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Two new podcasts looking at excerpts and a teaching method

John Ericson
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Two podcast episodes are the result of one of my regular summer projects, which is working slowly through my old cassette tapes of performances, and converting them to MP3 files.

This past week I met with a recent ASU horn grad who won a position to play this summer with the National Repertory Orchestra (Yay!). A wonderful opportunity for them, and great to hear also that a summer orchestra was performing again.

His going to Colorado soon reminded me that my summer in the NRO — then still known as the Colorado Philharmonic — was 35 summers ago! 1986. I had reorganized my tapes last summer, now have a cassette player in my office again, and could easily find my half-dozen tapes from the NRO.

Among them, the tape with Till on it stood out. When I pulled it out my immediate thought was that it would have some mistake on it. Why I thought that I don’t know, I literally have not listened to this Till in probably 30 years.

Putting it in to listen was such a pleasant surprise. Wow, this was really good, and really all the tapes I found from that summer are quite good. What a great summer, one that I’m sure was part of how I got to ASU eventually. I hope the players in the group all have strong playing experiences.

If you want to hear my Till, performed at age 23, I included it on not one but two new episodes of the Horn Notes Podcast. I believe that both are good summer listening. The first one (episode 45) focuses more on my teaching method as posted in my brand new personal website, johnericsonhorn.com. The second podcast (episode 46) focuses on excerpts, including Till, Brahms 2, and the Janacek Sinfonietta. Both are available anywhere you listen to podcasts, or the direct link is here: hornnotes.libsyn.com/

In the cases of all the excerpts you will hear in these episodes, I found them an encouragement to revisit. But for all listeners I hope my commentary provides some good practical insights toward practice and better horn playing.

As I mentioned my new personal website, I would also update readers that I completely rebuilt my Horn Notes Edition website and also worked over the venerable Horn Articles Online significantly. If you have not visited either in a while, check them at the links.

Podcast: Warming up on the F horn, getting back in shape

John Ericson
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Recently I posted two new episodes of the Horn Notes Podcast, looking at topics of our time, getting back in shape after the pandemic and also at how F horn practice might fit into that practice.

The first episode went online in March, Hornnotes 43: Toward Healthy Chops and Getting Your Chops Going Again, and new for May is Hornnotes 44: Warming up on F horn and more. If you are a podcast listener, check them out anywhere you get your podcasts, or listen at the links.

The F horn has been a big part of my practice this past year, only enhanced by the projects for my sabbatical. This horn was just made playable, it is a Yamaha single F converted to take crooks. In the photo it is using a crook from my Gumpert horn, the next project is making a very similar crook. In terms of playing, I’m very happy with how it came out.

That being said, as I state in the second podcast, I’m really thinking a lot about topics like audition preparation and my teaching in general. Especially with the positive (and exciting) news from the CDC, the coming months could be some of our most important months of renewed practice and new goals and visions in our horn playing and teaching. I’m excited about the coming year and all it could bring. Be watching this space and on Instagram (@ericsonhorn) for more.

Sabbatical Finale: Finishing the Geyer

John Ericson
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As mentioned in the previous installment, I located (on eBay) the remains of a Geyer single F horn, minus the original bell (which had been used to restore a higher value Geyer double).

My guess is the horn body dates to roughly the 1940s. We don’t think of the legendary American horn maker Carl Geyer (1880-1973) for making student model horns, but that is what this is, built on the same general vintage design that was seen on the second build of the sabbatical, the Mirafone/Yamaha. The big, looped main slide puts the horn in F rather than in Eb (such as is seen on more typical student model single horns). So, while it was a student model horn, I think Carl Geyer was pretty hard-wired to build a high-quality instrument, with parts and design of the same quality as he used on his double horns.

I replaced the missing bell using the bell from the same King horn that had provided the valve section for the first build, and I had to replace the damaged leadpipe also (it had four holes in it, and even with those taped up and other repairs it was not a player) with a Yamaha single F leadpipe. I will keep the original pipe with the horn for comparison.

The Geyer body also had a number of issues to correct, including applying three patches to leaks, and I’m still watching another spot that might need a patch. This horn had some heavy damage at one point, and not all of it was repaired well, it was instead hidden somewhat with patches a fresh coat of clear lacquer. I stripped all that off and used all the Geyer parts I could, and love the overall look and design. Other than the bell and leadpipe, the only other non-Geyer parts are the ferrule at the joint between the bell tail and first branch (King) and the braces for the bell and leadpipe (Yamaha).

It was humbling to take apart and rebuild to playability a horn built by a legend of horn making. A skill revisited with this specific build was silver soldering a broken brace. As much as I could I tried to build it has he did, with the long tubing contacts in the same manner as he used.

While this horn could still benefit from a valve job, I am very happy with how all three of my sabbatical horns look and play. Each instrument was a wonderful project, their simple designs being suited my skill level and my goal of improving skills.

Besides constructing these three horns I also did repairs and minor alterations to several other horns, not documented in this series. Horn building this semester was very much a full-time job, and my skills have improved a great deal. The hands-on work in my garage shop was also an especially good way to spend those pandemic months.

[Very attentive readers might remember that I described in a prior post another planned sabbatical build, rebuilding a Yamaha single into a crooked single horn. That project was started and is still in progress, and that was actually the source horn for the leadpipe used on the Geyer. I have other repair/modification projects going but I am still hopeful to finish that horn also before summer heat kicks in, that one will be my “Yamaha conversion horn.” And I have parts that will eventually become another new instrument, likely similar to this Geyer.]

Reflecting on the three completed projects, it fascinates me how each horn has a very individual character. Each one has good and bad points in terms of playing qualities, especially in regard to good and bad notes. And the bad notes are all pretty good, don’t get me wrong, they all turned out well! But if you take a specific note such as written fourth line E, each horn is different in terms of the “F horn roll” on that note being felt easily or minimally. I tend to think the Geyer is the best playing overall, but that may in part be because it is new to me. The Mirafone bell horn might have the best sound, I need to play them all for listeners in a good space to know for sure.

I look forward to applying my horn building skills to modern horn designs as part of future creative activity. Maybe at some future time I will try to make a natural horn or two. But for now, it won’t be long until I have to be closing up my shop. It is in my garage, and as Arizona temperatures get higher it will be less and less usable, and not at all usable really when the overnight lows are over 80! Which is good, as I can get back to preparing over the summer for what I hope will be a very robust year of in-person horn teaching and playing for 2021-22!

UPDATE 2024: I further rebuilt the Geyer! Be sure to see the updated horn here. 

Return to the beginning of the Sabbatical Series

Horn Etudes by Women Composers

John Ericson
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Many Horn Matters readers will be familiar with the Works with Horn by Women Composers website by Dr. Lin Foulk. If not, this is a must visit resource of the horn world, be sure to check it out.

However, there is a category of works for horn that is not covered there, horn etudes [but see UPDATE at end!]. Surprisingly, I am only aware of three horn etude publications by women composers. I’d like to reintroduce two of them to Horn Matters readers, and briefly review a brand new publication for 2021.

The oldest publication I’m aware of are the Interval Studies by Pauline Oliveros (1932-2016). They were composed in 1959, and I examined them briefly in this previous article. Oliveros is best known for concepts related to deep listening and electronic music, the etudes being written when she was a horn student. Looking at these more this past year with one of my students, I think there are some very interesting musical ideas in this book, interesting enough to consider performing them as solo horn works. In fact, that student, Adam Heyen, performed three of these studies on his final ASU MM recital. To hear them, check out this video (starting just after the 46 minute mark). These are highly worth visiting with an advanced student or for your own musical exploration.

Backing up a step, having recently composed some etudes of my own, it really brings home to me how much horn etudes provide insights into the musical world of the author. It is a shame that we are so reliant on tired old pedagogical materials, and that we have so few etudes by female hornists/composers. I hope more will take up the challenge in the coming years, as we badly need some fresh etude materials, and after this year of Covid especially we all really deserve some fresh, new music to play.

The second etude publication I would highlight is Rangesongs by Rose French. Rose was my first DMA graduate from ASU, and currently serves as Director of Instrumental Music at Phoenix College. I interviewed her about the then new publication back in 2012. I’ve only this year really started into using this publication with a student, and I should have done it sooner. The book has several underlying pedagogical goals, the most obvious being building range as the range gets wider and wider as you go forward in the book, but also everything is songlike and tuneful. Each etude is one page in length, and there are 93 etudes total. This book will be excellent for an advancing student or an amateur coming back to the horn. Typically, I use etude books front to back, but in this case I’m finding it very helpful to have started with my student at two places in the book to provide more harmonic variety.

The final publication I want to highlight is brand new for 2021, 18 Virtuosic Concert Studies for Low Horn by Kate Caliendo, who presently serves as second horn in the Jacksonville Symphony. Some readers likely have never heard of her, but actually she is very well known among a younger generation of horn players due to Instagram, where she as of this writing has over 8,000 followers! Her new collection of concert studies interests me a great deal. I would rate them in overall difficulty to be somewhere between the Pre and Neuling low horn etudes that I’ve been using with students for a number of years (I am very convinced that low range development as a key to success), and in a much fresher melodic style. Each etude is either one or two pages long and is built on moods and themes related to other works, with a lot of variety. I very much look forward to using this book, and have already selected the beginning of number 7, “These Notes DO Exist,” as part of our music for ensemble seating auditions at ASU this fall.

As I mentioned in my earlier brief review of the Oliveros etudes, I don’t much like critiquing the actual publication quality of print publications (and the price point). While Rangesongs has a very professionally printed look and feel (with a thick glossy cover and high quality paper), the Oliveros and Kaliendo books have more of a locally printed look. It does not impact your ability to use the materials, of course. Certainly the profits per copy on all of these are lower than you might guess.

Please, PLEASE, horn teachers out there, use some new books. Buy them NOW, learn them over the summer, and use them in the fall. It really is time to step up and make some changes. I’ve made my own publications really easy to buy on Amazon and as cheap as they can be, with my Modern Preparatory Etudes being applicable to many study situations, but sales remain slow. Please take some time when the dust clears from the semester and explore some new materials to teach from, your students will thank you.

UPDATE: Dr. Foulk has added a section on etudes! Check it out here. 

Sabbatical, part 8: Resurrecting a Geyer

John Ericson
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I had some options for a final major project, and then was lucky to locate the body of a vintage Geyer single horn of similar design to my Mirafone/Yamaha combo that turned out so well (more here).

The body of this horn is a Geyer, as in made by the legendary horn maker Carl Geyer himself (more here). What happened to this horn prior to my ownership is fairly clear. The most recent thing to happen was the bell was removed (!) to use to restore another Geyer horn. Although the remains were an eBay purchase and have no Geyer markings, I know the seller in real life as well, and with further comparison with photos of Geyer horns I feel very certain this body is in fact the work of Geyer.

Even when it had the bell I believe it was unplayable, the lead pipe was a mess with patches and large dents, and I spotted right away two major leaks in the horn body and some suspect repairs.

My original project of the semester (more here) involved rebuilding an older project of mine with a new valve section from a King single Bb. That bell was available for this project, and fortunately it will fit the Geyer body with minimal modification! So that is the good news. The bad news is after taking apart the Geyer body to do dent work it needs at least 5 (!) patches, including two on valve knuckles, and it must have been damaged pretty heavily and then repaired and lacquered. I still have to take the valve slides off the first and third valves, and I bet there is even more damage I have not found yet.

As of now I have stripped the lacquer on the bell and the horn body, and I’ve completed most of my dent work, to the level I can do — not perfect, with a bit of visible “character” in the dented areas, but acoustically sound. The next step is working on the patches and fitting parts back together. After the body is done I’ll consider lead pipe options.

Still, I’m glad I can put this horn back together. I will follow the design of the original build as closely as I can, and I’m excited to see how it turns out. There are still some key Geyer parts here, made by a master! And looking at the calendar this should be the last major part of my sabbatical project. More soon.

Continue to Finale of Sabbatical Series

Spun Bell? Hand-Hammered Bell?

John Ericson
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I have mentioned hand-hammered bells a number of times in this site, but surprisingly I have never really explained what the term means.

All Bells are Spun

A first point to make is that all bells are spun on a large lathe as part of their production process.

Where hand-hammering comes in is that the flare can be made two ways. The modern method is to spin the end of the flare (approximately the part that would be cut for a screw bell horn) up from a round disc of metal. The traditional method involves making the entire bell and bell tail from a large sheet of metal which is roughly formed (the “hammering”) and brazed together with a visible seam, after which it is spun to final shape.

Every dimension matters. What you theoretically gain by the hand hammering process is a bell with more consistent metal thickness and some very subtle elements from the hammering process that I think tend to impact the sound positively.

What Does it Look Like?

Visibly what you would see as a purchaser is illustrated in the two photos. Depending on the finish of the horn it may be very subtle visually to the eye, but there will either be a single straight seam to the edge of the bell (usually aligned so that the seam is on the “inside” of the wrap of the horn, thus less visible and less likely to break when bending the bell tail) OR it will involve a triangular piece of metal with two seams. This type I have seen referred to as a gusseted bell, seen for example on many Alexander horns.

The first photo shows a horn with a straight seam that has split at the edge of the bell, where the patch has been soldered on, and this second horn shows a gusseted bell on an Alexander descant horn. There are two visible, curved seams on a gusseted bell.

In contrast, if it is a spun bell you may see (especially on a fixed bell horn) a seam that is a circle around the bell tail in the general area of the bell brace.

Worth the Cost?

Personally, I like the hand-hammered bells and think them worth the extra cost, but it really is a personal choice, you may feel the better sound is actually with a spun bell. There are many variables that are being balanced by the maker as they refine their product into the best form they can produce.

If you are interested to see even more details on the process, see this recent article in the Stephens Horns website, and for another view on even more on the variables this article in the Medlin Horns website is an important read.

UPDATE: Credit to a Twitter comment for the link to this wonderful video of the process of making a gusseted bell:

Revisiting the Ascending Third Valve

John Ericson
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As part of my most recent horn building project I realized that I could set up that horn as an ascending third valve instrument.

Ascending third valve?!?

Back nearly 10 years ago I posted in this site an article introducing the ascending third valve horn. That article is here, and the short version is that this was a valve system that had some degree of popularity, especially in the years before the double horn. The classic instruments would be set up very much like my example.

How it works on a single horn is the instrument is set up so that the open tubing would have the horn sit in G — but the third valve is reversed so that at rest it adds a whole step of tubing, to make the instrument normally stand in F.

To produce that same open harmonic series as normal for the F horn, air normally passes through that third valve slide. However, when you push down the third valve it cuts out that tubing, and as a result it raises the pitch level of the horn a whole step. Push down that valve, and you get a harmonic series a full step higher than normal! (The same length as T12 on a double horn). Thus, the third valve makes the horn “ascend” instead of adding tubing like normal.

How it feels (to the player accustomed to a typical single F) is like a supercharged single F, as you have that shorter tubing length available. Articulations will be better and also the tone is a bit lighter and clearer overall.

I could achieve set this up on this instrument because I made this horn (described in this recent article) so that it could be set up in F or in G and has complete slide sets for both pitch levels. The G horn first valve slide becomes the ascending third valve slide (which has to be shorter than a standard F horn first valve slide).

I did have to temporarily reverse the rotation of the third valve to do this, which I did by stringing it “wrong,” as seen in this second photo.

Wait, how then do you finger A-flat? Or low Eb?

An A-flat on the second space would still be fingered 23, but with this combination the third valve raises the nominal open pitch a step and the second lowers the pitch a half step.

This works also for the Ab below the staff, but the Eb below the staff is missing, and you also can’t finger any notes below low A.

(Ascending third valve double horns have been made; the “Bb” side gets you a low Eb, yay, but there is still no fingering for a low Ab — unless the horn has a stopping valve to use to get an extra 1/2 step descending. But overall that is kind of a deal breaker for the system today).

How does it play?

First, let me say this is or was a horn for a high horn player. The missing low notes would have been a huge annoyance if you were a low horn player.

Positives: It is surprisingly responsive, with a clearer tone than the standard single F. You lose some weight with the changes, and the longest fingerings are now shorter! I can see why this system appealed to figures including Maxime-Alphonse; he wrote several of his etudes with the ascending third valve horn clearly in mind. See for example Book 4 Number 3. Oh, and it is a fun setup to play with for variety in your practice. Horn playing can be fun!

Negatives: One obvious negative is you can’t play below low A, there are no fingerings, and the Eb below the staff is missing too. But the BIG negative to my mind is intonation. If you set up the second valve slide to take you a half step down from F horn, when you use it in combination with the third valve it is really much too long. If you set up a 23 combination correctly the second valve is not nearly pulled enough using it by itself. I suppose you might get used to altering intonation around this issue (and of course, in reality, you set the slide in a compromise position, half way between correct for the two fingerings, which you use quite often). But a standard descending third valve setup is the better one for basic intonation and if having a true fingering for every note in your range is a priority.

It was an interesting experiment at the least! And, again, check my earlier article for more on the past and present use of this valve design.

Sabbatical part 7: A Retro Horn in F and G?

John Ericson
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First let me say this horn came out really well!

For this project I combined most of the tubing from a vintage (probably 1960s) Mirafone single horn with the valve section (and more) from a Yamaha. As part of this process I redesigned the horn itself, so that the pattern now matches that used by Schmidt (among others) in the 19th century. When crooked in F it uses what Mirafone meant to be the Eb slide, and the F slide now puts the horn in G. Photos of the horn are spread out in this article, with the final photo being the only “before” photo I saved from the original eBay listing. Notice that is was missing a few critical parts, and had probably been hanging on a wall.

This conversion was a bit more complicated to do than I anticipated. One element to having to rebend three key parts (which I did with cerrobend), but another element was I was thinking that the original F slides might work in G with them pushed in, but reality was I needed to make a set of short slides (and extend the G main slide). Fortunately, the original Mirafone first and third slides were bent smaller and could be cut down just enough to work in G, and I was able to put together a short second valve from Holton and King parts. The result is that in both keys the horn plays well, and I was able to maintain a pretty consistent aesthetic to the design in spite of using parts from multiple horns.

It has quite a retro look, like it could easily be over 100 years old, and I really like the tone and feel of the horn a great deal. The hand-hammered bell and nickel sliver garland are great features toward the ultimate tone color, which I can’t wait to try out for listeners in a larger/better space.

WHY G?

This very obvious question has actually a very simple answer. It may only be a legend, but it has been theorized or speculated that Max Hess, the original performer of the Corno Obbligato part of Mahler 5, used the G crook to play that part on the premier. The horn he used at the time could be crooked in F, G, and A, and may be seen here with other information. He was apparently a fan of the G crook.

Again, it may be legend in regard to Mahler 5, but it was an interesting enough legend to work out the horn, and I’ll write more about it at a later date. The famous solo part certainly pops out better on the G crook than on the F.

Also, I have one more trick up my sleeve with this instrument, I should be able to set it up as an ascending 3rd valve horn that stands in F, such as was used in France. I certainly have the slides to do it, more on that at some later date.

In any case, this horn is done! From vision to completion and a very nice result, with many lessons learned.

I still have a Bb crook to finish for the first project horn of my sabbatical (the Gumpert model horn), and I’ll go back to that next before I start another big project. More on that soon.

Update: That crook was finished!

UPDATE: The horn has had some major details updated, see this article for more. 

Continue in the Sabbatical Series

Horn Camp Connect, and other thoughts one year into “The Year of Zoom”

John Ericson
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This past weekend I was honored to be featured for the monthly Horn Camp Connect session of the Kendall Betts Horn Camp. The video is below, and my portion begins just over one hour in. It starts with a presentation on “conventional wisdom” and five specific areas where it might be holding you back, and ends with an extended question and answer session.

I think the series of online events they created has been one of the best and most valuable contributions to the Zoom era of horn teaching. Besides the helpful and upbeat content, I like a lot that it is meant to be seen live. Not to knock the recent horn workshops, but personally I connect much better with a live event than an event that is largely constructed from recordings.

The Year of Zoom

Tomorrow — March 16 — is also an important date to me specifically as in 2020 this was my first day of Zoom teaching. The memory of the first two lessons will be long etched in my memory, it was really a challenge.

And I suspect it is still a big challenge, even if we have better microphones and are used to it. I did a quick Twitter survey, not scientific by any means, but it confirmed that the level of Zoom fatigue is really high. The sooner we get off Zoom the better.

I have noticed some specific trends and issues that players should be aware of, also touched on in the Q&A in the Horn Camp Connect session. The big two are dynamics and articulations. Practicing in unfavorable spaces with no ensemble rehearsals has really disrupted things. We can adjust and overcome!

Better Days to Come

Another question that came up in the session was what I thought the future would look like for music and horn. I tend to be an optimist that there is a pent up demand for music. Of course, the worry is that people won’t come back to horn playing, that they have become used to not playing. But I am still optimistic that the year of Zoom might instead enhance the newly visceral experience of playing music and to listening to music live in a room. It is fundamentally different than listening to a recording or practicing alone, and gives me hope that better days will come.

Sabbatical project update, and a new book on what?

John Ericson
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In short, the second project horn is playable, and I have a new book out.

To the horn first, this one as has been mentioned combines parts from a vintage Mirafone with a lovely bell (but missing parts of the valve section, clearly it had been hanging on a wall somewhere) with the valve section of a Yamaha single horn. The idea was also to redesign the instrument to follow the design of a 19th century Schmidt single F as close as was reasonable, which required eliminating some tubing, rebending some tubing, and using what was the Eb crook to play the horn in F.

The horn became playable yesterday and I’m very happy with the initial results! I have three different leadpipes that I can use with the horn and I’ll give each a fair test in the next few days. Depending on how testing and further modifications go I could be done with this horn next week. The photos below show the front and back of the horn.

Besides that project, the past month or so I was also finishing up a project mostly completed over the summer — a book! — but not horn related.

To maintain the suspense for a moment longer, working on the final updates of that book I have been checking the sales stats regularly, and the best selling lately are the warmup book, the low horn book, and the natural horn book. If you have never considered buying, check them out.

But if you search my publications on Amazon you will now find a new book in my author page (here), and it will likely be a curiosity to the horn community. Model Railroading in American OO, 1930-68 is on the history of a model railroad scale, one rarely used today but one that I got interested in when I was in high school and have worked in every since. Maybe that is part of why horn appealed to me also, to be honest — why do the easy model railroad scale (or instrument) that other people use?

I don’t think many Horn Matters readers will find the book of special interest, but if you are curious search for it on Amazon, it is available in Kindle and print editions. The cover is below.

Continue reading Sabbatical series

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