by Amy Ryan Stokes

Greetings! I’m Amy Stokes, a horn player, private instructor, preschool fine arts teacher, and mother of 4 in Dallas, TX. During covid, I decided to give a dream a chance and took on the study of watercolor art. I discovered I enjoyed painting in several styles: realism, illustration, and abstract. I particularly enjoyed painting in abstract to wind band pieces I loved. That led me to live art performances with the Lone Star Wind Orchestra, completing album covers for Eugene Migliaro Corporon’s YouTube channel, beginning my own private YouTube series combining nature and art, and enjoying commission work from many musicians who want a unique visual representation of pieces of music that have personal meaning to them…classical, jazz, pop, you name it. Many have commissioned my works as gifts for loved ones as well.

Lincolnshire Posy (Percy Grainger)

Worldwide Winds album

The Leaves are Falling (Warren Benson)

My process is listening to the music (on repeat!) as I paint, with no preconceived plan. I paint what I “hear” and let it all develop from there. Sometimes hints of reality find their way in and sometimes it’s pure abstract. As a bonus in this process, I’ve been able to emotionally invest in music I did not know very well before as well as more deeply contemplate my own favorites. It has also helped me develop a new dimension to horn playing in how I interpret the score. What a gift to be able to combine lifelong interests into a new type of career. My next project is designing cover art for pieces by a young new composer.

If you are interested in collaborating on a project, I’d love to hear from you. Please contact me at amyryanstokes@gmail.com.

by Ian Zook

Volume 20 — Verne Reynolds 

This month, we will depart from the usual explorations of the outer reaches of repertoire and listen to the Eastman Horn Choir in Music for Christmas, recorded in 1981 on Stolat Records. This ensemble was directed by Verne Reynolds, a weighty presence in the horn world for his numerous contributions to teaching, composition, and writing.

Verne Reynolds (1926-2011) was the longtime Professor of Horn at the Eastman School of Music, retiring in 1995 after 36 years on faculty. He was born in Kansas and began horn studies at age 13. He served in the U.S. Navy after high school, and then continued his education at the Cincinnati Conservatory, the University of Wisconsin, and the Royal College of Music in London as a Fulbright scholar. He played with the Cincinnati Symphony from 1947-1950 and also taught at the Cincinnati Conservatory, the University of Wisconsin, and Indiana University before assuming his position at Eastman in 1959. He was principal horn of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra from 1959-1968, and he also devoted much of his performance time to the Eastman Brass Quintet and the American Woodwind Quintet.

Reynolds was an accomplished composer of over 60 works published by G. Shirmer, Carl Fischer, Belwin-Mills, and Southern Music whose catalog includes solo instrumental works and pieces for orchestra, choral ensemble, and chamber ensembles. He is well known for his 48 Etudes and his thoughts on music and teaching in The Horn Handbook. Several additional horn works include Calls for Two Horns in F, Intonation Exercises for Two Horns, Elegy for Solo Horn, Horn Vibes for horn and vibraphone, and Fantasy Etudes Volume V, Partita, Sonata, and Sonata Concertare all for horn and piano. His chamber pieces include Songs of the Seasons for soprano, horn, and piano, and trios with violin and piano, oboe and piano, and trumpet and trombone.

It is also important to recognize his many additions to the repertoire for horn ensemble, horn quartet, and brass quintet. With special attention to Renaissance and Baroque works, he arranged works ranging from Gabrieli, Handel, Bach, and Scheidt to Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Schumann. With his lasting legacy of teaching and his rich compositional output, he was distinguished as an Honorary Member of the International Horn Society in 1994.

Let’s proceed with some listening! Cor Carols, arranged by L.P. Schwartz, is a medley that weaves together numerous carols with clever transitions and grand choral writing. This section features God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen transitioning to Adeste Fidelis:

An arrangement of Bach’s chorale O Mensch, bewein’ dein’ Sünde gross features excellent chordal tuning from the Eastman Horn Choir, anchored by the firm bass of the low horns:

The 12 Days of Christmas, arranged by J. Lalumia, combines the Eastman Horns and the Eastman Trombone Choir directed by John Marcellus:

The closing selection, Lied by Hassler, has Gabrieli-style choirs in close imitation. The music is crisp and joyful:

Wishing all our readers a wonderful holiday season! Thank you for reading Horn on Record!

Research to Resonance—On Pointe: Insights from The Nutcracker Stage

by Katy Carnaggio

In every hall where a performer stands, there’s often a story the audience will never fully know—a life outside the spotlight filled with challenges, losses, and triumphs, all carried onto the stage. Yet when the music begins, that weight transforms into something extraordinary: a connection bridging the performer’s unspoken truths with those held by the audience.

This transformative power of performance is something Sarah Wroth, Professor of Music in Ballet and Chair of the Ballet Department at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, understands deeply. A former professional dancer with the Boston Ballet and an accomplished performance educator, Sarah brings a visionary perspective shaped by over 560 personal Nutcracker performances and a career dedicated to nurturing artists. As we enter The Nutcracker season, Sarah’s reflections remind us why this tradition endures: it embodies humanity, community, and the potential for growth, both on and off the stage.

For...

by Inman Hebert

As we approach winter break, I encourage each and every student of the horn to examine available music festival options. These classical, two- to eight-week summer music festivals, as found in the United States, serve as intensive, immersive programs for performers. Though diverse in their offerings, these festivals, institutes, and workshops primarily fill orchestral ensembles. Some programs may also provide masterclasses, individual instruction, section rehearsals, studio classes, concerto competitions, professional development seminars, or mock auditions. The list included below focuses on festivals for which college-age students would be eligible, though one or two are open to younger players.

Students should look ahead to application deadlines; these range from December to early March. Festival costs vary and range up to almost $13,000. Some offer partial or full scholarships upon acceptance, while others provide financial aid based on need (requiring completion of a form). Some cover tuition while others include room and board. Housing ranges from hotel rooms, campus dorms, cabins, and private homes. As a general rule, no festivals cover transportation costs to the music festival, such as airline tickets.

Many festivals offer reduced application fees for meeting an earlier deadline. Those fees range from $30.00 to $125.00. In addition to the application and the audition, other requirements may include personal statements, teacher recommendations, resumés, financial aid applications, essay questions, video responses, and headshots.

Auditions tend to consist of one or two solo pieces plus excerpts. Common solo requirements include Strauss’ Horn Concerto No. 1 or a Mozart concerto, whereas others request two movements of contrasting styles and musical eras. Specifications on piano accompaniments vary from them being required, optional, or disallowed. Excerpts are also pulled from the standard repertoire, including Till Eulenspiegel, Ein Heldenleben, Shostakovich 5, Tchaikovsky 5, and Wagner’s “short call,” etc. Instructions also dictate whether the individual components of the audition can be filmed in separate videos or whether the video must be recorded in one continuous take.

Whether considering a music festival for this coming summer or for the future, reviewing the requirements now will help students identify the options best suited for their situations and the instructions for completing applications and audition videos. The best time to plan for the summer is now, and these festivals offer vital pre-professional opportunities for growth as a horn student. View the list here.

by Vidhurinda Samaraweera

A Social Experiment on Papara

Background

In the October and November issues of Horn and More (H&M), we examined the history, form, issues, and future concerns of Papara, a style of music unique to my island home, Sri Lanka. This article is the third and final part of this series. Papara is usually played on brass instruments with certain percussion instruments found only in Papara bands. Occasionally, there might be a saxophone or clarinet player, but a French horn in this ensemble would be a rare sight, and I provided reasons for this in the first article of the series. Various percussion instruments give this style its unique feel with intricate polyrhythms in 6/8 time. And, as mentioned in the previous articles, the genre was largely influenced by the Portuguese presence in the coastal areas of the island in the 16th century.    

Papara is social dance or festive music in which players are required to play very loudly for large gatherings, and it is often perceived as noisy and raucous. One is not inclined to see or hear Papara being played on stage or at a concert. Furthermore, none of the Papara players have any formal training on their respective instruments, especially the brass players. Since Papara is only required occasionally or associated with the sporting seasons of the island, the players do not have incentive to practice or master their instruments or experiment within the context of Papara. They usually resort to odd jobs in the “off season.”     

So, Papara is often overlooked by musicians, musicologists, and music producers. More proficient brass players in Sri Lanka are mostly concentrated in classical orchestras, and they do not consider Papara an important style—and playing Papara is generally frowned upon in such communities, both among musicians and concertgoers. Nuwan Gunawardhana is an avid researcher, musician, arranger, and teacher who has dedicated much time to researching Papara. His vision is to improve standards and to promote Papara internationally as a genre specific to Sri Lanka. In September 2023, he conducted a significant experiment with Papara by collaborating with a pioneering orchestra in the country, the Gustav Mahler Orchestra of Colombo.

The Experiment

First, Nuwan made a clever arrangement for brass ensemble based on the song “Never on a Sunday” from the 1960 Greek motion picture, Ποτέ Την Κυριακή (Bote Tin Kyriaki). The cleverness of his arrangement is that, after the introduction, he transitions into its adapted local rendition which moves from 4/4 rhythms to 12/8 rhythms. The local rendition is in the style of Baila, and, other than certain Portuguese words and fashion that have seeped into Sri Lankan society, Baila music is one of the few cultural tradition that locals embraced from Portuguese culture after their conquest of Sri Lanka. The brass section of the Gustav Mahler Orchestra of Colombo premiered this arrangement at one their recitals. The repertoire comprised a completely classical line-up. Moreover, the audience attracted both local and expatriate Classical music aficionados. A Papara piece is the last of all genres one would expect at such a concert. To the audience’s surprise and amusement, the musicians presented Nuwan’s arrangement in the second half of the...

Chamber Music Corner—Tiffany Johns’ Vignettes from a Village, Op. 27 (2023)

by Layne Anspach

Hello musicians!

This month, CMC will focus on American composer Tiffany Johns’ Vignettes from a Village, Op. 27, scored for flute, clarinet, bassoon, horn, and piano. Johns’ is a composer and brass multi-instrumentalist based in Los Angeles, California. She performs in a variety of ensembles and styles, including funk, jazz, opera, and even the Disneyland Band. Johns has performed and recorded with several world-renowned artists, including Bernard Purdie, Bootsy Collins, and Jason Derulo, to name a few. Heard on many recording projects, she has performed on two Grammy-nominated albums, Intercambio by the Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet, and Canto América by La Orquesta Sinfonietta. An active arranger and composer, her works can be heard across the US and abroad.

Vignettes from a Village, Op. 27 (2023) is a work that I commissioned for a concert series in the summer of 2023. It is a three-movement work in which each movement’s descriptive title places the audience in a different scene. “At Dawn” opens with the winds only as the flute presents the melody. After an emphatic scale set by the winds, the piano enters with the second theme, supported softly by clarinet and bassoon. This melody is passed among the winds prior to a short cadenza for the horn. The movement then ends with a return to the opening material, but now as a stronger statement.

“A Shepherd’s Mind Wanders” begins with solo piano in a tender adagio. The melody is repeated but with the winds adding additional support. The clarinet plays a short solo before the bassoon takes over the melody. The opening returns with flute, horn, and piano presenting the melody, but in a new key and with the full ensemble. The movement closes with the soft fragments of the theme in the winds.

The horn and bassoon begin “Under Siege” with a unison melody over a timbral trill effect between the flute and clarinet. The texture continues to build until the section climaxes with repeated sixteenth notes in winds and piano and a horn call. The opening theme returns, set softly in the piano, followed by fragments in the rest of the ensemble. The clarinet then proceeds alone to open a fugue. A calmer moderato follows this with reduced volume and activity. Prior to the return of the opening material, we hear the horn call again but in a suppressed manner. The A section returns almost identically to how it began, but instead of another fugue, a flute solo emerges, paving the way for an energetic conclusion.

The reference recording is by Ivory Winds at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Anyone interested in purchasing this music may contact the composer directly at her website.

“Basta, basta!” . . . Fiddling with Mozart

by Alec Frank-Gemmell

A former teacher of mine said of their recording of the Mozart horn concertos, “I’m not really sure why I bothered.” Said recording is excellent, so they were probably just being excessively modest.  Nevertheless, every new version of these pieces does beg the question, why do we need another one? I was lucky enough to be offered a contract with the record label BIS ten years ago on the understanding that I would definitely record Mozart’s horn concertos, among other things. It has taken me this long to get around to it. My experiences making discs on period instruments, of transcriptions and even of fairly obscure repertoire, have all informed my decision-making with this recording.

There are brilliant interpretations of “The Mozarts” on old and on modern horn. The recordings by Dennis Brain with Karajan and the Philharmonia remain, at least on the scene in which I grew up, the ultimate versions with valves. This is perhaps partly due to the history of these recordings and that player: they did more than anything else to establish the horn as a solo instrument, at least since Giovanni Punto and Josef Leutgeb were around. It was not my intention to give a nod to those recordings, but it just so happened that the instrument that suited me best was a gold brass Alexander model 90, the same type of horn that Brain used on that LP. (I actually recorded the Brahms trio on Aubrey Brain’s piston horn, but the engineering on that disc means you can’t hear much difference, alas…or do I mean “I’m not really sure why I bothered!”).

Among my favorite recent releases of the Mozart concertos are those played on natural horn. There is so much in these concertos that makes sense when you hear the different shadings necessitated by hand-stopping rather than valving. It was my plan to record on a “nat,” but having made a disc of baroque concertos called Before Mozart with Nicholas McGegan and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, it was too tempting to get the band back together for this disc. Nic is both a hilarious person and also a pioneer in period performance. So, we were never going to ignore historically-informed practice. One of the aspects of natural horn playing I most admire is that the horn seems to relate so much more strongly to its roots as a hunting instrument. The sound of the hunt is ever-present in the Mozart concertos, especially in the finales. Thus, with the odd bit of wildness and some fun hand-stopping thrown in, I’ve tried to compensate a bit for using the valves.

Finally, to this disc’s USP (unique selling point). It is impossible to record “all” of the Mozart horn concertos without making choices about editions and completions, which fragments to include and which to leave out. I always found it interesting that (perhaps thanks to Brain) we think of Mozart’s four horn concertos. No. 1, K. 412, was not only completed by Süssmayer but Mozart never wrote a slow movement for it. Another interesting phenomenon is the numbering, whereby No. 1 is actually the last one Mozart wrote. Modified for an ailing Leutgeb, it is considered “the easiest.” (One rarely gets booked to play a two-movement concerto with orchestra without any flashiness.) For this disc I took a deep breath and with the help of the amazing Stephen Roberts, transcribed the slow movement of Mozart violin concerto K. 211 to make a complete piece. Transposed down an octave, much of the solo line is playable on horn. There is also something reminiscent of a horn concerto slow movement in the lilt of the original. And if the demands on the horn player are greater than could be expected of the elderly Leutgeb in K. 412, at least it now means we earn our fee!

For the puritan, of course, any transcription is wrong-headed. I imagine that my versions of cello and violin works by Brahms for horn were quite unpopular in some quarters! However, I like to think that our version of Mozart’s Concerto No. 1 is certainly fitting. The great master would never have taken bits of a fiddle concerto and bolted them onto an unfinished horn concerto. But equally, he probably wouldn’t have minded us doing so—writing for his friend, this is hardly Mozart in the serious vein of the Requiem (written the same year). And although he did not finish the orchestration of the finale, he did find time to write some amusing abuse above the horn part.  As well as calling Leutgeb “Cazzo” (which I won’t translate), he writes at the end “Basta, basta!” or “Enough, enough!” I think that’s my cue. 

Ein Waldhorn Lustig

Ideas that have helped me over the years*

by Mauricio Soto, IHS 57 Featured Artist

One of the most important aspects requiring attention when playing a brass instrument is the use and control of air.

Air IN:

We must breathe consciously: bringing air in (as opposed to simply allowing air into our bodies, unconsciously). When practicing, I always try to inhale to my maximum capacity. I try to think of numbers figuratively: trying to fill 90% of my lung capacity every time is my goal. Although I use the numbers figuratively—I don’t know exactly what percentage of capacity my students or I are using—over time, this will give me a frame of reference and make me very aware of the difference between a shallow breath (let's guess 30%) and a full one (let's guess 90%).

AWARENESS is the first step. I consciously try to breathe to my maximum capacity each time (and if I don't do this consciously, the intake of air will drop to the TV).

What is TV?
Tidal volume (TV) is the amount of air you move through your lungs each time you inhale and exhale while your body is resting. Tidal volume typically measures around 400 to 500 milliliters, which is considered to be 10% capacity of an average female/male respectively. So, this is the air amount that we exchange unconsciously, while at rest. This quantity is not enough to play an instrument which is approximately 12 feet long.

I always enjoy watching horn players trying an alphorn for the first time (at workshops, festivals, etc.) because almost invariably, they will [1] put the mouthpiece in the instrument, then [2] look at the far end of the instrument, realizing how long it is,and [3] take an exaggerated breath, sometimes making comical body movements while doing so.

The point is that since our instrument is rolled up on itself (to save space, among other things), it looks much smaller than it actually is, making us believe that a little air (TV) will be enough to play it, but that is not the case.

Rule-of-thumb when breathing: all movements in your body should be caused by the incoming air displacing or moving it, not because you are intentionally engaging a set of muscles.

So, let your shoulders rise a bit if needed, let your rib cage expand in all directions ("let your chest rise up and forward, like a pigeon," as a teacher used to tell me), and let your stomach protrude, etc., as long as all movement is caused by the inhalation.

When thinking of air, first check your posture: be as tall as you can be, but make sure your shoulders are relaxed. (I recommend reading about Alexander technique; it will lead you to know your body better.)
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