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The most popular horn solo?

John Ericson
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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
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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
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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
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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.

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Other posts in this series:

Cruel Teacher, or Demanding Teacher?

John Ericson
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Following up on the recent posts from Bruce Hembd, the topic of the CT (Cruel Teacher) is one that has resonated with many horn players and has brought some thoughts to greater clarity for myself. I think in this current time of stresses and struggles, it is a particularly important topic to look at as we all reflect on the past and look ahead to new things.

Many of us have had a CT at some point. In my own case, I did not have one until grad school, and having gone to a small college for undergrad (and having started as a music business major) I did not come into that program wrapped up in the harder edge world of performance and private teachers of this type. I did work hard and learn a lot from the CT, but it was at the same time a difficult time that led to me burning out, leaving college for a year and a half, and a recovery of my own with other teachers helping me keep my horn playing on track.

The part of the topic I’d like to focus on today is about how the CTs of the past and present view themselves, and what we can learn from this and apply to our own horn playing and recovery.

Is being demanding cruel?

The line between being demanding and being cruel is a fine line. Of course, any good teacher is demanding to some extent.

But there is a category of teacher that stakes their reputation on being very demanding of their students. Those demands, to their mind, are simply part of their teaching methodology. No cruel intentions; student success is the goal. But that methodology begins to be cruel if it includes over the top things such as:

  • Recommending that students do something perfectly 100 to 200 times in a row
  • Starting every freshman in Maxime-Alphonse book IV regardless of actual playing level
  • Giving excessively hard assignments such as sophomores learning long modern etudes in E horn
  • Required warmup materials of excessive difficulty level
  • Requiring students to memorize a solo before bringing it into the first lesson
  • Telling a student that they will never have “the X factor”
  • Telling a student that they are simply cruising on talent rather than working hard enough
  • Mind games like asking a music ed student what their favorite methods instrument was, and offering to contact the teacher of that instrument about changing your major instrument to that
  • Assigning Kopprasch 10 in every lesson for months, rather than work on the same skills in other materials

All of these (real) examples I believe were meant to be motivators, to make you work harder and filter out the weak. Some students have the (false) idea that this type of CT is exactly what they need. Let go of that mindset, it is not a good one.

Sometimes students just want the wrong type of teacher

Some students at the very least think they need a teacher that will “kick their a**” and make them work. This creates some actual market demand for the CT.

One thing you need from any teacher is honest feedback. Another thing you need is for them to show some level of problem solving skills to help you get better. The teacher is there to help you progress toward your goals in some systematic and effective way.

On the other hand, something the CT needs are very talented students, so talented and lacking in problems that they can’t screw them up. Be cautious, there is a category of teacher that is well-known but in reality has a very limited range as a teacher. They may have a system, a great system even, but they really only understand their own system, and you may not fit in and never really make any real progress. Not to mention they may be cold or uncaring (it’s not their problem that you can’t play Maxime-Alphonse book IV!) or have too much going on in their life and career to help you much. Don’t be a cog in their machine.

Aside: If you don’t get in the studio of the famous teacher, is it time to quit horn?

This idea is a variation of something I have written about before. My personal perspective is a lot different, as I was not a real hot prospect out of high school. With my embouchure problems I would never have been accepted to say Eastman as an undergrad. And here I am now, full Professor of horn at Arizona State. Don’t quit if you stumble due to a teacher or a school not accepting you. Being around optimistic people is more important in the big picture. 

Is it just business?

Another thing to be aware is for some teachers, teaching is just business. A thing they do, a thing they have been doing for a long time. “The teaching gig.” They have lost some of the sense of responsibility they have as mentors to treat every student as being important — that every single one is an individual worthy of your attention, someone that loved music when they started studies with you and should still love it when the studies end.

On the other hand, as a student you might, to be honest, do better to look at lessons as just business. Don’t wrap up your identity in how each lesson goes. Focus on how these lessons help you toward your goals overall. Draw out the good and forget the bad. Let the lesson experience just be what it is.

Aside: Can you have a conversation with another horn player and not talk horn?

At one point between degrees there was a time I met with another student of my CT for dinner. Pasta with red sauce! She set down a rule that we could talk about anything other than horn. It was difficult at first but actually really healing and memorable, a turning point for me. We would do better to talk less horn and more everything else.

More to life than music

I’ve talked about this elsewhere in Horn Matters, but a story is worth sharing again. Years ago in The Horn Call I read an interview with a famous horn teacher. One question they were asked was about their hobbies, and the answer they gave was that their hobby was self-improvement. Honestly, this is the definition of someone that needs a hobby.

Advocating that students are to live the music, breathe the music, eat, sleep, and literally be the music 24 hours a day is very problematic. I remember the first time I met someone with this type of mindset when I was a student, a flute player, and it just puzzled me. Horn playing (music) is something you do, but it is not your entire life. You need friendships, hobbies, faith, and interests outside music. Balance! Even Verne Reynolds had a real hobby!

Some people will find it helpful to keep your music side in sort of a mental box. You do music when you do music. Do it well! When not doing music, you put the music away in the box and live life like a regular person. A lot of professional musicians live like this in reality.

Is it a teacher persona?

This is a good question. I’m convinced some teachers develop and carefully project a CT persona that is different than their real persona. At least I hope it is just a persona! My assumption is that they must have friends they can be completely real with, because if what I’ve interacted with is their real personality I have questions.

Coda: The overly positive teacher can also be cruel

Be aware too that there is an opposite teacher personality, that while much more enjoyable to be around, is also one to avoid: the overly positive teacher.

This loops back again to the topic of honest feedback. The danger is that the overly positive teacher is at some point just telling you what they think you want to hear instead of giving an honest feedback.

One teacher I knew well, beloved in many ways, was prone to telling a student overly positive things. Such as they are right there, going to win an audition very soon, etc. Later the student would figure out the reality that they were further away from their goals than they thought.

Fine?

This is a big topic and I’ll be back with more. For now I’d like to close with the idea that there is an art to giving helpful criticism in an honest and helpful way. I’m not perfect, no teacher is, but the best overall teachers work to find that balance. As you ponder the topic of the CT, be looking for that balance.

Other posts in this series:

Music-Making and Personal Identity

Bruce Hembd
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In a previous article, I told the story of how I came to study with my mentor, Milan Yancich.

At the time I felt broken, both as a musician and human being. Worth exploring further is an overview of the events that lead to this, and how it might relate to others in current times.

Ups and downs

When I was a young kid learning to play the horn, my identity became quickly wrapped up and connected to my horn playing. It was my refuge from a troubled home life, like a warm blanket giving comfort on a cold night.

The picture above is the home where I grew up. It is from Google Maps, and the house looks almost exactly how I left it in the 1980’s – a small home, with paper-thin walls.

When I was starting out on the horn, my mother was still recovering from a difficult divorce. Above and beyond this, the whole family was continually learning on how to support a sister who was born with severe physical and intellectual disabilities.

Over time, my practice sessions evolved into an escape from reality – a coping mechanism.

I would hide myself in my room, playing Kopprasch studies and Mozart concertos. I would burrow myself in the first volume of the 335 Selected Melodious Progressive & Technical Studies for Horn. I would listen to recordings borrowed from local libraries, for hours on end.

This was all that I had in terms of study materials. Fortunately for me however, I also had an active imagination. Sometimes I would compose my own etudes and solos, spending hours (or days) working on them.

These materials, while limited, went a long way towards expanding my mind as a budding musician.

An encounter with a bully

Taking my horn home on the school bus would sometimes paint me as a target for bullies – the trouble-makers that sat in the back of the bus with nothing better to do.

One time a bully and his gang exited the bus at my stop and followed me home. The leader taunted me along the way with comments like “hey kid… what’s that? A tuba, or a toilet?”

At one point, he yanked the horn case from my hands and set it upright on the ground with the bell area facing upwards. He sat on the bell area and starting making flatulent noises, as if he were using the toilet.

It was a terrible thing at the time but in another universe, it could make great material for a comedy-based television series. I have to hand it to the kid – it was a creative insult.

Eyes wide shut

Moving on to my freshman year at a major music conservatory, my identity as a person had become completely intertwined with my instrument. Playing my horn was an escape from the world, a defense mechanism to help me cope with adversity.

I imagine that for some young people, who might feel lost in the woods for one reason or another, this idea might resonate.

When I was eventually rejected by my CT (“Cruel Teacher”), I mistakenly equated failure on the horn with failure as a human being. Because these two things were inextricably connected in my mind at the time, I was devastated.

In hindsight, I now realize how extremely fortunate I was to have landed in Milan Yancich’s studio. The man quite literally saved my soul, with a well thought-out method, kind words, and a terrific sense of humor.

Final thoughts

The negative events that I mention above are far behind me now. I write about them here not to elicit sympathy so much as to illustrate how complex a young person’s life might be when they seek out help and guidance from a mentor.

This train of thought might also apply to adults who have reached a point in their lives where reflection, and perhaps even change, is needed.

For teachers:
Be aware that students who come to you for guidance may have personal issues under the surface that are affecting their music performance. While the lesson studio is definitely not an appropriate place for mental health therapy, it can function as a safe place where students can feel free to talk about what is going on inside their heads.

Beyond this, most schools and universities these days have mental health counseling services. If you feel that your college-aged student needs these services, it is your duty as their mentor to guide them in that direction. If the student is of high school age or younger, a private discussion with a parent might be appropriate.

For students:
A supportive teacher, that has your best interests in mind, may ask if you are OK and may perhaps even guide you on how to distance yourself as a person from your music-making. If they don’t ask, you should perhaps think about bringing it up yourself.

If this stimulates a thoughtful and supportive conversation, you are in a good place. If you feel ignored, patronized, or belittled, do not doubt your feelings. It may be a signal to move on.

A few other ideas to think about:

  • Take a day off per week from practicing and do something else: hang out with your friends, take a hike in the woods, go see a movie in a theatre, enjoy a nice meal, etc.
  • Consider a taking up a hobby – something interesting and captivating that will occupy your mind with a different passion. A good example of this is a certain friend and colleague of mine, who loves his trains.

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NEXT: The Enduring Enigma of Dale Clevenger

Other posts in this series:

On Mentorship and Recovery from Abuse

Bruce Hembd
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Milan Yancich
Milan Yancich

This photo and the memories associated with it are among my most prized possessions.

This is Milan Yancich, the man who saved my creative soul. There is a bit of a story to tell, but it has a valuable lesson to share about recovering from abuse and trusting your feelings.

The Cruel vs. Kind Teacher

I came to Milan a shattered mess. I had studied previously with a teacher that I will call “CT” (for “Cruel Teacher”). From my youthful perspective, CT was cold, impersonal, and stern.

He was not helpful with my technique, and was of the opinion that if you didn’t have it figured out by the time you got to college, it was too late. I asked him to help with my faulty embouchure, but he refused.

Over time, I became scared of him and started dreading my weekly lessons.

By contrast, Milan Yancich was a very kind man, with a methodical approach for building technique. Over the next two years, we worked on nothing but basics: scales, arpeggios, long tones, and simple, melodic etudes – the building blocks of music.

It was like therapy for me. A recovery from post-traumatic stress.

Believe in Yourself and Your Feelings

If you ever feel uncomfortable or humiliated in a private lesson, believe yourself and your feelings.

In my own case, I doubted myself and my feelings. Looking back now however, I can see how CT’s behavior was so very detrimental to me, as a budding musician and human being.

Trust your gut… your “spidey-sense.”

Whether it be feelings of a teacher intimidating or belittling you or something worse, like sexual harassment, get yourself the hell out of there if necessary.

You are paying good money for those lessons and it is well within your right to get up and leave without saying a word.

Talk to someone who you trust. It may help you determine whether your feelings are real, imagined… or even a mix of both. In my case, it was a mix of both. CT’s stern behavior triggered all sorts of demons in my head, that I had no idea about until many years later.

Even if it turns out that you are completely mistaken, you can always own up and take responsibility later. If the teacher still takes offense by your mistake after apologies are made, take that as a sign to hit the road and look for a new teacher.

Be good to one another. We are all in this together.

But please be aware that, even today in this modern digital age, bad actors are still out there who might do you harm – in one way or another.

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Other posts in this series:

Brief Review: Corno da Capo: The Life and Adventures of an 18th Century Horn Player

John Ericson
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Let me get straight to the point: If you like books, you should read this book. Corno da Capo by Richard Seraphinoff is certainly the most interesting and significant horn publication to come out in many years.

With that introduction, what exactly is Corno da Capo? I hate to put too fine a point on it, but while billed as being a fantasy historical novel, there is also instructional material in relation to learning the natural horn, and much relating to historical figures of music and playing music of this time with good style. Certainly, he puts the horn and the music we play from this period into a new, fresh context.

Backing up a few steps,** I first heard Seraphioff tell a version of the plot of what became Corno da Capo around 1989, and subsequently I read an early draft of the beginning of the book at the 2013 Memphis IHS Symposium. That draft was no more than a quarter the length of the final version published, which comes in at 480 pages. The basic story outline is the same as I first heard him tell orally; a modern horn player, the third hornist of a leading American orchestra on tour in Paris, finds himself after an accident suddenly in Paris of 1770! He not only survives but develops a career as one of the most celebrated horn duo soloists of the time.

Stepping back again, modern horn students must puzzle a bit when they learn that there are quite a number of concertos for two solo horns and orchestra from this time frame (Rosetti being especially prolific). The story of two leading horn artists of the genre, and how they worked as travelling duo soloists and court musicians over a 20+ year career, brings focus to this as historical fiction. This quote gives a glimpse into the beginnings of the relationship of John (Johann) and Carl:

You were also such an enigma in your lack of knowledge of the world of today, that you either have amnesia, or you really are from some other world or time. Whatever it is, it’s intriguing, but there is another side to the whole thing. When we played those first duets last week, I thought, okay, this guy can obviously play the horn, and he’ll catch on fast and be a good orchestral player. But what has happened over the past couple of weeks has shown me that you can be one of the great high horn players of our time, and soon.

Another historical angle I love in this book is there is an element of “setting the record straight” in relation to horn and music history. No spoilers, but be looking for things to pop up that may conflict gently with what you learned in school or from record jackets. Seraphinoff in this regard has done a huge service to the horn community in this publication, with references provided in the final section of the book to the latest historical sources.

Something else that resonates with me is the whole large topic of what the pieces we play now would have sounded like to the original audiences. That is more than anything what has me interested in historic horns, playing them and imagining in the minds eye some version of the original sound and performance situation. Our hero in the book gets to experience many things we can only imagine of today.

But I think where Corno da Capo excels the most is it is in fact simply a good read, and a book of the type that you will want to read every page. Not to mention I think people who are not horn players will also find it to be a good read, and it is of a size that you could put it in your backpack and read it as time allows. Which brings me to the only, potential negative of the book – it is long, reading it all will take some commitment, but well worth the effort.

Many congratulations to Richard Seraphinoff for a wonderful publication! It is available worldwide in print and Kindle versions through Amazon.

**I must footnote that Rick has been a mentor and friend for many years. However, even if I only knew him from a distance, this book would still be an extremely important one that needs to become standard reading in our horn world.

Vintage Mellophone Bells — and Natural Horns?

John Ericson
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My big idea project over winter break was to build the natural horn seen below, using a 1930 Conn mellophone bell I had found on eBay.

It was my second horn build of this type. My original mellophone conversion was done using a Cuesnon bell when I was a Doctoral student, working under Richard Seraphinoff. (Photos introducing all five of my previous horn conversion projects may be seen here).

Backing up a few steps, why exactly use a vintage mellophone bell? For a natural horn? The reason is the throat is small, similar to that a typical natural horn of the era when they were in use. In my book Playing Natural Horn Today (more here) I suggest a mellophone bell conversion horn is a better tactic than to convert a modern single F horn, as on those the bell (and bore overall) is much too large, making them not very ideal for natural horn playing.

Stated another way, the smallest modern horn bell is still too large to be a good natural horn bell. A vintage concert mellophone, in contrast, is right in the range of many natural horns of the late 18th century.

My original conversion horn came out well, too well really, as it is the natural horn that I’m the most likely to play of the several options I have access to. The bell is quite nice. I thought about making another when I was on sabbatical last year, and actually purchased off eBay a second Cuesnon mellophone – but the seller was a bottom feeder, they had already sold the Cuesnon (!!), and wondered if the York they sent me (!!) would be OK? It would not! They did not take returns, but had to take it back after I appealed to Amazon, they had shipped me something different than what I purchased. And the York was a tank! Heavy, hard bell, not good.

With that I let the idea sit through the long hot summer. Then in the fall I found on eBay a Conn mellophone that had been converted to a lamp. What I could tell from the photos was it had a good bell, “hand hammered” with a seam to the edge. And also it was quite inexpensive.

It required some dent repair and 8 (!) patches to correct the issues it had. The diamond shaped patches were part of the solution, some of the holes were at very visible locations, those patches needed to look artistic and intentional.

After those repairs I was on to using mostly left-over parts from my sabbatical projects. Working forward from the bell, the bore of the mellophone at the end of the first branch was large, .500 inch. To get that down to modern horn bore I used the end portion of a spare Yamaha single F horn first branch. The main slide is made from a combination of Yamaha and Mirafone parts. On the other side of the slide the tube is the end of a King (I think) leadpipe, cut to take the bore down to the .440 bore of the remaining tubes, salvaged from a Chinese natural horn crook. Those final three parts required some bending, using Cerrobend as filler. I would have liked one of the bends to be a little better. It is a learning process, and I know what my mistake was — I should have annealed that tube before the final bending. I did not need to move it far and have been able to skip that step a number of times, but should not have this time, I needed to move the tube a bit further than I could get it to go. Still, it is close, and of course fully functional as it is.

One goal was to get it playable by New Years, and I managed to hit that goal! And it plays nicely. In the photo the horn is seen with the F crook and a coupler from prior horn projects, which luckily worked perfectly with the horn body. The remaining steps are I am making new F and E crooks, and a full step coupler to achieve Eb and D. A specific goal was for the horn to be the most comfortable in the hands with a crook and one coupler, as I find students will spend much or most of their time in Eb and D working on solos (such as Mozart!). The crooks, still in progress as of this writing, utilize a few key new parts from Richard Seraphinoff and will be compatible with his instruments. There were several steps to do that I had not done since when I built the horn as a Doctoral student, happy to report that I’ve worked through those steps and should be able to finish the crooks and coupler before classes next week.

My overall goals were to relatively quickly make a good, workable instrument that a student could use and to work on my skills. Success on both counts! Plus, I’m feeling more enthusiastic about practicing on the natural horn than I have in some years.

As to future projects, I think the next horn build will be a new natural horn made to an historically accurate design from fresh parts. I probably won’t start that before the beginning of the summer, and there will be some tooling up to do and some challenges, but maybe by this time next year that one will be done as well.

Brief Review: International Horn Society: The First 50 Years

John Ericson
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A very big book that came out in late 2021, International Horn Society: The First 50 Years contains an amazingly complete look at the first 50 years of the IHS.

While largely authored by Jeffrey Snedeker, among other authors I do have two brief contributions to the book, so my review will of necessity be a bit briefer than I might otherwise present on such an important publication to the horn world. But still I wanted to be sure to highlight the publication, and encourage horn enthusiasts to check it out.

To the general, big picture first, this book was a huge undertaking, and the result is very impressive. I have also organized publications on large topics; Snedeker had many choices to make, and the result is a massive, 246-page tome – hard cover and in a large format.

The physical size and weight of the book could be viewed as a strength or a weakness, to be honest. Certainly, no reasonable reader will be wanting more detail on any topic covered, this was very thoroughly researched and produced. Hundreds of articles and sections on topics including every International Horn Symposium, the various IHS programs, etc. Illustrated with what must be thousands of photos. For an example of the content, the opening by William Melton on forerunners of the International Horn Society is a fascinating read, every student of horn history should make a special effort to read this chapter.

But it is a lot to take in, and it is a book that I believe few people will want to read in full. The book is not only large and heavy, it is also contains a lot of what might be perceived to be minutiae. It is also very much a coffee table book, not one you could ever throw in your backpack and read for fun.

In the case of my own contributions, I hope that readers might especially enjoy the article on pages 122-23 on the early years of the IHS website, a site developed originally by my Horn Matters colleague Bruce Hembd. I enjoyed writing it, and it is interesting to reflect on just how far we have come in such a short amount of time. The IHS itself started in an era with no Internet and social media, and the transitions to new technologies is a part of the story I was glad to be able to tell.

Check the IHS website for information on how to purchase! It is well worth the price and highly recommended to all interested in the development of our horn community in the past 50 plus years.

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