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Sabbatical, part 2. My Original Horn Building Projects

John Ericson
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When I was a Doctoral student, I was able to create a special minor for my degree at IU, the minor being in brass instrument design and construction. For that project, I wrote a lengthy paper and built a natural horn working with Rick Seraphinoff. As I have said before, effectively I was his first apprentice, although we did not think of it in those terms at the time.

While readers might not guess this, and I don’t mention this to students that often either, my original college major was music business with a strong interest in going into instrument repair. While my direction obviously changed toward performance and teaching, I had developed some basic repair skills before I got to IU from taking art and shop metals classes and an instrument repair seminar. At IU, our idea was to start first with some repair on an inexpensive compensating double, then take on the bigger project that built the horn you see below.

What I did was take a Cousenon concert mellophone from the early 20th century and use the bell and first branch to make a natural horn patterned on an English instrument from the late 18th century. It can be crooked with the system of crooks and couplers into every key from C alto to Bb basso, and has a main slide for low pitch as well.

The second photo shows the horn build in progress in 1989, on a bench at the shop at IU. I bent all the tubing, and made all the tapered parts using mandrels Rick had developed. The horn turned out very well, too well almost, as to this day it is the natural horn I am the most likely to play among the several I have access to. It is a very comfortable and responsive horn.

After graduation, I had an idea to build an early valved horn that took crooks. For this I followed the pattern of a Gumpert model Kruspe from around 1880. The design allows the horn to be crooked as high as Bb alto. Again under the guidance of Rick Seraphinoff I made F and E crooks for it, and I could borrow crooks from the other horn and put it in any key (using the valve slides from yet another horn for Bb alto). This first photo is fairly early in the build, and the second is a bit further on.

The body of the horn was a Cleveland (a King subsidiary brand) single F, a cheap student horn with frankly a quirky valve section. Over the years, I have tweaked this horn a few times, most notably cutting the bell when I was in Potsdam. It plays very responsively, I think the basic Gumpert design is a very good one and I do play this horn often, especially warming up on it a home, but the horn itself still has issues to address. That will be part of my sabbatical project, as I want to put a different valve section on the horn and I hate the tinted lacquer, it has to go if I can get it off! It will be a major rebuild.

I would also like to work out another single F based on the Schmidt design seen in part 1 of this series. I have several project horns on hand to use for parts, including especially one with a wonderful hand hammered bell but an incomplete valve section. After that, if I have enough time, I have even more projects in mind, gradually refreshing and growing skills in horn repair and construction.

If you are curious to see these projects unfold in real time, I will be posting to my personal Instagram regularly as to how the project is going, and periodically here as well. If you are an Instagram user, look for me at ericsonhorn, where I recently also posted a number of performance videos.

Continue to Part 3

Sabbatical, part 1. Sabbatical?

John Ericson
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With the end of this fall semester of classes, I am going on sabbatical from Arizona State for the spring of 2021. Which leads to two basic questions readers might have, what is a sabbatical, and what am I going to be doing for the sabbatical?

As to the first question, I found this relevant definition. A sabbatical

… is “a break from work” during which employees can pursue their interests, like traveling, writing, research, volunteering or other activities (or even rest). During that time, the employee is still employed at their organization, but they don’t need to perform their normal job duties or report to work.

Policies vary (widely!) from school to school, but at some point in their career, many full time college professors take a sabbatical leave for either a semester or a full year. I was, after an application process, awarded a sabbatical leave for the spring of 2021. As in the quote above, I am still employed by ASU, but Gabriel Kovach of the Phoenix Symphony will largely cover my spring semester teaching, with the assistance of the two horn TAs. (Although I’ll still be managing horn recruitment, etc.).

Sabbaticals in academia are awarded to faculty to allow them to work on a special project, and I have a very specific project area in mind.

When I was thinking about options, one was the giant book, but I rejected that idea. I really wanted to do something hands on, and my mind went back to an area where I have some skills (and tools!), but have not done much with in the last ten plus years. The project involves among other things rebuilding single F horns into vintage designs such as the 1920s era Schmidt single seen here from their catalog photo — part of an overall project to build my skills and explore horn design. More on that when the series returns.

Continue to Part 2

A closer look at a vintage “Kruspe Kruspe”

John Ericson
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A Kruspe Kruspe? Any serious student of the horn today has heard of Kruspe style (or Kruspe wrap) horns, but many do not realize that Kruspe refers to an actual maker of horns (in Germany), and that the famous model (their Horner model), although popular in the USA and copied by Conn and others, was just one model out of a full line of horns. In addition, it must be noted clearly that Kruspe is still in business!

That general topic was covered in this prior article, but our specific subject today is this horn, a postwar Kruspe Horner model. Beautifully constructed, I was very fortunate to be able to purchase this instrument, one that I knew about, when it recently became available.

Prior to teaching at Arizona State University I taught at SUNY Potsdam, where I was the only the third person to hold the horn faculty position. The original horn teacher at SUNY Potsdam (then known as the Potsdam State Teachers College) was Perry Yaw. Yaw was a 1940 graduate of Mansfield University who subsequently served during WWII as a bombardier on a B-17. Following his service, he received his Master’s degree from the University of Michigan, joining the faculty in Potsdam in 1947 (as their only brass teacher at the time), where he taught for the next 33 years. Dr. Yaw (he received his Doctorate from Columbia in 1955) retired in 1980 (the same year I graduate from high school!), and remained in Potsdam the rest of his life.

Where this is significant to the story of this particular Kruspe horn is it was purchased by the school for Yaw to use as horn faculty. I do not know what kind of horn he had used previously, but this was his horn for nearly his entire professional life. He was the sole user of this horn prior to today, with it seeing little use after 1980. The horn was at his house as emeritus faculty when I was in Potsdam, where it remained until his passing in 2015. At that point, the longtime repair tech for SUNY Potsdam purchased the horn, planning to do some work on it, but eventually I purchased it from him in early 2020.

The majority of Kruspe horns you will run into were made between the world wars. Several things confirm this a being a post-war product, one prime thing being that the engraving lacks a DRGM number. The use of these numbers (they are the German patent numbers of their horn designs) ended with the fall of the Reich in 1945.

Based on when Yaw was hired, and the details of this horn, I would date it to ca. 1948. It is nearly all original with very little evidence of any repair.

The bell is made in the old fashioned way, what we today would refer to as “hand hammered” as the bell is first roughly formed from a sheet of brass with a seam to the edge of the bell, after which it is spun to a final shape on a large mandrel on a large lathe. Over years, this Kruspe horn developed a crack at the rim where the seam ends, which had to be patched. This was one of a number of fixes and upgrades done by James Patterson of Patterson Hornworks, the biggest update being a valve job and the next biggest stripping the old/heavy lacquer off the horn.

While at first glance it looks like a brass Conn 8D, there are some very easily recognizable differences when you know what to look for. They include:

  • Rounded 1st valve Bb slide
  • Main and F horn slides more angular in shape
  • F slide on back put on differently
  • Braces different
  • More angular tubes in the F horn branches

This instrument is almost all brass. Whoever made the valve section (I’m guessing made by a different maker) used some nickel silver (including four nickel silver ferrules), but other than there and the soldered slide tube ends (they are not turned from the tube end itself as we expect to see today) there are only four other pieces of nickel silver on the entire horn. Postwar shortages of materials no doubt, but it makes for an interesting, and classic look.

In addition, clearly this was handmade. The build quality is excellent, the person or persons who put this together were high-level artisans.

The one odd thing is the thumb trigger. It is not at all uncommon to see these rebuilt in various ways on Kruspe horns, the ergonomics were not great on these as built. In this case, it looks like it might have been rebuilt twice, as you can see two levers on the thumb valve! The upper one is the one that is more comfortable for me, but for a player with small hands the lower one would be better. I think what happened is that originally Yaw had it reworked with the lower paddle and then added the upper paddle when that was deemed too low. Ideally, I wish there was one lever between the two, but until the current levers fall apart I will leave them be. It is a conversation piece for sure.

For comparison, the 1936 Kruspe horn used by Mason Jones throughout his career may be seen here in the Dick Martz horn website. The overall details are the same, but there are a lot of small differences. Some are due to being built differently, and others relate to repairs/modifications. The most notable thing that catches my eye is the main slide is clearly longer. My guess is Jones had it lengthened, and I wish this horn had a longer main slide. I am not going to modify the original slide, but if I can locate a tube of the correct size, I will likely make a longer slide as seen on the Jones horn.

One other small detail is that while the Mason Jones horn has a serial number, this one does not. Fortunately, the fine folks at Potsdam State Teachers College did engrave a number on the bell brace for their inventory purposes.

So how does it play? Sound? This horn does play nicely, the sound has a lot of depth and character, and seems like it would carry well in a hall. Student reactions in my office have been very positive. It is dark at low dynamics and brightens up at high dynamics in a nice way. I’ll need to live with it longer to know if it becomes my main horn, but it has a very comfortable feel, something very appreciated as we end this strangest of years.

It would be an interesting project to see how far toward the feel and sound of this Kruspe one could get by modifying a less expensive modern Kruspe style horn to match in terms of bracing, etc. This is a project I might take on — time will tell. Kruspe style horns could make a comeback, if they regularly hit the right tonal and playing zone such as this horn has.

Continue to the “Kruspe Dreaming” series for much more on Kruspe horns

To close, the short interview below is a wonderful memory of Perry Yaw. Besides looking very fit for his age (I was told that he was an avid outdoorsman), he was always a supporter of horn. I enjoyed seeing his friendly face at concerts when I was in Potsdam, and I enjoy the connection to him through his classic Kruspe horn.

A “Popup Concert” and other COVID horn notes

John Ericson
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COVID has changed the performing landscape of fall 2020 drastically.

But before looking at that, there is good news out there, the proverbial “light at the end of the tunnel,” I hope readers are taking in some of the recent good news, the end of the pandemic really is in sight. I predict by summer 2021 things in general will be looking a lot more normal, and fall 2021 should usher in a much more normal situation for collegiate horn study. It will still take the music industry a year or more to gear back up, arts organizations have been badly hit financially, but things will sort out, and the music will return.

But back to the present era of COVID and music, speaking generally, colleges and universities have been leading the way. Protocols vary widely by location. Some schools have highly restrictive protocols that don’t allow any live horn teaching or group performances, but others have more options.

In my own case at Arizona State, while recitals are occurring with limited audiences, and lessons have been a mixture of live and Zoom lessons, all of our studio classes were virtual, as were most ensemble experiences. To balance that, I wanted to have a horn choir event with the entire studio, performing together in a non-virtual venue.

Looking at my options, the most workable one was a popup concert at our studio class time. It had to be formally scheduled due to campus location restrictions but, at the same time, we could not publicize it (!), as fewer than 50 people had to be there, even with it being outdoors in a large plaza.

I was able to come up with a varied but simple program, the performance of which reflected well on the individual effort of horn studio members. Especially as none of us had ever performed in the plaza we used, the performance area (under the “noodles”) was newly completed – the photo shows it shortly before being finished.

The program notes are below. The only footnote I would add, in the category “Believe it or Not,” is that this was the very first horn ensemble concert after years of teaching that I have included a Frippery! They are not written for a larger ensemble, but I felt these two would work, and they did. Next time we play, I look forward to some live rehearsals before performing! And I understand that there will be live rehearsals allowed in the spring at ASU, another element pointing to there is a light at the end of the tunnel, don’t lose hope.

Program and notes…
This program is a first of the fall semester for us in the ASU Horn Studio, in a brand new performing space. With COVID protocols, we rehearsed using a parallel practice tactic in Zoom. The performance you are about to hear reflects on the individual practice done by ASU horn students, with a varied program designed to work in this format.

(Works to be performed today are highlighted in the text that follows, in program order)

To open the concert we have a Madrigal by Orlando di Lasso. Huntington Burdick arranged this somber work for the Los Angeles Horn Club.

The next group of works were arranged by Max Pottag. Pottag, who spent many years in the Chicago Symphony, has been credited as being the father of the collegiate horn ensemble, making it part of his teaching curriculum at Northwestern University. The arrangements we are performing today were all published in 1941:

  • Prayer and Hunting Chorus from Der Freischutz by C. M. Von Weber
  • Adagio Religioso by C. D. Lorenz
  • Soldiers Farewell by Johanna Kinkel
  • Forsaken (Tyrolian Song) by T. Koschat

Of these Pottag arrangements, perhaps the most notable is the Kinkel. She lived a very interesting life, and the work, written for men’s chorus, is well voiced for horn performance.

Next on the program are Three (of six) Folk Songs by Brahms, arranged by Marvin McCoy. In order we have The Fiddler, How Sad flows the Stream, and At Night

In the brass area this semester we had a special focus on the works of BIPOC composers, and one seminal work that was highlighted in a presentation to brass students was the African-American spiritual, Deep River, heard here today in a traditional choral arrangement.

While written for horn quartet, we also wanted to highlight with the full studio two works in a jazz style,

  • Frippery No. 16 “Something Blue” by Lowell Shaw
  • Frippery No. 25 “Takin’ it Easy” by Lowell Shaw

Finally, to close the program we have another of the Pottag arrangements, Lutzow’s Wild Chase by Weber. Thank you for joining us today in this new concert space.

Auditioning for college in the age of COVID

John Ericson
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Any reader looking at auditioning for college music programs right now knows that they are looking at a changed scenario due to COVID.

Before this cycle what was normal was you would (ideally) go to the school and do a live audition — but this year that is not the way it will be. Most, if not all, schools have shifted to versions of a hybrid audition scenario. You are still required to perform an audition to be considered for a music major, but recorded auditions and virtual interviews will take the place of a live audition and interview for the 2020-21 admission year.

In the case of ASU and horn, what we require is for the prospective student to submit recordings of their main selections, and we have an additional Zoom interview scheduled where I hear you sight-read, etc.

Officially what we are looking for in a recording is “The recorded audition will be evaluated for technical and musical proficiency.” To more specific suggestions, it is critical that the recording/video reflect your very best playing, and it must be made with care. You want the recording to stand out for the right reasons! Things that will help:

  • Use as good a space as you can for the recording, visually and acoustically
  • No need to dress up, but don’t look too casual
  • Find a place with a relatively neutral background for the video, to focus attention on you and your playing
  • Listen to it critically, and have others listen critically
  • Allow plenty of time to redo the entire recording several times
  • Missed notes held to a minimum! We have to assume this was your best take

The other element, which will be new for everyone, is the virtual Interview. In the interview you should be prepared to

  • Discuss your recorded audition
  • Perform short excerpts of audition materials that you submitted in the recorded audition
  • Play scales at the request of the horn professor
  • Sight-Read on your instrument
  • Ask any questions about the horn studio

This system of a recording and an interview is (in my opinion) vastly superior to an all Zoom live audition, as with the recording you have the opportunity to present a more complete picture of your playing in terms of dynamics, articulations, and phrasing than is possible in Zoom, allowing us to then learn more about you and your playing in the virtual interview.

The overall good news is that for college auditions the potential you demonstrate is the most critical element, so none of the above factors is a true deal breaker. But still, those that give the best impression will be the ones that show the most potential. Good luck!

I would also mention that in spite of everything, I think this is a great time to be starting study, as by the time you graduate the job market should be sorting out again in a post-COVID era.

It would still be a good idea though to attend a program that will not weigh you down with a great deal of debt. In regard to that, my final point is that if you are still looking for schools, consider Arizona State! We have a strong (and affordable) brass program worth your time to check out. More general info may be found here.

Tip: Building endurance in the age of no ensembles

John Ericson
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With COVID, most horn players are finding themselves in an unusual situation, they have no ensembles to play in, and have not played in an ensemble in months.

One consequence of this is that, even if practicing regularly, endurance has suffered for many brass players. There is a type of endurance that is built up by regularly playing in large ensemble rehearsals and concerts. And really there is no substitute for those rehearsals and concerts, not only for endurance but also for dynamics and articulations.

But I was intrigued this week on pulling out my copy of the Standley Routine, published in 2002 but dating to the 1960s. The interesting thing is Standley presents not only the typical scale and arpeggio patterns, as he also has specific exercises in every key intended to build (or enhance) endurance. Musically they are not as interesting as etudes, but the overall concept is an important one to consider, one that could help in developing some new focus on in your practice.

I would also mention another vintage publication, Exercises for Flexible Horn Playing by Ward Fearn. Published in 1965, I wish he had explained further his actual goals, but clearly he has some ideas toward airflow and connections. Some of the exercises also generally resemble the Standley endurance studies, but with more musical interest, so it might also be worth a specific look for variety in your practice and to build endurance back up. I have at the least enjoyed exploring this book these few months, I had never looked at it seriously until I was well into the present COVID era of practice at home.

On a practical level, you can duplicate the effect of the Standley endurance studies with longer etudes with few rests by any composer. Hopefully also, just knowing that you should be playing some studies that are designed to build endurance on a daily basis might help keep your playing on better track as we hit the winter months of the year of COVID horn practice.

COVID and innovation in brass chamber music at Arizona State

John Ericson
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We are doing something different than normal this semester for brass chamber music at Arizona State.

During the summer our large ensemble directors began exploring an online DAW platform called Bandlab. We were having weekly brass meetings through the summer as well, and the idea that came up was to organize all of the ASU brass students into brass quintets that would record works using Bandlab, and to also as much as possible develop videos as the final product. By the end of the summer we made this video to test the concept:

All the audio was recorded and edited in Bandlab. The overall project was designed to use technology available to students for free through ASU. What you see on the video for example is pantomime done separately on Zoom in front of a green screen. Trumpet professor Joe Burgstaller did the final video production.

With that video launched, we went forward with the students, putting them all in groups of similar ability. Then we did a further tweak of the concept and moved all the groups to focusing on works by BIPOC composers, arranged by Luther Henderson. This also included having composition and musicology faculty speak (on Zoom) to the brass area about the music of the era and Luther Henderson and his career. Wednesday this past week all the groups shared their audio, and this has exceeded our expectations. The next step is for groups to make videos to go with the audio they have recorded.

For another viewpoint on our project, from a bigger picture, see also this article:

From the article,

Burgstaller and his colleagues spent the summer figuring out how to fully leverage the technology and use it to their students’ advantage. As an example, the brass faculty released a video of their virtual performance of the “Love Theme to Cinema Paradiso, ” produced using only resources that are free to ASU students, such as BandLab and Adobe Creative Suite.

“COVID is not decelerating your learning process — it’s reordering it,” Burgstaller said. “We’re in this situation where we can make a lot of difference in helping students learn technology skills that are usually acquired later or once musicians are out of school. In my era as a student, these are all skills I learned on my own and use intensively.”

This has all been part of a larger push since 2019 to revitalize our brass chamber music program, and again it has been exciting to see the results obtained by looking for opportunities rather than looking at the difficulties presented by COVID. Around the end of the current semester there should be a whole group of videos from ASU brass students

Going forward, next semester the plan is a similar project, but all the quintets will be playing and recording movements or works by women composers. Ultimately I believe that after COVID we will continue with a robust live quintet program, yet another reason to consider ASU highly for brass study. For more information visit:

It is time to use some new etudes (with samples to try)

John Ericson
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Especially in this time of COVID teaching, it is time to try some new materials. The same old, tired etudes seem especially old and tired in Zoom lessons. With more lesson teaching moving to live lessons, some new materials will brighten your teaching and your practice.

Back in June I introduced 30 Modern Preparatory Etudes (more here), a brand new publication. Having now used this book more fully this fall I can say with certainty this is a collection that works great with a variety of students. I have been gratified how well these have worked in lessons.

It is also a very affordable publication, available worldwide on Amazon in print and Kindle editions. Unfortunately, the book preview on Amazon has no pages of music visible, so you do not have a way to see what you get, and of course, the best way to know how they might work for you is to try them!

In response to that, two of the etudes are below, try them yourselves and with your students. This collection is one that fits well with the needs of the contemporary horn teacher. You will not be disappointed.

For more information and links to purchase visit www.hornnotes.com

DeRosa and Almeida: The Intimate Bach [UPDATED]

John Ericson
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A great recording that is not much known by now several generations of horn players is The Intimate Bach, Vol. 2, which includes a side featuring Vincent DeRosa and Laurindo Alemeida playing the Partita in Bb. On the hundredth birthday of DeRosa (born Oct. 5, 1920) it is an excellent day to look back on this classic recording.

DeRosa has been called “the most recorded horn player in history.” Beyond his extensive studio work in Hollywood, turning to the Wikipedia,

DeRosa was also an accomplished classical player. He was the hornist on the album The Intimate Bach which received a Grammy Nomination for Best Classical Performance – Chamber Music (1962). Music critic Alfred Frankenstein wrote of DeRosa’s performance on this record, “This is the most astonishing example of virtuosity on the horn I have ever heard on records…To play as lightly and speedily as a harpsichord, right out in the open with a minimum of support, is to give an incredible performance.”

I first stumbled upon this recording as an undergrad, and have always loved this recording. I have a copy of the LP, and also recently was able to obtain a copy of the sheet music. It is part of a series of recordings by Alemeida (1917– 1995), a Brazilian guitarist in classical, jazz, and Latin music, a crossover artist before that was common. There is so much clarity in the guitar playing, and they both exhibit artistry of the highest level on this album.

Jim Patterson offered the following background on the recording.

Vince told me that he had been contacted by Laurindo Almeida in advance and was sent the part but was so busy he hadn’t really had a chance to look at it. So he was pretty much sight reading at the session…. They had Vince in a small isolation booth, with a bunch of padding and close mic’d. He remembers having to play very softly, while the Guitar had to play as loud as possible. There was only a small window to see each other through. Vince listened to the playback when they had finished and was not impressed at all. He thought they should dump the whole thing! In retrospect, if they had let the horn play in the large room and put the guitar in the isolation booth, the sound would have certainly been much better. From a technical aspect, the playing is extraordinary.

So, now that we have your attention, how can you hear this recording today? This is why people collect LP records, as the DeRosa/Alemeida recording is so far as I can tell not available today in any other format. This is really one worth asking around for among older horn players that have LPs, I highly recommend giving it a listen on a good stereo.

[See UPDATE at end for an exciting piece of news!]

But you can get some sense of the classic DeRosa/Alemeida recording in this more recent release by James Thatcher. What Thatcher does is play his own version of the work a fourth higher than DeRosa, and with piano instead of guitar, so it has bit different feel – but is also highly impressive horn playing. So after enjoying the below examples (the first two movements of the work, the first being the same as the musical excerpt above, and the second being the most technical movement), work on finding the original by DeRosa, it will be worth your time.

Finally, for a bit of DeRosa from the same year as the Bach recording, check out this famous theme:

UPDATE: In November of 2020 Dylan Skye Hart and Andrew Synowiec released their version on Youtube the of J.S. Bach: Partita No.1 in Bb major, BWV 825, from the original parts! Wonderful playing! Take a listen below:

Watkins, Schuller, and Barrows — Temptation, 1962

John Ericson
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Following up on the recent post on jazz horn pioneer Julius Watkins, I made an effort to buy a couple more of his recordings off eBay. One that is fascinating is French Horns for My Lady, a 1962 release on the Phillips label.

There is a Wikipedia article on the album here, but one key piece of information would be the horn sidemen involved on the project: Gunther Schuller, Bob Northern, James Buffington, and John Barrows. Of the four, I think the first and last names listed are easily recognizable still, Schuller had a long career as a composer and more, and Barrows is associated with all the Wilder works and taught later at Wisconsin.

[A quick aside on the cover — it is a bit cringe for us today — but is what was used. The record does feature a wordless female vocalist on several tracks, which is hopefully what the cover is supposed to relate to.]

The opening work is Temptation, which may be found in a decent YouTube version embedded below. I say decent, as it loses some depth of sound for sure compared to my stereo LP copy on good speakers. When you listen to this, be sure you can hear it in Stereo; it is very 1960s, with crazy stereo effects.

Wow! Some great playing and production, Watkins has a great solo break about half way through and then there are all the sidemen doing their riffs. And how about that last note? It is a bit of a novelty album in a way, but totally worth seeking out.

If you go to Spotify and look for this work, searching Temptation Julius Watkins, you will find a very different recording by Watkins with Charlie Rouse on tenor sax. Much more relaxed, along the lines of club jazz. Of course, that version is also on YouTube, as below:

For actual listening, it is the better version: if you have a way to search it out, check it out too. There is a lot of great horn music out there.

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