IHS E-Newsletter, June 2019

Since starting this series a few years ago, it’s always been a desire to interview my former teacher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Douglas Hill. As a performer, pedagogue, author, and composer, he has left his mark on the music world. On a personal level, he helped to shape me as an artist and human being in ways I am still discovering today. The IHS is in the process of acquiring the majority of his compositions and books for our Online Sales, so the time is ripe to share his warm-hearted wisdom with you. -KMT

Kristina Mascher-Turner: A word that often comes up in conversation with you is “gratitude” - you’ve even composed a piece with the same name. Can you tell us about this work and its conception? What are some of the things you are grateful for?

Doug Hill: Have you ever noticed how difficult it is for authors to acknowledge all those who helped them along the way while simply writing a single book? Well then multiply that many times over. I’ve had a good life thanks to Karen, my wonderful wife and musical companion of 52 years, a terrific and loving daughter Emily, some absolutely remarkable teachers and mentors, a diversified and very satisfying career, generous friends and colleagues, many magnificent students, and above average good health. Lots to be grateful for. Without gratitude, griping and grief are allowed way too much room to dominate. The composition you mentioned, titled “Gratitude”, began as the third movement of an octet for horns (“Recollections”), commissioned by Michael Ozment in memory of his father. While writing for him I was revisiting the fact that most of my compositions are autobiographical (that can’t be helped) and are largely rooted in either empathy, compassion, respect, or celebration. The melodies in this piece felt so good to write and have continued to stay with me. I’ve had opportunities to conduct the octet many times, often with my wonderful students, thus revisiting my own feelings of gratitude. Recently I decided to create an unaccompanied version which then evolved into two short preludes entitled “Grace/Gravitas/Gratitude”.

KMT: Let’s go back to where it all started, in Lincoln, Nebraska. Who first set you upon your musical path? What were your earliest influences and experiences?

DH: My parents were wonderfully supportive. Both had musical abilities and encouraged piano for each of us four boys, and band instruments along the way. My older brothers played trombone and cornet, so I tried to be like them and learn to buzz my lips. That made the horn easier for me at age 10 than it should have been. By junior high I was playing tunes. However, my true musical foundation came between the ages of 12 and 14 from Kenneth Freese. He was a man doing exactly what he was meant to do, teaching music to a bunch of junior high school kids. He was there to bang out some chords behind my rendition of “The Beer Barrel Polka”. He showed me how to “slap the bass” and how to read basic chord symbols at the piano. He helped me to notate the tunes that were running through my head, and then he let me show off those “compositions” to audiences full of band parents. By high school I was in a combo playing bass gigs at proms with “Dickie Von and the Softones”, and I had started lessons with Jack Snider, an amazing, tough-love horn teacher at the university. I soon became very active in local jazz combos, playing bass with amazing improvisors like Duane Schulz and his family band, and Dennis Schneider, the trumpet professor at the university, earning some decent money in local nightclubs. All this early stuff laid the groundwork for my diversified career and my respect and love for teaching and teachers, as well as playing horn well, the power of all music, jazz, and great tunes!

It’s trivia time again! Think you know your jazz? Answer the 3 main questions correctly, and you will be entered into a drawing for this month’s prize, Arkady Shilkloper’s latest CD, LUSTRUM, with Vadim Neselovskyi. Three copies are up for grabs. The bonus questions are tiebreakers…Send your answers to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by June 30. Many thanks to jazz expert Steve Schaughency for these challenging questions - be sure to check out his lecture/demonstration at IHS51!

Question #1: Jazz horn pioneer Julius Watkins, and the King of Pop, Micheal Jackson, spent several years (at different times) working for/collaborating musically with which music industry giant?

A. Quincy Jones
B. Phil Spector
C. Brian Eno
D. George Martin

Bonus question #1: What nickname did Watkins earn during his time working with the answer to Question #1?

A. Tootie
B. The Phantom
C. Julius Caesar
D. The Professor

Question #2: Due in part to the incorporation of the Mellophonium (a forward facing F alto horn with a cornet shank) into a couple of jazz big bands during the late 1950‘s, hornists now have quite a large repertoire with 4 „horn“ parts plus big band. Name the famous big band leader responsible for the development of this instrument and with which instrument manufacturer did he collaborate?

A. Woody Herman and DEG
B. Stan Kenton and C.G. Conn
C. Duke Ellington and King Musical Instruments
D. Buddy Rich and Blessing

By Emily Britton

In the nineteenth century, with increased wealth from industrialization, the American public began to establish orchestras.  Many of the musicians in these orchestras were immigrants, mostly from Germany and Bohemia.  To this day, many of the instrumental traditions or schools in the United States are in the German tradition; the horn is no exception.  Today, most American horn players play on German-style horns and focus primarily on Austro-German repertoire.  Concertos by W. A. Mozart, Richard Strauss and his father, Franz, and Franz Joseph Haydn are standard works, along with sonatas by Paul Hindemith and Joseph Rheinberger and the Johannes Brahms’ Horn Trio.  The average undergraduate horn player will play three standard French works:  the Dukas Villanelle, Bozza’s En Forêt, and the Saint-Saëns Morceau de Concert.  A few will play the Poulenc Élégie or the Françaix Divertimento.  Sadly, this leaves a wealth of French repertoire neglected by most American collegiate horn players. While it is important to learn standard repertoire, there are many hidden gems in the existing French repertoire.

In exploring twentieth-century French repertoire, it is common to see inscriptions “à Jean Devémy.”  As horn professor at the renowned Paris Conservatory for over thirty years, from 1937 to 1969, Devémy had a powerful influence on the development of horn playing and repertoire in France in the twentieth-century.  Thirty-one pieces from twenty-six composers, all French, were commissioned as examination pieces during Devémy’s tenure at the Paris Conservatory.  Only two have become standard pieces in the American repertoire:  Bozza’s En Forêt and the Françaix Divertimento.  The remaining twenty-nine pieces are of mixed quality, but hidden in this collection are works that deserve more recognition and exposure and that reflect the rich heritage left by M. Devémy. 

Jean Devémy was born in 1898 in Valenciennes, a French city located near the Belgian border.  Initially, he was attracted to the oboe, but the horn teacher at the Conservatoire de Valenciennes, Arthur Cantin, had a “friendly and noble air,” so Devémy chose to study with him instead.  In 1921, he won the Premier prix by unanimous vote at the Paris Conservatory in the class of François Bremond and began his career, playing principal horn with the Colonne Orchestra and the band of the Republican Guard.  As a member of the Quintet of Soloists of the Republican Guard, he traveled throughout France and much of Europe, giving over one hundred fifty concerts.  For many young French musicians, the idea of becoming a uniformed member of the Musique de la Garde represented the ultimate prestige, as many of the professors from the Paris Conservatory played in its ranks, creating a veritable showcase of the excellence of French wind playing.  Devémy remained with the group throughout his career and welcomed several of his students as his colleagues in the horn section. 

by David Byrd-Marrow

Greetings fellow horn enthusiasts! I’d like to thank the IHS for the opportunity to contribute my two cents.

When I was in high school in Atlanta, my first teacher, Richard Deane, used to end all of our lessons with duets. It was my favorite part of the lesson, playing with an all-star hornist and trying to mimic everything he did. I even had one of his homemade bell rests (and this was 1997!). In turn, I would play duets with my friends at school and in youth orchestra. I’ve since always loved playing duets, and I find the habit invaluable. I often travel with some sort of a duet book. It’s a great way to get to know your peers and have a good time, not to mention a great way to stay in shape. It also embodies the essence of most of what we do as musicians: listening, reacting and adjusting. You inevitably get inside the headspace of your partner, and it becomes a transcendent connection. I almost always feel closer to people after having had a duet hang.

After 15 years of freelancing in NYC, I’ve spent a lot of time considering what it is that gets you hired back to the gig. Once you get past the nonstarters like being a semi-agreeable person who can generally operate a French horn, there are other details and characteristics that come into play. In one form or another, I’ve recently found myself answering the following question a lot in masterclasses and mentoring settings:

“To what do you attribute your freelancing success?”

English version

Dragi prieteni,

Numele meu este Constantin-Lucian Tompa și sunt cornist în orchestra Operei Naționale Române din Cluj-Napoca. Am fost prim cornist pentru aproape 18 ani, până în stagiunea 2017-2018, când am ales să renunț la poziție și să trec la cornul 2, 3, etc. De asemenea, sunt profesor la Colegiul de muzică Sigismund Toduță din același oraș. M-am născut într-o familie de artiști: mama mea a fost designer vestimentar, iar tatăl meu a fost violonist în orchestra Operei Maghiare Cluj, instituție în care acum profesează ca și cornist fratele meu mai tânăr cu care am împărtășit de mici dragostea față de acest instrument, Sergiu-Florin Tompa. Accesând acest link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx6ESO91HLE, îl puteți asculta cântând ca și solist alături de Filarmonica de Stat Transilvania în anul 2012, pe perioada studiilor de master. Amândoi ne-am format ca muzicieni în orașul nostru avându-i ca și profesori de specialitate pe Vasile Oprea (pe perioada gimnaziului și în liceu) și pe Alexandru Marc (pe perioada studiilor universitare și a masterului).

Nu doresc să scriu mai multe despre mine, ci prefer să supun atenției câteva lucruri din viața cornistică de aici din Cluj-Napoca, oraș din România care are o populație de  aprox. 450,000 locuitori și este situat în binecunoscuta regiune numită Transilvania. Aici, instituțiile culturale principale sunt cele două opere (finanțate de către guvern) și anume Opera Națională Română (care anul acesta sărbătorește 100 de ani de la înființare) și Opera Maghiară de Stat; aceasta este o situație unică, deoarece orașul nostru a făcut parte din Imperiul Austro-Ungar până în anul 1918. O altă instituție culturală importantă este Filarmonica de Stat Transilvania, formată din Cor și Orchestră. Principalele instituții care fac posibilă continuitatea învățământului artistic muzical în Cluj-Napoca sunt Colegiul de muzică Sigismund Toduță și Academia Națională de Muzică Gheorghe Dima.

Cântatul la corn are o veche și puternică tradiție în Cluj-Napoca, dar în opinia mea, cel mai important aspect este legătura care se naște între cei care cântă la corn. Forța care unește corniștii din întreaga lume este foarte vie și aici, creând o frumoasă comunitate de corniști care gravitează în jurul dragului nostru profesor Alexandru Marc, (în vârstă de 64 de ani) care este prim cornist în orchestra Filarmonicii de Stat Transilvania și profesor de corn la Academia de Muzică Gheorghe Dima. Un om foarte pasionat, instrumentist virtuoz, care ca profesor s-a zbătut toată viața pentru ca studenții săi să învețe și să lucreze în cele mai prielnice condiții, să aibă instrumente de calitate, o persoană dedicată profesiei, care a transmis studenților pe lângă cunoștințe valoroase, dragostea pentru corn. Nu exagerez atunci când spun că toți corniștii profesioniști care acum lucrează în orchestrele instuțiilor de cultură din Cluj-Napoca au fost studenții săi la un moment dat.

English version

Feierliche Verabschiedung von Professor Ab Koster nach 39 Jahren Lehrtätigkeit an der Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg.

von Petra Röpenack-Schäfer

Musik verbindet – hier speziell das Horn. Über fast vier Jahrzehnte hinweg war es das verbindende Element zwischen Lehrer und Studenten. Der Empfang zur Verabschiedung am 20. Mai 2019 verdeutlichte eindrucksvoll, dass es Prof. Ab Koster mit Bravour gelungen ist, sein hornistisches Können und Wissen an die kommenden Generationen weiter zu vermitteln. Zusätzlich war und ist Prof. Ab Koster aufgrund seiner Persönlichkeit für viele Studenten menschliches Vorbild. Diese Tatsache wurde im Verlauf verschiedener Reden immer wieder hervorgehoben. Eine äußerst fruchtbare Kombination die dazu geführt hat, dass 94 % seiner Studierenden eine Stelle inne haben und den Beruf des Musikers ausüben. 

"Study on facial muscle activity and facial-skin movement while playing the French horn"

 English version

By Takeshi Hirano

ホルンを演奏するとき、奏者はアンブシュアをつくるために多くの表情筋を活動させています。多くのホルン奏者は、アンブシュアをとても大事な要素だと思っており、有名なホルン奏者が書いた書籍にもアンブシュアの項目がありその要素性が記されています。すべての金管奏者は日々の演奏活動でアンブシュアを調整し、場合によってはアンブシュアを鍛えていく必要がありますが、これまでアンブシュアに関する科学的研究はほとんどありませんでした。そこで我々は10名のホルン奏者にご協力いただき、演奏中のアンブシュア形成に必要と考えられる唇周りの5つの表情筋の活動と唇周りの皮膚表面の動きを計測しました。

明らかにしたい項目は、次の2つです。

• 表情筋の活動は演奏する音高や音量によって変わるのか？
• 唇周りの形状は演奏する音高や音量によって変わるのか？

我々は図のように奏者の右顔に小型の表面筋電図、左顔に小型のマーカーを貼り付けることで、表情筋の活動と皮膚表面の動きを計測しました。奏者には自身の楽器とマウスピースを使用してもらい、さまざまな音高・音量を演奏してもらいました。そして、音を出している時と音を出す直前の表情筋の活動とマーカー間の距離をそれぞれ計算しました。その結果、表情筋の活動とマーカー間の距離は、ともに音を出している時と音を出す直前の値に違いはありませんでした。これは音を出す直前のアンブシュアの適切な調節が、音を正確に演奏するために必要な要素になっていることが考えられます。舞台上で演奏したときにみられる音をはずしてしまう現象は、もしかしたらこのアンブシュアの調節が適切に行われていないために起こると考えられます。

Lecture for the 9th International Horn Workshop
Hartford, 1977

by lb Lanky - Otto

The title of this little talk can perhaps be taken as a provocation; isn't a beautiful horn tone exactly what we are all striving for? Yet I ask this question because I am convinced that the tone we produce is the most unimportant aspect of getting the best result, and it must not be the focus of our problems and concentration.

How often don't we say: "Oh, what an ugly Sound he or she has"? Do we really mean what we say? Couldn't there be something else displeasing us? Try to analyze: perhaps he or she has a hard or clumsy attack? Does he end a phrase heavily? Or does he push every note like a "wah-wah?" Or there could be something else I haven't mentioned here. Anyway, if it is any of these characteristics or any other kind of playing behavior, it has nothing to do with the tone; it is the treatment of the tone.

If the tone ideal as such is an important.question, my highest ideal as a horn player wouldn't be Dennis Brain. To my taste he didn't have an especially charming sound, certainly not the so-called "romantic" horn sound. A Iess gifted horn player wouldn't have had such tremendous success with that particular sound. Now then, what is the difference between a master and the less brilliant star? Of course, in the case of Brain, the musicality: the "agogik"⁽¹⁾ and phrasing. That's an important part of the treatment of the tone. But even more important elements of what we are talking about here are: