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Brief review: Blow Your Own Horn! Horn Heresies
Originally published in 2011, Blow Your Own Horn! Horn Heresies by Berlin Philharmonic hornist Fergus McWilliam (website here) has been out in a second edition since 2013. “An anti horn-method method,”...
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PDF: Low Horn Kopprasch, edited by Josef Schantl
These PDF, public domain low horn etudes are extracted from Volume IV the Große theortisch-praktische Horn-Schule of Josef Schantl (1842-1902). Originally published in 1904, the best known portion...
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Review: Saxophone palm key risers as finger pads for horn
Back almost five years ago I posted a brief review of a product called “finger pads.” These are sold as an alternate to soldering dimes on the valve paddles (more here) when they can’t be adjusted into...
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Social media and #ihsla2015
Next week the world of horn social media should be dominated by news from the biggest event of the year, the 47th International Horn Symposium to be held at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. Last...
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Brief reviews: Recent CDs by Iowa horn professors
Up today we have two great CDs from Iowa horn professors, both of them showing clearly that they are excellent models for their students. Professors put together recordings for a variety of reasons but...
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Brief reviews: Recent recordings by Anneke Scott, natural and piston horns
Today the final of this series of brief reviews is of not one but two new CDs featuring Anneke Scott performing a wide variety of music. Getting it out right away, I love these recordings and basically...
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The best horn symposium ever: #IHSLA2015
Unless you have been living under a virtual rock you should have noted all the online chatter from the 47th International Horn Symposium, which was held last week in Los Angeles. As one tweet nicely...
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On the single F horn, part V: Will the real B. Ed. Müller please stand up?
Working on notes for this CD project I realized that the dates given in IMSLP for B. Ed. Müller can’t possibly be correct. Their Müller lived from 1824-1883 and was a music director and composer in...
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Reinecke, Gumpert, Kruspe, and more on the 19th century horn
Recently received was a question from Pierre-Antoine Tremblay (website here). He had very recently recorded Reinecke’s 1906 Trio for horn, clarinet and piano on period instruments. Before turning to...
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On the single F horn, part VI: First edits done, and what is on the new CD...
When I was starting this series (here) I was really just beginning to firm up ideas toward this recording project, having had a long interest in doing a period instrument recording. Now, with the first...
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From the age of Internet dinosaurs: a “Horn Studio Website” roundup
With the popularity of Facebook pages, the classic, stand-alone “horn studio” website seems to be in rapid decline as of 2015. Facebook pages, however, are popping up seemingly every day. Why? Well,...
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Hornmasters extra: Pottag on tonguing in 1947, and an inside look on video
Max Pottag (1876-1970) certainly qualifies as a master hornist, performing for 40 seasons with the Chicago Symphony and having published pedagogical materials still in use today (likely the most widely...
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Tiers of Orchestras, levels of Hornists, and the “A” list
Back in the Orchestra 101 series a few years ago there was an article that touched on the professional levels of horn playing, an article titled “The Money Question.” In the USA you could say generally...
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Introducing the Horn Matters PDF Excerpt E-Book
While excerpt books are really useful for initial study, if you are serious about learning orchestral works you must have copies of the original orchestral parts. The excerpts presented in the...
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Introducing Volume II of the Horn Matters PDF Excerpt E-Book
Following up on the original volume (more here) is volume II of The Horn Matters PDF Excerpt E-Book. The content of volume I was driven primarily by surveys I did of audition lists for high level...
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Happiness is a new mouthpiece
Equipment is a topic that has come up quite a few times in Horn Matters. Still though, I can be as excited as the next person to finally break through and get an equipment issue sorted out. Last week a...
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Introducing Volume III of the Horn Matters PDF Excerpt E-Book
Concluding this series is volume III of The Horn Matters PDF Excerpt E-Book. For volume III the focus is the 15 remaining public domain works that contain excerpts that come up less commonly on...
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Index for The Horn Matters PDF Excerpt E-Book series
Recently we introduced a series of three, concise (around 20 page) horn excerpt E-Books that print and display easily on a computer or tablet device (iPad, etc.). An overall table of contents will be...
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Bonus PDF: 12 Modern Preparatory Etudes
We have quite a collection of free PDF 19th-century music at Horn Matters, but today we have added a special preview/bonus item in a very different style. Available now are preliminary versions of...
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The Future of French Horn Playing
One thought I have heard (and have repeated myself) is that this is a “golden age” for the French horn. Or is it? Before getting to some thoughts on this topic, I would like to quote a passage from an...
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