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Archibald Noodlefish on Listening to Live Concerts and Pre-Recorded Music
Being the busy working professional that I am I hardly have the time or energy to write articles for Horn Matters. I am much too busy out in the real world teaching, producing and playing music, but...
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Ask Dave: Slide Grease Residue and Finding a Competent Repair Technician
I can only say, “Wow!” When I suggested that my repair articles become an “Ask Dave” feature, I had no idea that I’d get such a positive response! Keep those cards and letters coming, folks! * * *...
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Hornmasters on Rapid Tonguing, Part II: Brophy
Rapid single tonguing is one of the topics covered in depth by William R. Brophy in his Technical Studies for Solving Special Problems on the Horn. He offers a number of very specific suggestions on...
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Random Monday: Anton Horner, Siegfried, Peter Kurau and York Bowen
St. George doing his best to control the dragon scourge. Rare recording While looking through old audio files I found a recording of Anton Horner playing the horn call from Wagner’s opera Siegfried....
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Mailbag: “Wolf” Notes on the Horn
A question recently came in relating to “wolf” notes on the natural horn, but it also relates to valved horn as well. The question included also information that in exploring the problem note the...
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On Prescreening Auditions
One recent trend in schools of music is that of requiring prescreening auditions. In my own teaching this year the exact requirement is “In order to be considered for a live, in-person audition,...
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Trusted Brand Names of French Horns: Composite and Age Group Results
This is the first of several documents that will be posted. In this chapter, composite and age group results are reported. Open publication The next report will include experience level data and a...
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Hornmasters: Farkas and Reynolds on Sforzando
For those following this series on tonguing closely, while many fine horn players do play with the tongue at the bottom of the teeth and near the lip opening at most or all times, Farkas was strongly...
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A Look at Óscar Sala’s Warm Up and Ricardo Matosinhos’ Pocket Guide
From our colleagues in Spain and Portugal we have two new horn-related items for consideration: one is a warm-up routine and the other, a pocket reference guide. I highly recommend both and as you...
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Ask Dave: When is a Small Dent Considered Serious?
Mark K. asks: When is a dent in the tubing considered serious enough to affect the playing qualities of a horn? Does the location of the damage have any effect as well? Dave replies: Like most things...
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‘Trusted Brands’ Report Update: New Results with Focus on Experience Levels
UPDATE: 20 November, late PM. A revised version has been uploaded – it restates the margin-of-error, adds a bar chart to the composite results and fixes a few bugs and layout errors. * * * This is the...
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Random Monday: Praise and Criticism, Houghton Gives a Who, and Going...
Charles Kavaloski interview In a 1997 interview, former Boston Symphony Orchestra principal horn Charles Kavalovski discusses the path that took him from nuclear physics to playing principal horn....
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Turning Points
One turning point we horn players have in common is we all decided at some point to play and keep playing the French horn. One horn player who put some deep thought into this topic was Philip Farkas,...
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Peter and the Wolf: Catching a Horn Section by its Tail
A common factor among many working orchestral professionals is cyclical repertoire – music that comes up on a performance calendar more than once, sometimes on a yearly basis. This time of year...
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A Garland on Your Bell: Not Just Bling
One option out there from a few horn makers is a garland, an extra band of metal added to the edge of the bell near the rim. The idea is an old one; in this first photo is the garland on my...
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Ask Dave: How Can I Improve My Grip?
Ginger asks: Dave, I’ve been having a hard time with my left hand grip. My horn came prepared for a huge hand and mine is smaller with a shorter thumb. How flexible can you make the thumb valve?...
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Hornmasters on Setting the Lips and Breath Attacks
This is a topic that is really central to tonguing but not necessarily well taught or understood. To begin, for all articulations more gentle than the sforzando Farkas notes in The Art of French Horn...
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Review: Houser Stainless Steel Horn Mouthpiece Rims from Houghton Horns
After having played on the same mouthpiece rim for about 15 years I recently decided to try out something totally different – stainless-steel rims from Houser Mouthpieces (as provided through Houghton...
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On Sexism and Things to Not Say in a Master Class
In updating the Events page recently I noted in the website for the 2012 International Women’s Brass Conference an article by co-host Lin Foulk titled “Why IWBC 2012?” This particular section was one...
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Random Wednesday: Flipping Horns, Deep Questions and George Szell on Conducting
Buying and flipping horns Bruce Tubbs takes us through the process of buying a horn online and fixing it, then providing it for sale. Heightened emotions In speaking about “emerging adulthood” Angela...
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