Home Blog Page 15

Screen time versus your horn playing (and everything else)

John Ericson
-
0

This past week I noted an article, “Study: Too much screen time harmful on molecular level.” Likely you have heard that overall, it is a good idea to control your screen time, especially outside of work hours. What caught my attention though was the article looked at a study done at my own university, and it had a brand new angle on the topic.

The basic suggestion from this article, which summarizes a recent study, is to limit screen time to less than 75 minutes in a day. Or at least try not to go over 2 hours. From the article,

The World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend no more than one hour of screen time per day for children 5 and under. There is no consensus on a safe amount of screen time for adults, but connections between well-being and digital technology use show harmful effects on individuals engaging in more than two hours of daily screen time.

Of course, you are reading these words on a screen of some sort and I think that is good! But there is a big topic here. With the pandemic and remote work, a LOT of people have been working online. Two years ago this week, I had to change to teaching all my lessons online. We have all had a lot of screen time since then, and people are starting to study the consequences of this.

Conventional wisdom for years has been that lots of screen time is bad for your eyes. But in the study they found that too much screen time actually is harmful to your health in general, in some very specific ways. From the conclusion of the article, quoting the study itself,

Our results indicate that individuals with more than 75 minutes of daily screen time had microbiome and metabolome profiles consistent with obesity, Type I diabetes, myocardial infarction, chronic fatigue syndrome and a host of digestive disorders.

Yikes! So not only will you help your eyes and such by reducing screen time, also, in the big picture, you will live longer and better.

What is the first step?

Even before reading the article on the study I had been wanting to reduce my screen time, and now I have additional motivation — and maybe all of us should pause a moment and think about this topic. Screen time creeps up on you, and elements of work and life the past two years have pushed us all into extensive use of screens.

The first step is to pause and think about what life might look like with less screen time, and what it might feel like. In some cases (most even) we can’t reduce it to the recommended 75 minutes. But likely we can reduce it significantly, and perhaps find a way to get at least one day a week down to that level or even less. It could make a difference on many levels of life, physically and mentally.

What about horn playing?

In terms of horn playing, it is a great analog activity to embrace. We should all practice more and watch screens less! With printed music when you can.

But all kinds of analog activities are things we should be doing more. I realize some of my best memories of the pandemic were working on the horn building project during my sabbatical. No screens, horn related and interesting, and gave extra focus to my practice too.

Other things we can focus on

Sad KeanuI’m now making an effort to listen more to the radio, podcasts, or music, to read physical books and magazines, and focus again on analog hobbies. I started over spring break a new horn building project — that was a great break from everything — and went for walks or hikes every day.

This whole topic area is one I’ll be curious to follow in the coming years as more studies are done. Whatever you decide to do, I think there is a win-win situation to be found in reducing your screen time and increasing the horn time, give it some thought.

Grad auditions, part IV. You do need to transpose, and other helpful asides

John Ericson
-
0

For the final component of my auditions for some years now I have settled into a fairly simple and short sight-reading passage. For grad applicants I have them read the passage in F and then transpose it to a number of keys. It should be easy!

Public Service Announcement: Horns need to transpose well

In a way it is a gauge of what your teachers have valued and covered in lessons, and is also a gauge of if you have much orchestral experience.

But also, I do this to quantify better where you are in relation to the goals that you will likely express to me. Because …

Second PSA: Orchestral players must transpose well

Most applicants for grad degrees have serious interest in orchestral horn playing. Transposing well is a must. You can’t go to a gig and be fumbling around on a simple horn in D passage of the type I’m having you sight read.

This is another reason why you should not at all be using transposed parts at all in a grad audition. Looping back to the topic of Strauss 2 in an earlier part of this series, if you can’t play Strauss 2 from the Eb part maybe your Eb transposition should be better? Or, imagine how good your Eb transposition would be if you worked out Strauss 2 from the Eb part!

Aside: What about Mozart concerto horn parts?

The even less good thing I see often is using transposed parts for Mozart 2 or 4 in a grad audition. Of course, all of these things are not deal breakers but seriously, your teachers should be giving you honest feedback that includes a warning that you need to take off the training wheels and play from original notation parts only. It will pay off.

Aside: The topic of honest feedback

My final aside is that you do need to get some honest feedback from multiple sources to prepare a good audition. Feedback from people with enough experience to give you solid and helpful feedback toward a solid audition. Don’t prepare it on your own, thinking you can just revisit music from your recital or past lessons. No. The serious grad applicant needs to make things sparkle. With a final reminder that you goal out of the audition is to find a teacher who will give clear feedback and help you toward your goals. Good luck!

Conclusion: The future looks good

To close, I would like to end on a positive note. With the pandemic essentially over there should be a big uptick in auditions for good jobs in the horn world, as there have been a number of retirements and likely will be more in the next few years. It has been a tough few years for everyone, but those players ready for auditions will have some opportunities. It is a good time to be looking to improve yourself and to set some goals for your horn future. Good luck!

Return to Part I of series

Grad auditions, part III. Excerpts in general, and Till and Brahms 3 specifically

John Ericson
-
0

For several years I’ve had the Till and Brahms 3 excerpts as being required of all grad applicants. It helps to have apples to apples components as I rate applicants.

The bigger problem

I say this carefully but I was forced to come to a conclusion that many horn teachers don’t teach excerpts well. For many excerpts there is a very limited range of what could be considered a correct interpretation. Certain boxes have to be checked off, boxes a good teacher defines through insights gained by their orchestral experience and taking professional auditions.

In my own case I took 30 professional auditions and was Third Horn in Nashville for 6 seasons (among other playing, including as Principal Horn at the Brevard Music Center). I have clear ideas of what I want to hear.

Sometimes too, I suspect the student doing the audition has not played the excerpt for a competent teacher, or if they did, they did not implement their advice. Or maybe too many Zoom lessons? In any case, I have some specific thoughts to consider.

The excerpt a strong applicant should offer

Shostakovich 5 is an essential excerpt. It is not a deal breaker; I’ve accepted many grad applicants that did not have low range power yet. But this excerpt remains the elephant in the room, the excerpt you should be offering even if I don’t require it. If you are reading this and your low range is very much still in progress, my Low Horn Boot Camp book could be of help.

Till

On Till I have covered a lot of my thoughts in a prior post and also episode 50 of my Horn Notes Podcast.

The biggest issue is if you are a grad applicant you need to be able to play it with the correct rhythm and blap out a decent low C. Even these are not deal breakers for me for an entering MM student, we can work on these things, but still, these are things you have to learn and work out.

Brahms 3

I’m constantly telling people to play the solo louder and faster. This is not a slow, soft, sad excerpt! It is not from the slow movement of the symphony. Also, the texture is thick, you have to play over a lot of sound on the stage, it needs to sound like you will project to the back of the audience. It is a solo, not an inner voice in a woodwind quintet.

Another big issue is there are specific, best places to breathe. I will admit that I have strong opinions on this drawing from my own audition prep and having performed the work several times. However, recently I saw a European pro post to Facebook a video of Brahms 3 with their orchestra, testing a new horn. Honestly, they took way too many breaths! I don’t understand how this is OK, unless you have a very small lung capacity.

Above all,

A bad interpretation of an excerpt is not a deal breaker in a grad audition — any version will show your potential — but a good interpretation enhances your application to be sure.

When the series continues, we have one more major topic

Continue to Part 4 of series

Grad auditions, part II. New trends in solos

John Ericson
-
0

I don’t require any specific solos at ASU, and I found that, compared to prior years, there were a few changes.

Lots of Strauss II

I heard Strauss II in the past too, but there was a clear uptick this time around. I think word has gotten out that it is one of the best solos for grad auditions (and it is). I would note however the following:

  • Use the standard, published Eb part, and play everything in it as written,
  • Don’t use a transposed part that probably has random issues that I hear as mistakes, and
  • Above all don’t use that hand written horn part from the premier, the one on IMSLP, scanned by Hans Pizka.

Actually, nobody used that IMSLP part this year so far as I could tell, but people have in the past. It has so many differences compared to the standard published part — please spend the money and get the real Eb part and learn it well for a grad audition (and, this being a grad audition, you should be able to transpose Eb well by now).

The Confessions of St. Augustine by Erika Raum, and the challenge of interpreting a new work correctly

A few auditions in I learned that the first movement of this solo horn work was required by Michigan on grad auditions this year. It is a very nice work to play on an audition, and I hope to hear it more in the future!

My main observation was that people seem to not be able to interpret a new work well. As I see it, composers write music in such a way that you should play it basically as written. Certainly, that is the starting point! So, if an initial tempo is given very specifically, you should do it. Printed rhythms should be observed. Etc.

Looking around online, I see one key recording that some applicants may have referenced, and it is slow to the printed markings and to my mind not in the correct character either. And then another that pops up is even slower. Don’t imitate recordings like a parrot, think it over, especially a new work with few reference recordings, and be sure to convince me that you have clear ideas how to play the work that are based on the notations in the part.

The Jane Vignery Sonata, and finding the correct style

This work seems to not be required anywhere, and appears to have come up in the mix of solos organically (although it is on the list of options for the IHCA and the IWBC solo competitions). This is also a great audition solo and well worth checking out if it is new to you.

Written in the 1920s, it has a style that can be a challenge to grasp or convey well. For an audition (or competition) I think you need to highlight the many contrasts as the work opens, but there is another thing that I think you need to do before playing the work.

What will help you is to have worked through some Maxime-Alphonse etudes at a high level, especially books 3 and 4, which were written in the same period as the Vignery. The overall style is very similar (“light,” “French”). The reason this is such a key is the opening of this Sonata (and beyond) must not be played with the aggressive articulations typically learned in Kopprasch.

When the series continues the topic is excerpts.

Continue to Part III of series

Grad auditions, part I. As they say, the times, they are changing

John Ericson
-
0

University horn auditions are over for 2022. I believe Horn Matters readers will find a number of interesting notes and tips in this short series reflecting on this round of auditions at Arizona State.

Overall numbers

The first thing that was eye-opening was that while the undergraduate numbers seen this year were similar to normal, graduate auditions were way up. Way up as in more than double the numbers of any normal to above average year (and WAY up from a year ago). Which is a great problem to have I suppose, but still actually is a problem, as I will have to wait list a number of applicants that I would have normally accepted. I don’t like doing this, but there are only so many slots to fill.

I believe that other horn teachers are seeing the same general numbers. This is clearly a “wave year” for horn auditions. If you were an applicant anywhere, this may be discouraging news, but be aware it’s not you so much as this year was highly unusual.

Live auditions are back!

The best part of this year was live auditions were back. Hearing applicants live with no filter was great, and also, I was glad too those applicants could visit in person. Deciding on a college is a big decision and commitment; seeing the school in person is ideal.

Virtual auditions greatly improved

But also, our virtual audition system worked a lot better than last year. In our case applicants presented a recorded (video) audition representative of their best playing, and we then in the Zoom session do sight reading and I can explore some things from the videos. With the combination of factors available to me I finally have a view of the playing of the online applicant that is very similar to that of the live auditions.

Disclaimer

If you auditioned for me this year … don’t worry! I am referencing in this article series only generally your choices of rep and playing, looking mostly at what shows trends of the times.

Mozart mania!

Mozart first movements are still great solos for auditions, showing off important elements of style and skill. Most of them I heard were played well, with nice easy runs and such. Making music! Some good teaching out there, nobody played Mozart like Kopprasch this year (which has too often been the case).

In past years I made a point of checking if applicants were using transposed parts. I didn’t do that this year, but the basic thing to note is as a grad applicant you really should be using a part with the original notation (in Eb! You should be playing Mozart 2 or 4). I’ll address this topic further later in the series.

The pieces I didn’t hear

To close part I, there were two works I was glad to not hear on this round of grad auditions.

The solo I didn’t hear was Strauss I. It is a fine solo but also the quintessential undergrad audition solo. I really don’t want to hear it on a grad audition. I suspect no horn teacher wants to hear it on a grad audition. While yes, it is not what you play but how you play it, still, playing Strauss I basically just says to me you don’t know any more advanced solos.

The excerpt I didn’t hear was the Tchaik 5 solo. On this my reaction is very much like that of Strauss I. Yes, it is a great excerpt. Wonderful moment in orchestra! But tends to be offered by applicants who know hardly any other excerpts, and also it tends to sound flat and boring. And yes, I know some teachers require this one for their grad auditions (likely for the exact same reason — only the best applicants don’t sound boring on it), but I’m not too interested in hearing it. We can work on it later! I have other excerpts I’d rather hear that show me more about your potential.

Part II will look at some new trends in solos. I heard several new works this year, more soon.

Continue to Part II of series

Mouthpiece story — Testing “connections” with Maxime-Alphonse 4:12

John Ericson
-
0

Some certain works and phrases of works have interesting applications when it comes to testing mouthpieces and horns. In some recent lessons I have come back to the topic of “connections” of notes in relation to mouthpieces, and, more specifically, in relation to the connections found in Maxime-Alphonse book 4 number 12.

Eventually “connections” becomes an accuracy topic. If you can’t connect easily from note to note you will have chipped notes creep in. You also tend to think it is you, some problem you have, rather than an equipment issue that is the cause.

For sure some teachers and players also don’t realize this general issue and the large impact it has. Which brings me back to this specific etude, which is excellent for testing mouthpieces (and horns). It should be easy. Easy notes, easy range, beautiful and singing.

If you miss notes in every phrase it can be a function of how stiff your horn feels when it moves from note to note. It will very much benefit you to try several mouthpieces on some phrases such as found in this etude. There is no one perfect mouthpiece for this, as your horn will also have slots and they can feel from note to note looser or stiffer. Plus there is the issue of mouthpiece fit. Larger shank mouthpieces, that fit in less far, will tend to feel stiffer, with more tendency toward what some call bumps and clicks.

Horn makers tend to set up their horn for a mouthpiece they prefer. But again, this is part of why you need to experiment. You are you. You have to find your balance in relation to sound and sound production.

In my own case, I’ve found myself going back to two mouthpiece models I used before the current one. This is probably partially a manifestation of the “mouthpiece wheel of doom” theory, where you do experiments and then end up where you started. Still, the trials are worth the effort, and it is a good way to focus your practice as you can see quickly which ones actually work better in this etude. Give it a try!

The most popular horn solo?

John Ericson
-
0

Recently I was looking at a Google stats report for Horn Matters and something jumped out at me. One horn solo in our collection of PDF solos (HERE) had many more downloads than the rest.

Care to guess?

Before scrolling down to the answer, what would you guess?

  • Strauss I?
  • Mozart 4?
  • The F. Strauss Nocturno?
  • Morceau de Concert?

And the winner is …

(Drumroll)

Mozart 3. Which makes sense, it can be played by many horn players (movement 2 was the first horn solo I ever performed) and it is solid music, suited to many auditions or performances for younger horn students. Mozart I’m sure was not thinking it would be such a popular work when he wrote it, but it is number one! If you have not looked at it in a while, it is worth a fresh look.

[And if you learned it from an F part, it is time to revisit it from an Eb part such as we have posted for downloads.]

Speaking of Google, Bing

Finally I would add that Google, which supplied the stats that clearly point to Mozart 3, is a quirky search engine. I moved and rebuilt my model railroad related website (here) over the summer, and despite much effort on my end Google still can hardly find it — but every single page is indexed and comes up easily on Bing searches. So my tip would be don’t just use Google, make use of other search engines, you will get more complete results.

A Curious Anomaly from Verdi’s “Don Carlo”

Bruce Hembd
-
0

Recently on our Horn Matters’ social media accounts, we uploaded a meme related to the perils of horn transposition. It features characters from an old American television show called “The Time Tunnel.”

Meme on transposition
Click for a larger view.

Introducing Don Carlo

Giuseppe VerdiRelated to this meme (and the upcoming Principal Horn audition at the Metropolitan Opera) is one of the most interesting transposition-related excerpts that I have encountered in my professional experience, the Prelude to Act II of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, Don Carlo.

Don Carlo stands out within Verdi’s works for several reasons:

  • it originally included a ballet
  • the original libretto is in French, not Italian
  • the atmosphere and plot of the opera are dark and serious
  • the total running time (not including intermissions) is about 4 hours

Together in unison, but apart in key

The Act II prelude starts with an unaccompanied horn quartet. In the version I have performed (and in the video below) the first act was cut, and so the show opened with this quartet.

It starts out as a unison melody. In the score and parts it looks like this:

Don Carlos score, opening to Act I

It is written for four horns in four different keys:

A workaround for old tech?

So this begs the question, why did Verdi orchestrate the quartet this way?

The simple answer might be this: he was playing it safe. Don Carlo premiered in 1867 at the Paris Opera and the French horn players, who were historically very late in adapting to valved horns, may have been using natural horns.

From “The Persistence of the Natural Horn in the Romantic Period” we have this to consider:

Valves of high quality, similar to those still in use today, came fairly early in the existence of the chromatic horn. However, the very earliest valves, and some of later invention, were of dubious reliability or had adverse effects upon the tone of the instrument. Consequently the new invention was not greeted with universal acclaim.

The extremity of views on the acceptability of the new development is shown in its full absurdity in France. Dauprat, horn professor at the Paris Conservatoire in 1816 and sole professor from 1817, was open minded. The description of his post required him to teach natural horn but he was sufficiently interested in the new instrument to write a supplement for the two-valved horn to his Méthode de Cor Alto et Cor Basse, though it seems not to have been published. Moreover, it was during his time at the Conservatoire, in 1833, that his pupil, Meifred, became professor of the valve-horn class.

Meifred held his last class in 1863, and no successor was appointed to him on his retirement in 1864. Both Gallay, Dauprat’s successor in 1842, and Mohr, who succeeded Gallay on the latter’s death in 1864, were conservatives who wrote hand- horn tutors. Consequently the valve-horn class was not reinstated until 1897, after Brémond, who had been appointed in succession to Mohr, obtained permission from the Principal of the Conservatoire, Ambroise Thomas. Meanwhile, the chromatic horn had become triumphant in orchestras throughout Europe.

So while the technology for valved horns was well-known in Europe at the time of Don Carlo and its premiere, it was not openly accepted by French horn players until many years later.

Let’s get chromatique

Of particular interest in this excerpt from Don Carlo is the 19th measure, where the unison melody becomes a descending chromatic line:

chromatic passage from Don Carlos

Up close in the orchestra pit, this chromatic line may have sounded a bit odd on natural horns. Some players would have been using a closed hand for certain notes, while others would have been using open harmonics – all at the same time.

But, out in the opera hall, it would have most likely been heard as an evenly blended and uniform line. One cannot help but wonder: did Verdi consult with a horn player to come up with this concept, or did he just figure it out on his own?

In either case, it is a brilliant solution for what (in theory at least) was a complex problem.

The score:

Click the image below for a larger view. The full score from IMSLP is here. Act II begins at page 89. Another resource to consider is this page on Don Carlo, at The Horn Opera Project.full score for Don Carlos opening

Related materials

On the web:

At Horn Matters:

Ryan Reynolds meme
*French horn players. Tee hee…

Response to “Clevenger Enigma”

Bruce Hembd
-
0

In response to posting on Reddit my most recent article on Dale Clevenger, an anonymous Reddit user gave this response. Food for thought.

People are many things. Dale Clevenger was:

  • A legendary horn player for everyone
  • A fantastic teacher and mentor for many
  • A personal and professional disaster for some

The problems arise from trying to choose just one or two aspects from the above. I would like to add for the record: women coming forward when his death was announced was not an act of cowardice, “waiting until he couldn’t defend himself.”

It was a primal reaction to the glowing praise of bullets 1 & 2 that ripped open old wounds such that speaking out became an imperative. Because Dale was not just 1 or 2 things.

Next in this series:

Other posts in this series:

The Enduring Enigma of Dale Clevenger

Bruce Hembd
-
0

I have to confess something. I have mixed feelings about Dale Clevenger and his legacy.

When I say this, please realize that this opinion comes from a limited perspective. It comes with a caveat.

At the time of my encounters with Mr. Clevenger, my view was slightly askew. I was a student looking at life through a cracked lens and so I must admit in all fairness that my perspective today may be a bit distorted.

Background

My best memories of Dale Clevenger stem from my time with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, a training orchestra associated with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO).

This was in the very late 1980’s or so, when the CSO and its brass section were at a historic peak. Media outlets of that time – television, magazines and newspapers – were focused on the CSO. They praised its legendary brass section with regularity.

I grew up reading those reviews. I ingested and metabolized all those glorious Mahler symphony recordings from that era, over and over again.

I vividly remember that epic Chicago Sunday Times magazine cover featuring Clevenger, seated in a chair with Bud Herseth and Arnold Jacobs standing behind him, their hands on Clevenger’s shoulders as if he were being anointed by the gods.

Rose Records

When I moved to Chicago to study independently and gain some experience, I wanted to soak in and absorb all that energy like a sponge. I ended up working at a local record store chain (when such things existed) where we would play classical music through the store’s speakers.

Sometimes, we would play CSO recordings all day long.

Hey… its the hometown team! Turn up the volume a little. Oh man, Bud Herseth sounds so good… Song of the Nightingale? OK, put that on next. (pause) Wait… what is this? (pause) His playing is so beautiful… sublime… (long pause) W-w-what on earth am I hearing right now?!

Welcome to Fantasy Island

Meeting Dale Clevenger for the first time was a mind-blowing experience, especially for an eager beaver who was hungry for knowledge.

That mane of well-groomed, salt-and-pepper hair. That magnificent beard. That resonant voice with the big Southern drawl.

Add into the mix his position as principal horn and his supreme confidence. The total experience was hypnotic, like waking up and wondering if you were still living in a dream. It was like meeting a movie star.

I diligently recorded every private lesson. Afterwards I would go back with the sheet music in hand and study those recordings, over and over again, taking notes and hanging on every word.

At that time (and years later) I would hear rumors about inappropriate behavior with female students. This was none of my business, but nevertheless it sunk in. It made a lasting impression that would eventually make me question my motives.

Civic Orchestra sectionals

The Civic horn section would get regular coaching sessions from CSO musicians, including Mr. Clevenger. One member of our section was a guy who was a bit older than the rest of us. He remains as one of the sweetest human beings that I have ever met.

He always had a smile on his face and rarely said a bad word about anyone. He was a treasure trove of thought-provoking quotes and ideas. We had many laughs together.

But – by my best recollection – he had some technique issues that limited his abilities and perhaps even, his job potential.

A moment, frozen in time

After one of our sectionals, Dale quietly came up to this young man and asked him to step aside, for a one-on-one talk. They walked away from the stage and out into the hall.

They kept going and ended up somewhere in a quiet corner.

I did not hear what was going on, but it looked and felt like something profound was happening. Dale was talking quietly to this young man like a kind, caring father. I could tell by the expressions and body language that it was a serious conversation.

At the end of it, Dale hugged the young man, patted him on the shoulder… and that was it.

This event remains as one of the most magnanimous and compassionate things that I have witnessed from a horn teacher and yet, I have no idea of what actually occurred. Above and beyond, I am not sure that this lack of inside knowledge even matters anymore.

What matters is that it is part and parcel of an enigma, one that has left a long-lasting impression, stuck in my mind after all these years.

* * *

Other posts in this series:

1...141516...156Page 15 of 156
© Newspaper WordPress Theme by TagDiv