulo, Brazil with Marcus Bonna as host. The Conference has been supported and organized by the Brazilian Horn Association (ATB) together with MB Cases and Gebr. Alexander as sponsors.
There are already 200 horn players registered as participants for this event. Artists such as Sarah Willis (who will launch her new CD, Mozart/Mambo 2 in South America), Matias Piñeira, the Argentinian quartet Bayres Horns, the Trompiguares group, the Brazilian Feminine Octet, and the Rio de Janeiro University Horn ensemble will enhance the event.
There will be presentations and masterclasses by professors who work in Brazil, including Radegundis Tavares (President of the International Horn Society), Luiz García, Adalto Soares, Phillip Doyle, Nikolay Genov, and Sergio Gomes, as well as concerts by horn contributors such as Celso Benedito, Victor Prado, the Horn Quartet from Bahia, Isaque Elias (winner of the MB 2021 competition), among others.
As exhibitors, we will have Gebr. Alexander, MB Cases, Paxman, HS Musical, Adalto Brass, and Engelman mouthpieces.
The conference will begin on September 15, 2022, and will feature the Lyra Bragança Brass Orchestra (Musical Project by MB Cases) with Nikolay Genov as a soloist. The final concert, on September 18th, will include all conference participants in a great and unforgettable concert in the courtyard of MB Cases.
VII Encuentro Brasilero de Cornos
Finalmente y luego de dos años de la pandemia, tendremos el VII Encuentro Brasilero de Cornos presencial, que tendrá lugar en la sede de la fábrica de los estuches MB en Bragança Paulista/São Paulo, Brasil con Marcus Bonna como anfitrión.
La Conferencia ha sido apoyada y organizada por la Asociación Brasilera de Cornistas (ATB) junto con MB Cases y Alexander Gebr. como patrocinadores.
Ya hay 200 cornistas inscritos como participantes en este evento. Artistas como Sarah Willis (que lanzará su nuevo CD, Mozart/Mambo 2 en Sudamérica), Matias Piñeira, el cuarteto argentino Bayres Horns, el grupo Trompiguares, el Octeto Femenino de Brasil y el conjunto de cornos de la Universidad de Río de Janeiro amenizarán el evento.
Habrá presentaciones y clases magistrales de profesores del Brasil como: Radegundis Tavares (Presidente de IHS), Luiz García, Adalto Soares, Phillip Doyle, Nikolay Genov, Sergio Gomes, además de conciertos de corno con solistas como Celso Benedito, Victor Prado, el Cuarteto de cornos de Bahía, Isaque Elias (ganador del concurso MB/2021) entre otros.
Como expositores tendremos a Gebr. Boquillas Alexander, MB Cases, Paxman, HS Musical, Adalto Brass, y Bocas Engelman.
La inauguración será el 15 de septiembre y contará con la participación de la Lyra Bragança Brass Orchestra (Proyecto Musical de MB Cases) con Nikolay Genov como solista. El último concierto, que será el 18 de septiembre, contará con la presencia de todos en un gran e inolvidable concierto en el patio del MB Cases.
Brazilian Horn Conference VII
in English
en Españolby Marcus Bonna
Neste ano de 2022, após dois anos de pandemia, teremos o VII Encontro Brasileiro de Trompistas, presencial, que acontecerá na sede da indústria MB Cases em Bragança Paulista/São Paulo, Brasil, com Marcus Bonna como anfitrião do Encontro. O Encontro conta com o apoio e organização da Associação de Trompistas do Brasil tendo a MB Cases e Gebrueder Alexander como patrocinadores.
Já são 200 trompistas cadastrados para participar do evento. Artistas como Sarah Willis (que lançará seu novo CD, Mozart/Mambo 2 na América do Sul), Matias Piñera, o grupo argentino Bayres Horns, o grupo Trompiguares, o Octeto Feminino Brasileiro e o Grupo de Trompas da Universidade do Rio de Janeiro abrilhantarão o Encontro. Haverá apresentações e masterclasses de professores que atuam no Brasil, como Radegundis Tavares (Presidente do IHS), Luis Garcia, Adalto Soares, Phillip Doyle, Nikolay Genov, Sergio Gomes, além de concertos de trompistas colaboradores como Celso Benedito, Victor Prado, Quarteto de Trompas da Bahia, Isaque Elias (vencedor da competição MB/2021) entre outros.
Como expositores teremos, Gebr. Alexander, MB Cases, Paxman, HS Musical, Adalto Brass, e Bocais Engelman.
A Abertura do Encontro será no dia 15 de setembro e terá a participação da Orquestra de Metais Lyra Bragança (Projeto Musical da MB Cases) com Nikolay Genov como solista. No encerramento do Encontro, que será no dia 18 de setembro, teremos a presença de todos num grande e inesquecível concerto no pátio da MB Cases.
Horn Matters – Updating a Large Website for the Times
by John Ericson
For many horn players today, the Horn Matters website has seemingly always been there. Launched by myself and Bruce Hembd back in 2009, this fall it will pass the 13-year mark, which is an incredibly long run for a website. And the site is actually older than that, as it was originally built by combining blog content that we had each developed for predecessor sites.
Horn Matters is a big website with over 1,400 articles currently posted. One thing of which I am aware is that older websites can feel like places where content goes to die, characterized by broken links, dated topics of little interest, missing graphics, and poor organization. While we have updated the site regularly for years, when the pandemic hit and slowed everyone down, I made a special project of updating the site extensively, especially during the summer of 2021.
One idea I have taken to heart over the years is to focus on what you can do instead of what you can’t do. That is part of what got Horn Matters started at all, and as I get older, I focus on that thought more. Last summer, especially, one thing I could do of longer-term value was go to the quiet of my office and edit the site deeply. The result was that I cut literally hundreds of articles and significantly updated hundreds more, working through the content of the entire site at least twice over the course of the summer!
I developed several goals to guide the project. One big goal was to not leave visitors disappointed. Besides displaying properly, I tried to focus content to be as timeless as I could make it. My hope was that someone might read an article from 15 years ago but still find it fresh, with applicable information. But, by the same token, for a review of some product that is now off the market, there was no reason to keep that article on the site. And I could see by the stats that some articles had very little traffic and either needed some type of update or needed to be cut due to lack of interest.
One big category I wanted to revive that summer was some nice, lighter content hidden in the Random Monday series that Bruce used to post weekly. On the other hand, some content of mine was really very much like personal blog content, such as reports on a recent recital I gave. It had some personal meaning to me to the extent that I did not want to delete it, but was not really Horn Matters content. I moved those more personal items of relatively limited interest to a new personal website blog where I now post occasionally as well.
YouTube links were a special challenge, since by summer 2021 at least half of the videos in the site had gone corrupt—and even now others continue to go corrupt. I will work it all over again this summer to get the site to the healthiest state I can.
The summer of 2022 has seen more editing, but this time more focused on the University of Horn Matters series of articles which draw good traffic. And it was time to rethink and tighten up this content in relation to my current thinking on the topics addressed.
Finally, while it might seem that we have written about everything by now, Bruce and I are both still posting new content on the site almost every week. Traffic to the site is still strong. We would both like to thank the horn community for your support for Horn Matters over the years, and we will do our best to keep it going for years to come.
Historic Brass Society: Call for Contributions
Sixth International Romantic Brass Symposium
Romantic Brass in Context: 19th-Century Brass Instruments in Military, Church, Chamber, Opera, and Orchestra
Thursday April 20 – Saturday April 22, 2023, in Bern (Switzerland)
Held by Hochschule der Künste Bern (HKB)
The well-established Romantic Brass Symposia in Bern present current research on brass instruments, concentrating on music of the 19th century (1789–1914). After conferences on the keyed trumpet and the ophicleide, French horns, the materiality of brass instruments, the saxhorn, the conservation of historical brass instruments, and the trombone and acoustics, this sixth edition is open to all brass-related topics, highlighting the interaction of brass instruments in their musical contexts. It will be held in collaboration with the Historic Brass Society. Keynote addresses will be given by Sandy Coffin, Ignace De Keyser, Trevor Herbert, Sabine Klaus, Arnold Myers, and Anneke Scott.
We call for papers, lecture recitals, and concerts with spoken commentary on all topics of brass instruments from the 19th century, including historically informed performance, style, repertoire, history, and instruments. We expect that presentations will be given live and in person. The official language for the conference is English.
Papers and lecture recitals should be no longer than 20 minutes (followed by 10 minutes for discussion); shorter presentations (10 min. plus 5 min. for discussion) are equally welcome. Concerts should not exceed 45 minutes. (Details of available keyboard instruments will be available on the website).
Please mail submissions to daniel.allenbach@hkb.bfh.ch by September 30, 2022. Proposals should be in English (c. 400 words), describing the topic and including the following:
- Abstract (background, research questions, aims, and significance);
- Name, postal and email addresses, and institutional affiliation of proposer; and,
- Type of submission (short paper, long paper, lecture recital, concert). All presenters must register for the conference.
Confirmation of accepted papers will be announced by December 1, 2022. The scientific committee is composed of Sandy Coffin (HBS head of events committee), Anneke Scott (HBS board of directors), Martin Skamletz (HKB head of Institute Interpretation), and Adrian v. Steiger (HKB Institute Interpretation, HBS board of directors).
All presenters must register for the conference.
The symposium website is www.hkb-interpretation.ch/rbic. All information on program, fees, and accommodation will be published there as well.
Working as Festival Staff
by Martina Adams
I have been involved in music festivals every summer for as long as I can remember. My mom was on the faculty of the Csehy Summer School of Music, and I started going with her to camp around the age of five. While our parents were teaching, I would hang out with the other faculty members’ children, but when I was old enough, I started attending as a camper for another 4 or 5 years. Csehy was the first place I ever played a horn: my mom told the horn teacher that I was interested, so she let me blow a few notes on her horn, and I was hooked.
Since Csehy, I have attended several other festivals, varying in size and type, including the Philadelphia International Music Festival (PIMF), Curtis Summerfest, Boston University Tanglewood Institute Horn Workshop, the All-City Philadelphia Orchestra’s Italy tour, Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival, and the Atlantic Brass Quintet Seminar.
In my third year as an undergraduate student, I decided I didn’t want to pay to attend a summer festival but wanted to see if I could actually make money while not in school. “Normal kids” seemed to always have summer jobs; could there also be a summer music job option? I had been thinking about my time at PIMF as a student. I enjoyed it then, and had some friends who had worked there, so I decided to reach out.
I’m currently completing my Master’s degree at the Curtis Institute of Music where I study with Jennifer Montone and Jeffrey Lang of the Philadelphia Orchestra. I received my Bachelor’s degree in Horn Performance at Temple University where I had also studied with Jeff Lang. I’m from Philadelphia, attended Philadelphia Orchestra concerts as a kid, and knew I wanted to go to Temple from a young age since my entire family studied music there (my two older sisters and both of my parents). I had also heard great things about Jeff as a teacher, and after having worked with him in a sectional with my youth orchestra, I knew I wanted to study with him at Temple. Students at PIMF receive a number of private lessons with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, so that Philadelphia Orchestra connection with the festival was the primary reason I first attended in 2014.
Every summer since 2018, I have been working at PIMF. I have auditioned only for free summer festivals since then. I was supposed to go to the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Austria in 2020, but like everything else that year, it didn’t happen, and it was postponed to this summer. But since my original audition for AIMS, I got married and my priorities have changed. Ultimately, I decided I didn’t want to be apart from my husband for so much of the summer—plus, I’ve grown to enjoy working during the summer; so I decided to return to PIMF again where my husband also works now.
I didn’t know what working at a festival would be like before I started. The only experience I had working at a summer camp was volunteering at the Vacation Bible School at my church for a few years, and those skills helped me understand how to work with kids. But the vital, behind-the-scenes planning was an unknown to me.
I started at PIMF five years ago as a student manager (counselor), and every summer I have been given more responsibilities. Now my role at the festival is Orchestra Co-Director, which involves running all of the logistics and behind-the-scenes aspects of the program. Before the festival, I work with our artistic director on the seating auditions. I communicate with all orchestra students and their families to answer any questions they have, with the conductors on the repertoire they choose, and then I send that music to students ahead of the festival. We have one orchestra in our June session and three in July, so planning ahead of time and communicating with staff is crucial to operating three orchestras, especially when it comes to setting up the rehearsal spaces and coordinating the grand finale concert in which all three orchestras perform.
I also get to do some teaching while at the festival. I run wind/brass sectionals as needed for the orchestras, and coach one or two chamber groups. Coaching is rewarding and helps me learn how to structure chamber rehearsals for my own groups. From the summers coaching groups of varying levels, ages, and instrumentation, I’ve learned a great deal from the students about how to efficiently run a rehearsal, about important musical aspects to consider, and especially about not taking the very basics of music-making for granted.
Another job I’ve taken on since last year is directing our Chamber Music Intensive program. Here, a few select chamber groups get to perform off-campus and practice what it’s like to run their own chamber music concert. The students have to provide spoken introductions to the pieces they perform, so we have a class dedicated to public speaking. We also provide the students with other classes throughout the session on issues such as performance anxiety, college auditions, and freelancing, in addition to hearing from professionals about running your own music business.
Maintaining “chops” while working at a festival
Keeping up my embouchure is definitely the hardest part of the festival for me. The first few days, while all the physical set-up happens and as students settle in, are the most hectic. But horn players know that taking even one day completely off means that we have ground to recover during the next couple of days.
It’s also difficult to maintain function if I don’t manage to get a good warm-up but then have to play in the morning orchestra rehearsals if we need a part covered. The longer I’ve been working at PIMF, the more I realize how important it is to find time each morning to get a good, undistracted warm-up.
Attending a music festival forces you to be smart about your time because you have such a strict schedule yet have to play most of the day. Working at a festival is the same, except no one is carving out “private practice” time for you—you need to figure that out for yourself while fulfilling your other responsibilities. A benefit I have built into my contract is that I will get a couple of lessons with a Philadelphia Orchestra member during the festival; this provides additional motivation to keep my chops ready while I’m working.
Working at a festival has made me prioritize my horn playing, as “absence does make the heart grow fonder.” Coordinating so many details behind-the-scenes means that I have less time with my horn. Most players know that the more time you take off to prioritize non-horn responsibilities, the slower the journey back will be; so I am forced to thoughtfully prioritize. I truly enjoy being around students each summer who take music seriously and work hard to improve. It is inspiring to me and helps me want to continue to get better, too.
