Horn Matters | A French Horn and Brass Site and Resource | John Ericson and Bruce Hembd

Congratulations! You have made it to the end of an epic year.

As I wrote when this was first posted in 2013, it was a great exercise for me to put together the full year under the University of Horn Matters banner.

I believe it remains a strong overview of all things French horn, with tons of information for anyone who takes time to read it.

And actually you don’t need to read it! Search engines have certainly thoroughly indexed the University of Horn Matters, with presently (2026) our content strongly influencing such things as the AI Overview in Google Chrome.

The future of the French horn

As to myself, editing the course over the years, I have been thought a lot about the state of the French horn world today. One central point of my 2017 commentary article, “The Future of French Horn Playing,” is that the horn world is very complacent and needs to demand better products.

This portion of that article (below) gets at part of the problem in terms of repertoire specifically:

A final big topic area I would like to point out, that the horn world is entirely too complacent about, is technical materials for horn study. Our typical etude materials are, you guessed it, dated and stuck in the 19th century. Of course, it seems like there are no options besides Kopprasch? Actually, there are surprisingly few choices from the past 90 years published for the horn, certainly not many at all that are easily purchased. I have attempted to fill this gap even myself with a series of contemporary etudes (an E-publication, more here), but the bottom line I have concluded is that it seems virtually impossible to get teachers to use new materials (or buy E-publications, either). It really is past time to give serious consideration to teaching from some different materials. In my own case, one possible solution I see is to make more use of contemporary solo horn literature, something I plan to explore in my teaching going forward.

Back in 2013 when this portion of the course was put together I was working on big drafts of big books, which eventually led to my group of publications that are available now.

Do your part to encourage the use of some new materials, and to play new music

While a number of recent solo works are getting performed, there is a huge need for fresh teaching materials. As I say in the article linked above, the Farkas book is very dated, a lot has changed since 1956, and it is up to us now to actually develop and demand better products.

Thank you again for following this course, and I hope that it has made a positive difference in the horn world. And remember, if you followed it all the way from the beginning to end you certainly should purchase some University of Horn Matters gear to celebrate.

Return to the University of Horn Matters

This is final article of a fourteen week course in horn repertoire, the second semester of a broad overview of horn repertoire, performance, and pedagogy. The introductory article is here, and the series is presented for the educational purposes of our readers.

One of the goals of this course as actually taught to my students at Arizona State is to prepare graduate students for comprehensive exams. Which means, also, that the course is in fact taught somewhat differently than what you see here.

For those reading online only, I would suggest that you aim for …

A comprehensive overview

An ideal outcome of this online course is that you might form in your mind a comprehensive course of study for the horn, putting teaching materials together in an effective order in relation to making progress on the horn.

To do so involves tracking through materials (solos, etudes, excerpts) in some logical fashion. In reality, however, we all tend to repeat the patterns put forward to us by our own teachers.

An aside: Who was my most important teacher?

By now if you are reading along online only you would I think guess that Verne Reynolds was my most important teacher. He left a mark for sure (ouch!), but he was not the most important. Strangely, the most important one I realize I don’t talk about nearly as much. It was my teacher for my Doctoral studies, Michael Hatfield (who had also been a student of Reynolds). It is hard to explain, but I know a number of elements of his teaching and teaching methods are deeply embedded in my teaching and playing. Consider it an optional reading, but if you are curious to know more, read on below:

• Remembering my teacher, Mike Hatfield

A course of study, as presented by Verne Reynolds

To close out the year in terms of quotations, I would offer this final one from Verne Reynolds in The Horn Handbook, closely related to our topic of developing a course of study in your teaching.

Nearly every freshman entering college has played at least one of the Mozart horn concertos. Nonetheless, beginning the freshman year with one of the Mozart concertos is not unreasonable. The third concerto, with its emphasis on lyrical playing rather than technical display, is a perfect choice because the teacher can insist that preparation begins with notes but does not end until every element of performance is mastered. During the freshman year, teachers and students should not be hindered by deadlines on the preparation of solo works. Within reason, teachers should take whatever time is necessary to perfect the first solo work, since this will set the pattern for the future. Much of what is learned by studying the Mozart Concerto No. 3 will be applied to other classical works.

There is not much in the solo horn literature to suggest that a chronological order of study is of particular value. A Mozart concerto could well be followed by one of the Hindemith sonatas with the hope that the same care and understanding will be applied to both works….

…Not every solo work that is practiced will be performed in the semester or the year that it is assigned. Some works – Richard Strauss’s Concerto No. 2, Schumann’s Adagio and Allegro, Gliere’s Concerto – can be worked on during the sophomore year and performed in the senior year….

In the chapter on etudes we established a sequence of Kopprasch, Maxime-Alphonse, Barboteu, and Reynolds, augmented by Hill, Schuller, and Decker. In the orchestral studies we followed the alphabet. The solo literature for horn does not lend itself to such an orderly approach….

As I studied with Reynolds (for my MM) and five of my other horn teachers (!!) had been students of Reynolds at some point, I read the quote and can see that elements of his underlying course of study are seen in my teaching, but hopefully in a more practical form tailored to individual students.

Theory compared to reality

Looking at the Mozart 3 suggestion specifically in the quote, when I was in school Reynolds typically would assign Mozart 3 to all of the freshman horn students. He demanded perfection on the assignment, and I always thought it in a way a bit cruel, as, in reality, he pitted students against each other.

I avoid assigning the same solos to students at the same time as much as I can. But then again, in an audition everyone will be playing exactly the same music; his Mozart 3 assignment did, I suppose, make students face that reality, right away.

We’re almost done

With that thought, there is one more class on the online schedule, but it’s also finals week, so we have only a few final notes to close an epic semester.

Continue to final session of Repertoire Course

This is week 14 of a fourteen week course in horn repertoire, the second semester of a broad overview of horn repertoire, performance, and pedagogy. The introductory article is here, and the series is presented for the educational purposes of our readers.

As we approach the end of the semester it is again very clear that a course of this type cannot possibly cover it all. But we will hit a few highlights and point to the fact there is much more out there.

What recent works will stand the test of time?

A big challenge of this course for the teacher is looking at the horn repertoire composed in the most recent 50 years or so. Further back from that rough date it is fairly clear which works have become standards. Some more recent works have been recorded more than once and are performed fairly often (such as The Glass Bead Game of James Beckel, for one example), but will it become a standard? Only time will really tell.

One focus this week (and next) will be on a group of solo and chamber works that are performed frequently on student recitals and in professional contexts. One good example is the Britten: Serenade, Op. 31 for Tenor, Horn, and Strings; it is not on student recitals often (in part due to it not sounding as compelling with piano), but is scheduled regularly by major orchestras and has been recorded many times. We will cover as many works as time allows in class at ASU — there is much to attempt to cover — from standards by Bozza, Hindemith, Wilder, etc., on to many other possible works.

For those reading this course online only I would offer the following works as examples of ones you might not know yet, highlighting some of my favorites briefly in the following short articles:

• 20th century horn favorites 1: Gliere and Nielsen
• 20th century horn favorites 2: Schmid and Cooke
• 20th century horn favorites 3: Madsen

But there really is more that needs highlighted

Over years of teaching this course I realized that I was spending hardly any time on the content you will see presented in the online course next week.

Instead, what you would find to be a better use of time is to take extra time to examine some less performed but significant works from recent composers and in genres outside of the Classical music scene.

Topics which you should explore include:

Women composers

For one very prime example of a topic that could have filled an entire semester, visit and skim over the women composers and the horn website linked below:

• Works With Horn by Women Composers

Within any sub-topic, as well, the question would still be which works are the best? In terms of women composers I would particularly point readers to this article by Dr. Lin Foulk as a starting point, and please consider learning on your own something from her list. Also consider that you could be using etudes by women composers as well!

• Recommended Horn and Piano Compositions by Women Composers
• Horn Etudes by Women Composers

At ASU we have Doctoral students, and I’d highlight for readers online two recent projects that relate to works by women composers:

• New Recordings of Two Works for Horn and Fixed Media from the 1970s
• Two Recent Works for Horn by Aliyah Danielle

Also, in this article I talk about two more works by women composers which have recently been showing up in grad school auditions:

• Grad auditions, part II. New trends in solos

Non-western music

Another piece I love to highlight in the physical class is a work for horn and gamelan by Lou Harrison. Intrigued? More about it here.

Jazz and the horn

A final figure I want to be sure to spend some time with here is the jazz horn legend Julius Watkins. His name and music is, sadly, fading from memory. It is a clear reminder that there is some really great music out there beyond the traditional, standard horn music that has been the focus of this semester.

• Julius Watkins, jazz French horn pioneer
• Watkins, Schuller, and Barrows — Temptation, 1962

The topic of chamber music

And then we have chamber music, there are so many works that could be mentioned that have been composed in recent years. One I would highlight online is Table for Three at Chez Janau for horn, bass trombone, and piano by Paul Ferguson. I commissioned this four movement work, and I feel it came out great! Below is the first movement.

So much music, so little time

Next week we wrap things up. Everyone reading this online should certainly make a point to explore some of the more recent works written for the horn, I am sure there are gems out there that will be considered standard works in the future.

Continue to Week 14 of Repertoire Course

This is week 13 of a fourteen week course in horn repertoire, the second semester of a broad overview of horn repertoire, performance, and pedagogy. The introductory article is here, and the series is presented for the educational purposes of our readers.

Continuing our look at some of the standard works horn players perform often from the nineteenth century, our next topic is the Wagner tuba. (NOTE: I always include this topic in our physical course at ASU, but it does not necessarily fall on this week in the course).

Amazingly, just over a week after this article was originally posted in 2013, the Wagner tuba was the topic of a feature article in of all things The Wall Street Journal!

For your trip to Valhalla…

So this week the readings will start for a change of pace with a quote from “It Takes Brass to Play the Wagner Tuba,” where we read that,

The Wagner tubas are most closely identified with the regal music for Valhalla, dwelling place of the gods. Highly versatile, their sound has been variously described as “smoky,” “metallic,” “unearthly” and “majestic.” “There’s more clarity than in a horn,” said Jeff Fair, principal horn for the Seattle Opera, whose Stephen Wadsworth “Ring” returns in August, “but more resonance and darker sounds than in the trumpet.” Anne Scharer, fourth horn in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, called the composer’s eponymous instrument “louder and more rustic than orchestral horns, even strident” at times—qualities in evidence, she added, in passages for the crude, menacing Hunding. By contrast, they lend a solemn presence to the funeral music for Siegfried. And their “husky, rumbling tone,” writes William Melton in his comprehensive history, “The Wagner Tuba,” aptly depicts “the inextinguishable hatred and envy of the Nibelung Alberich.”

The whole article is very nicely written and researched but [UPDATE: 2017] it is now behind a paywall.

Introducing the Wagner tuba

Quite a number of major orchestral and operatic works call for a section of four Wagner tubas, an instrument which looks at a distance like a German Euphonium but is built to take a horn mouthpiece and is performed by horn players. Constructed in two pitch levels (tenor in B-flat and bass in F, the same as horn–double Wagner tubas are also available) I first encountered the instrument as a graduate student at The Eastman School of Music, when I first performed the fourth Wagner tuba part on Bruckner 7 with the Rochester Philharmonic, and the next year again the same part on Bruckner 8. To this day that Bruckner 8 series, conducted by Jerzy Semkow, remains to my memory as one of the highlights of my early career.

So while I started out with great experiences on the Wagner tuba, this is too often not the case. The parts may be oddly notated (most tenor parts are in B-flat with terrible key signatures), intonation can be very rough, etc. In relation to this, traditionally the instrument is given to a talented player whom it is hoped will “figure it out.” This was very much the case for me. I was at the top of the Rochester Philharmonic low horn sub list and was given the fourth part specifically because you need a strong player to lay down good intonation on the bottom. Also I was interested enough in instruments to figure out how to take advantage of the fourth valve. Since that time I have performed on Wagner tuba many times in groups including the Indianapolis Symphony and the Phoenix Symphony and have always enjoyed the experience. Great parts on great works are a joy to perform with a great orchestra.

A book and a video

And of course I have my book (and E-book) out as well (with transposed parts for Bruckner 7!), which I describe in a short video here:

• Introducing the Wagner Tuba

If you are reading online only, use that book (which, as an aside, started as a paper I wrote for this same course when I was a Doctoral student!) to focus briefly on several major works of Wagner, Bruckner, and Strauss that make use of these instruments.

Also, if you are following the course entirely online, the link below will offer some useful content, especially on the topic of what music you might actually play as you practice the Wagner tuba:

• Workshop presentation: Playing the Wagner Tuba

Help! I need a Mouthpiece! I need a mute!

While the Wagner tuba is made to use a standard horn mouthpiece, specialty mouthpieces have been made — for an example see this article:

• A Wagner Tuba Mouthpiece

When you need a mute for a Wagner tuba, you really need a mute. Balu has one:

• Review: The Balu Wagner Tuba Mute

Introducing the Chinese Wagner tuba

Finally, if you are on a budget and want a Wagner tuba just for fun, the Chinese ones really are not bad:

• Brief Review: Jinbao (Chinese) Wagner Tuba

Continue in Horn Repertoire Course

This is week 12 of a fourteen week course in horn repertoire, the second semester of a broad overview of horn repertoire, performance, and pedagogy. The introductory article is here, and the series is presented for the educational purposes of our readers.

We are not actually stuck there, but there is a ton to cover and, due to a quirk of the semester schedule at ASU the original year that I laid out this class we had an extra Tuesday I had not planned for. That was good news, though, as there is certainly more to cover in the nineteenth century, and it is the era about which I have the most expertise.

What about Franz Strauss?

A figure we owe a lot to in terms of horn rep is Franz Strauss (1822–1905). Besides being a leading horn player of his generation, he composed several works that are part of our standard rep (I recorded a CD of his works!) and was the father of Richard Strauss. Especially if you are following this course completely online, I’d encourage a closer look at this PDF timeline:

• Franz Strauss handout 2003

and these five articles of special interest:

• A student remembers Franz Strauss
• The Horn of Franz Strauss
• A look at the Theme and Variations, Op. 13 of Franz Strauss
• A look at the Fantasie, Op. 2 of Franz Strauss
• From the Mailbag: Why so many breath marks in Strauss 1?

A very important excerpt

I don’t think too many would argue against Till being a really important excerpt. But how to play it correctly? It’s worth listening to a few different versions, but Farkas had it correct I think:

• A correct approach to Till, from Farkas

The Villanelle topic

As time allows this class session inevitably edges into looking at some early 20th century works that fit closely with our discussion, including in particular the Dukas Villanelle. With respect to that work there are two more short readings to scan before the class discussion.

• Villanelle and the Natural Horn
• Echo Horn and the Villanelle

And if you are following the course online only, I’d very much highlight the video in this article:

• A Very French Villanelle

Even more you could skim over

Yet another article to read or at least skim over (sorry! I really am into the topic) is this recent article on the use of the single F horn (and Bb horn) in the late nineteenth century, and the series that follows, relating to recording my recent Rescued! CD. And for a more focused view of an interesting composer featured on this CD, see the following article:

• 4 charming works of B. Ed. Müller for horn and piano — a closer look

Continue in Horn Repertoire Course

This is a bonus week in a fourteen week course in horn repertoire, the second semester of a broad overview of horn repertoire, performance, and pedagogy. The introductory article is here, and the series is presented for the educational purposes of our readers.