by Devin Cobleigh-Morrison

Thoughts and Reflections on Accountability and Injury Recovery:

A retrospective view on a near-decade of injury cycles,
unknown accidents, self-discovery, and rehabilitation.

Throughout the last decade, the challenges presented both personally and hornistically are something I, like many others, have been no stranger to. After a tumultuous run of both personal and technical hurdles to overcome, it was at the request of Horn and More editor Mike Harcrow that I write a piece shining a light on this journey and the lessons learned from it.

In September of 2010, I was asked to make a dramatic change to my mouthpiece placement—which included my teacher telling me, “You’ll never forget where that goes!” As time elapsed, the mouthpiece was consistently reset to a painful place that drastically cut efficiency, range, quality of sound, and as a result, confidence. Being an impressionable 18-year-old student and idolizing who I was working with, I put my boundaries aside to be a “disciplined student.” This change was incredibly uncomfortable, and it was made in a way that was physically violating. It led to a plethora of serious problems. Although I knew this was dangerously wrong, I persisted and was told being a disciplined student was the only way to succeed.

Just a few days into this journey extreme pressure problems surfaced, my lips would split and bleed, and phantom pains occasionally arose. As a result, I used biting and extreme lip tension to keep my minimal amount of lower lip in the mouthpiece. My tongue and throat grew tense and pains became sharper and more frequent. Body tension to “push” air out came next. I let this worsen as the years progressed, mostly out of my lack of knowledge,...

by John Ericson

For many horn players today, the Horn Matters website has seemingly always been there. Launched by myself and Bruce Hembd back in 2009, this fall it will pass the 13-year mark, which is an incredibly long run for a website. And the site is actually older than that, as it was originally built by combining blog content that we had each developed for predecessor sites.

Horn Matters is a big website with over 1,400 articles currently posted. One thing of which I am aware is that older websites can feel like places where content goes to die, characterized by broken links, dated topics of little interest, missing graphics, and poor organization. While we have updated the site regularly for years, when the pandemic hit and slowed everyone down, I made a special project of updating the site extensively, especially during the summer of 2021.

One idea I have taken to heart over the years is to focus on what you can do instead of what you can’t do. That is part of what got Horn Matters started at all, and as I get older, I focus on that thought more. Last summer, especially, one thing I could do of longer-term value was go to the quiet of my office and edit the site deeply. The result was that I cut literally hundreds of articles and significantly updated hundreds more, working through the content of the entire site at least twice over the course of the summer!

I developed several goals to guide the project. One big goal was to not leave visitors disappointed. Besides displaying properly, I tried to focus content to be as timeless as I could make it. My hope was that someone might read an article from 15 years ago but still find it fresh, with applicable information. But, by the same token, for a review of some product...

by James Hampson

Single horn by Gessner, ca. 1918.

Imagine walking into a new place, a room filled with people you’ve never met before, and the first thing you encounter are tables upon tables of antique horns. That was my first experience with Dick Martz’s collection. In 2008, I was fortunate enough to attend the American Hunting Horn Workshop that took place at the Chautauqua Institute in Chautauqua, New York (where I also first met Lowell Greer), and as I walked through the entrance, I saw this incredible horn collection which still amazes me today. I was an undergraduate student, just learning about some of these instruments, and seeing and playing them made me feel like a kid in a candy shop. During my master’s studies at Rutgers University, I spent many days at Dick’s house learning more about the horns and playing as many as I could. I have even helped find horns to add to the collection over the last few years. Dick has stopped touring with his outstanding presentation, but what makes this collection truly special, whether seen in person or online, is the detailed research done on each instrument, the makers, and the performers throughout history who have used them—and it’s all easily accessible: http://www.rjmartz.com/horns. Enjoy your virtual visit!

in English

en Español

by Marcus Bonna

Neste ano de 2022, após dois anos de pandemia, teremos o VII Encontro Brasileiro de Trompistas, presencial, que acontecerá na sede da indústria MB Cases em Bragança Paulista/São Paulo, Brasil, com Marcus Bonna como anfitrião do Encontro. O Encontro conta com o apoio e organização da Associação de Trompistas do Brasil tendo a MB Cases e Gebrueder Alexander como patrocinadores.

Já são 200 trompistas cadastrados para participar do evento. Artistas como Sarah Willis (que lançará seu novo CD, Mozart/Mambo 2 na América do Sul), Matias Piñera, o grupo argentino Bayres Horns, o grupo Trompiguares, o Octeto Feminino Brasileiro e o Grupo de Trompas da Universidade do Rio de Janeiro abrilhantarão o Encontro. Haverá apresentações e masterclasses de professores que atuam no Brasil, como Radegundis Tavares (Presidente do IHS), Luis Garcia, Adalto Soares, Phillip Doyle, Nikolay Genov, Sergio Gomes, além de concertos de trompistas colaboradores como Celso Benedito, Victor Prado, Quarteto de Trompas da Bahia, Isaque Elias (vencedor da competição MB/2021) entre outros.

Como expositores teremos, Gebr. Alexander, MB Cases, Paxman, HS Musical, Adalto Brass, e Bocais Engelman.

A Abertura do Encontro será no dia 15 de setembro e terá a participação da Orquestra de Metais Lyra Bragança (Projeto Musical da MB Cases) com Nikolay Genov como solista. No encerramento do Encontro, que será no dia 18 de setembro, teremos a presença de todos num grande e inesquecível concerto no pátio da MB Cases.

by Félix Dervaux

I have adhered to the following principles since the beginning of my career. They are the foundation of my horn playing: the way I achieved the quality of my sound, the accuracy, the resistance, etc., follows these tips. I have written a brief summary of these principles. (The complete list is very long, so I won’t list everything.)

Know yourself. It is very important that you get to know the strengths and weaknesses of your horn playing as accurately as possible before anything else, so be honest with yourself. This will help you to know where you are starting before moving forward. Each bit of progress is like a long trip, and not knowing yourself is like booking a flight without knowing which airport you are leaving from.

Have very precise goals. Once you know your starting point, it’s time to decide exactly where you want to go. In your journey to become a better horn player, it’s important to know which airport you are leaving from, but it is crucial to know where you want to go. If you are uncertain about this, you won’t get anywhere—you will be a rudderless ship. This means, for example, you must know what kind of sound you want to produce (that’s why it’s important to listen; knowing what is already out there can give you a clear idea of what is possible and thus a clear target to set for yourself). If you don’t establish that as a goal first, you will never actually get to it (the same goes with all your personal goals). You also need deadline goals: concerts, exams, lessons, etc., anything with a deadline. Once you have goals and deadlines, it will be much easier for you to identify if you are on the right path or not. And this leads to the next tip….

Always be in progress....