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Why Write and Post Articles Online?

Bruce Hembd
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On and off for a few years now, I have been blogging. Sometimes it feels like I am writing into a void so I need to remind myself why I do it. Actually, with a few word changes this logic can apply to all my creative activities.

  • A joy of creative writing.
    Since I was a kid, I have enjoyed creative writing. It began with making up sci-fi stories and has since branched out to creating web sites and blogging.
  • Public service and contribution.
    Based on the amount of site traffic, there appears to be a demand for this kind of content. I have been fortunate to have had some cool experiences that finally in my middle-age, I am understanding a little of their context and purpose. In using my own life and thoughts as an example of both things to do and not do, I hope that my posts might help students and young professionals in some way.
  • A means to ponder and think out loud.
    Many times I begin a post with a title and a few sentences only. I save it as a draft for weeks, going back to it and adding more ideas and massaging the text. Over time some of these posts become more like extended articles.I don’t pretend to be the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but I aspire to being an intellectual, in the sense that I take great joy in the possibility that some sense of the complexity and depth of the interaction between an active mind and the world it perceives can be communicated to complete strangers. In that process, I can better understand some of the music-related things that rattle around in my head.
  • Interaction.
    A particular joy of the blogging experience are the comments.Years ago I used to participate in online and e-mail discussion groups and enjoyed the group interactions. Over time however I became discouraged by the medium and less satisfied with it – I felt a little lost and at times overwhelmed with the amount of messages and the occasional lack of manners.

In short, I believe that blogging has become a part of who I am as a musician. Blogs are not only an offering to the blogosphere but is also an integral part of my creative thinking.

The Birth of Venus and Her Horn

Bruce Hembd
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A classic revisited for the new year.

Botticelli: Birth of Venus

The Birth of Venus (c. 1482-6) by Sandro Botticelli depicts the goddess Venus, emerging from the sea as a full grown woman, arriving at the shore standing on a giant clam shell.

She has been blown to shore on the breath of the Zephyrs and is greeted by an Horae (a goddess of the seasons), who is ready to cover Venus with a flowered cloak.

In this particular rendition, Venus arrives in time for the New Year bearing a token in concert with the clam shell upon which she stands.

Click on the image for a larger view.

Happy New Year!

Washington Crosses Delaware With a French Horn

Bruce Hembd
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Bravery, heroism and no clams.*

George Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851)
by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze

A historic moment in American history is captured on canvas; General George Washington leads the American revolutionary troops across the Delaware River in order to surprise the English and Hessian troops in the Battle of Trenton the day after Christmas in 1776.

Click on the thumbnail picture for a closer look.

Be sure to investigate the General himself and his chosen implement of bravery.

…back again on Monday…

*Satire and humor

What Horn would a Horn Soloist Choose?

John Ericson
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One thing I have been thinking about lately is the topic of equipment and fingering choices in relation to orchestral and solo horn playing.

Most horn players in the USA are essentially orchestral players in their equipment and outlook. Which is fine, but it does lead to a type of set-up that is tonally oriented and not necessarily ideal for playing technical music in the cleanest manner.

Orchestral playing is very double horn based in the United States, with the “switch” from F to B-flat horn at the G# on the second line. One exception was my predecessor at ASU, Thomas Bacon, who set up his playing around solo playing. He normally played (and plays) a single B-flat horn; this type of set-up I have experimented with some this fall and does in fact result in easier and quicker technique. A fact I am sure not lost on for example Dennis Brain, who early in his career used a single F and switched to the single B-flat for all the later recordings that we have all heard. Going back a couple more generations, Franz Strauss was a single B-flat player for most of his career as well for I am sure much the same reasons.

European players (with the exception of the Viennese with their single F horns with double piston valves) generally play in a much more B-flat horn centered manner than we do here. While most actually play on double horns, they also mostly play on the B-flat side. Ever notice that most European horns can be set to stand in B-flat? This is because players mostly play them in B-flat. This helps produce a cleaner technique in things like solo literature. Which makes a lot of sense as their auditions are more solo oriented than the heavily excerpt driven auditions seen in the United States.

In the USA we mostly persist with a double horn approach that makes close to equal use of the F and B-flat horns. It is an approach driven by tone and tradition. There have been exceptions; the late Louis Stout was for example a very strong supporter of a technique focused on the B-flat horn. Ironically, even though this type of approach is not standard in the United States, I believe that most conductors would probably prefer it with the cleaner technique, and reality is that low horn players make frequent use of B-flat horn alternate fingerings for just that reason.

Even on triple horn you have several options; you could finger it like sort of a super double horn, a super single B-flat, or as a super descant. Certainly Phil Myers was going for an approach other than the super double horn approach when I noted a few posts ago that it took him two years to get really comfortable with fingerings on the triple horn.

I talk about this topic and more in the latest episode (episode 70) of The MelloCast, and I have information on the single B-flat horn here. It is a big topic, that of fingerings and fingering choices. My teachers were not as a group that into alternate fingerings and the B-flat horn in the lower range, so I don’t have the technical fluency I would like to have especially in the range right above written middle C. The next several months my personal project is to get much more fluent with my B-flat horn fingerings in this range. I suspect that the concerts I have today could be my last on a standard double horn with standard double horn fingerings (I took a break from triple horn this fall), I am experimenting with more of a horn soloist approach to fingerings.

This will very likely be my last post of the year. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

I Don’t Think He Likes this Conductor

John Ericson
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A friend posted a link (I saw it on Facebook) to a most interesting post in a new blog by David Finlayson, second trombonist of the New York Philharmonic.

Finlayson comments on a topic close to the heart of every orchestral player, the topic of bad conductors. I have played a lot of concerts, as a member of the Nashville Symphony and elsewhere. We have all seen too many bad conductors. Some of them are probably fine musicians but not good conductors. More often however they are maybe only tolerable musicians that play the part of conductor. Some of those people due to a variety of circumstances rise to the upper levels of the conducting profession. Perhaps they look good from the back or are great at talking things up with donors and such. At least they look good on paper to someone in management.

The post is titled “Some words about Gilbert Kaplan’s ‘conducting’” and is very worth reading in full. I was recently asked because orchestral conductors are so highly paid what would be considered good conducting from an orchestral player’s perspective. This article lays a lot of it down; he considers Kaplan to be an imposter in terms of conducting ability and musicianship. Toward the end he notes that

Members of symphony orchestras truly have an unfair advantage over their audience. The musicians sit through countless rehearsals of a composition and are able to witness the culmination of careful, skillful study of a score combined with the conductor’s ability to communicate his or her ideas clearly. At its best, the preparation of any great composition for concert should always be a profound, intimate and introspective journey shared between the interpreter and the instrumentalist. This is the intent of the composer and should never be compromised. When musicians are denied that journey, they feel cheated, marginalized and estranged from what they hold so dear.

Mr. Kaplan and his assault on conducting leave many musicians angry, bewildered and befuddled….

With careful marketing, money and influence, this no-talent, self-proclaimed Mahler expert has made his way to the front of many of the world’s leading orchestras relying totally on their collective talents and experience to pad his conducting résumé. Orchestra management after orchestra management has been complicit in perpetuating his woefully sad farce. At the end of the day, his worth to classical music has been totally overstated.

Ouch! I have never performed under Kaplan, but I have played Mahler 2 professionally. Read the whole article and also follow down into the comments, there are comments from some pretty recognizable people in music including for example former Principal Trombone of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Ralph Sauer, who will be joining the brass faculty at ASU next year.

A great orchestra can make a bad conductor sound good but the musicians know even if management does not. Finlayson says exactly what many of us would have liked to have said in reference to a number of conductors we have seen. Mahler, which is among my favorite literature to perform on horn (I have played every one of his symphonies, most multiple times, except for the 8th), especially separates the great from the near great and the less than near great conductors. Too many conductors will present themselves as though they are great and probably believe that they are experts on every instrument and masters of score study and the baton (no ego problems!), but the reality is we know there are few really great conductors. Many are imposters to varying degrees and we can see through it. Score study is not just making notes on a yellow pad about where you think people will mess up their parts; if you drop beats, ask for odd things because you don’t have a good ear, or conduct in an unclear manner you will not get a great result.

Unfortunately the bad conductor may also be our boss in a very real professional sense, or in an academic situation a faculty colleague, and it becomes difficult to criticize in the manner they deserve. Bravo again to David Finlayson for getting the ball rolling.

Exercise PDF: Harmonics (I)

Bruce Hembd
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Up and down the overtone series.

With many beginning and intermediate players, they start playing a piece of music beginning on the wrong note, and continue on their merry way without even knowing that their entire performance is off.

As soon as possible, I try to teach students about the harmonic series. It seems that if they have even a basic knowledge of it, it helps a great deal with accuracy. The idea being that if they know what the “extra” notes are in the practical range there are in a better position to know what notes are “right” and what notes are “wrong.”

For advanced players, working on harmonics exercises has tremendous benefits. The extra embouchure and breath control required to go up and down the harmonics series translates to better control throughout the range of the instrument.

Here is a basic routine that I do on a semi-daily basis. Once I set pen to paper (or more accurately, mouse to computer) I hope to post other harmonics exercises in the future.

Harmonics Exercise

Separated at Birth?

Bruce Hembd
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Harry Potter and Dmitri Shostakovitch.

Found this one a while back:

Harry Potter, jk rowling, composer, Dimitri Shostakovich

What is a Compensating Double?

John Ericson
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Over the years a number of times the topic of what is a compensating horn has come up for me a number of times. In the early years of the use of the double horn this type of horn saw much use. Kruspe was a leading innovator in horn designs, and they made several different types of compensating horn at that time — the Wendler model illustrated here being probably the most popular. I have played on one of these; it was actually a rather responsive, light instrument, with much the feel in the hands of a single B-flat horn.

As one type of compensating horn seen are compensating triple horns (the “double horn” part of the triple is the compensating part of it), and as the triple horn I settled upon is a compensating triple, I addressed this topic in my publication Playing High Horn as follows:

In some parts of the world (e.g., the United States), this design is only rarely encountered today. A full double horn is set up so that it has full length valve slides for the F and Bb horns, while a compensating double is set up with full length valve slides for the Bb horn only. On the F side of the instrument, the sound waves travel through the Bb slides plus smaller slides that add enough length to produce the appropriate pitch for the F horn. For example, when the player performs a written middle line Bb in the middle range on the Bb horn nothing remarkable happens: the sound waves travel through the main part of the instrument plus the first valve slide. However, when the player performs that note on the F horn, the first Bb slide plus a smaller slide behind the Bb slide are added together to equal a whole step below the open pitch on the F horn. Visually, a compensating double horn will look, at a distance, like a double descant horn with the longer Bb slides on top and shorter slides underneath.

Comparing the top illustration with this second illustration from a Kruspe catalog will make the differences pretty clear. This is the 1930s version of the Horner model full double with the separate B-flat tuning slide (the classic version was laid out like in the pattern copied by Conn in their 8D).

At the time these instruments were made they were both solid, professional quality instruments, and the compensating double is still a design worthy of use today–one of the players in the new London horn recording is using one in fact. I often think that it is about time some maker revisit the compensating double as a compact, light model for use by younger students; certainly it would be better to have a double horn of some sort in the hands of every horn student instead of starting them on the single F.

Strange Sweet Sounds; Max Pottag

Bruce Hembd
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Who Am I?

I recently purchased a page from a 1943 House Beautiful magazine on eBay. I thought that it would make another nice framed piece for my home office. We have a collection of vintage mid-century artworks in our house and this fits right in.

It depicts a middle-aged horn player with the caption “The strange sweet sounds that issue from the labyrinth of the French horn prove again the uncanny fidelity of the Scott!”

That tag line is priceless.

Scott Radio Receivers was a company based in Chicago from 1924 to the mid-1960’s when its business faded away, no doubt due to the growing popularity of television. “The fine things are always hand made” was the motto of company founder E.H. Scott.

These radios were known as the “The Stradivarius of Radio Receivers” and their advertising attempted to reflect this. Scott owners included Sir John Barbirolli, Eugene Goosens, Lauritz Melchior and Arturo Toscanini. These names attest to the authenticity of the sound produced for that period.

Vibrant as a woodwind, resounding as a trumpet, the French horn is one of the rich and radiant elements of an orchestra. But even a moderate amount of “radio hum” will dim that golden voice, and a muzziness [sic?] of radio tone will dull its splendor.

Given the Chicago-based location of Scott Radio and the resemblance to other photos, I presume that the horn player in this particular advert is Max Pottag.

You can click on the image for a larger view.

Soft Repetition

Bruce Hembd
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Planning out a logical plan for improvement.

A common shortcoming when I overhear students practice is in preparing the tough licks.

Most realize that a key element in conquering a tricky passage is repetition. Some however wanting instant gratification, will attempt difficult passages at full speed, repeating the same mistakes over and over again. The idea one supposes, is that if you beat your head long enough against a brick wall, it will eventually cave in through shear force.

Once in a masterclass, I heard Yo-Yo Ma caution a student to not force the sound from his instrument, but rather to “pull” or “draw” the sound. While for the cello this makes literal sense (since cellists use a bow), I think that Ma was communicating a deeper meaning.

Yes, repetition is indeed a key element in improving but there is more effective repetition method than “pounding it silly.” It is softer, more methodical approach.

Weeks – even months – before the target performance date:

  1. Get a metronome, a pencil and a piece of paper.
  2. Isolate the problem area in your music and find a tempo where it can be performed perfectly five to ten times in a row. This tempo will most likely be substantially slower than the performance tempo.
  3. Write down this tempo and begin a journal.
  4. Once you can execute the passage perfectly, move the metronome up one notch and repeat the slow-repetition process. Make note of these progressions in your journal.
  5. Continue this method until you hit the wall and can no longer play it perfectly, then STOP. This is your boundary for the moment.
  6. Calculate a chart of where you are now and where you need to be for the performance.Do a little rough math and figure out a progressive plan. This should include target tempos spread out from the present to the performance – aim to have the passage at full tempo a few weeks before the performance.
  7. Stick to this plan, refining it as needed.

While this plan does not provide instant gratification, it does produce better long-term results.

This Francaix Divertimento piece for example, took months of preparation.

While I would like to say that I woke up one day and was gifted with the instant virtuosity to pull this off, the truth is that it took a long-term plan to figure it out.

Rather than trying to hammer down the “wall,” the soft repetition method

lets the wall wither and fall down.

As noted in “The Inner Game of Tennis,” the key is trying softer not harder.

In a related item, Sergeant First Class Gregory W. Alley of the U.S. Military Academy Band at West Point has written a good article that covers the basics of concert preparation.

It is worth checking out.

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