by Trent Ballew

Your horn is tuned, you are warmed up, you talk softly with your colleagues as you wait for the curtain to rise, and you begin to feel the excitement of the upcoming performance. No, I’m not talking about a performance with a symphony orchestra or collegiate wind ensemble…I’m talking about playing with your local community band.

Earlier in life, many of us experienced the excitement of playing in excellent university or even professional ensembles, or we performed at some prestigious venue or musical competition. But after that season of life is over and your priorities shift to family, career, and community, how do you fill the longing that only performing in a large ensemble can fill if you aren’t a professional musician? There are very few experiences that can replace the sheer beauty of being in the middle of a large ensemble making music together that you just can’t re-create alone in your home. After all, just because you are not a musical professional does not mean you are not still a musician, right? To enjoy such experiences again, look no further than your local community band!

My personal journey with community bands began after I left college. I had been a member of a very accomplished university band in Texas. I wasn’t a music major, but I absolutely loved playing in the band as well as in the orchestra. I remember once performing Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral and feeling the ecstasy of the harmonies all around me that brought me to the point of tears, and I wanted to feel that again. I started asking around in the small town in Oklahoma where I had my first job, and I was surprised to learn that they had a civic band and orchestra. I enthusiastically joined and, to my delight, they were amazing! We played traditional concert pieces, but we also accompanied a local pianist playing a piano concerto and even provided a pit band for the local theater company’s performance of Fiddler on the Roof—experiences I had never had before—and I was hooked! Over the next 35 years, I have been able to be part of numerous community bands in Texas and have had experiences ranging from performing in a world-class symphony hall, opening for sports games, playing park concerts, playing in a jazz band (yes, French horn in a jazz band), and even doing a concert with Doc Severinsen. In fact, as I am writing this, I have just returned from playing a Saturday morning park concert at the local Arbor Day celebration. The possibilities are truly endless.  

Horn section of the Allen Community Band, Allen, Texas: (l-r) Trent Ballew, Jonna Edwards, Kristin Long, Pete March, Candy George, Kim Allie, and Carolina Brea.

I share these personal stories to demonstrate that there are musical experiences waiting for the non-professional musician that may be beyond what you expect or even what you experienced in school. Certainly, there are opportunities to feed the musical fire that surely remains in anyone who has ever seriously played an instrument.

Now, I already know a few of the thoughts that may be going through your mind as you consider joining a community band. So, let’s talk about some of the most common:

“I haven’t played since high school.”
This is probably the biggest fear most players have. The best thing I can say to this is, “I promise, your chops will come back.” I took a multi-year hiatus while my career and family became priorities, and it only took 2-3 weeks before I felt comfortable playing again. A horn player joined our band once who had not played in 57 years! I had to show him the fingerings again and teach him a few basics, but in a couple of months, he was playing right along with us and doing great. Sure, your embouchure will be out of shape; playing horn may not be quite like riding a bike, but with just a little perseverance and practice, you’ll be back playing again and loving it like before. Also, most community bands don’t have auditions, so you will likely be able to take your time getting your strength back while you are rehearsing and performing.

“I don’t have time!”
While this may be true in some instances, it’s usually just an excuse. Most community bands rehearse only 1½ or 2 hours each week and have concerts only 4 to 5 times a year. Some have weekly summer concerts as well, but those are often in lieu of the weekly rehearsal. Time commitments for these groups are usually minimal, and it’s really not a lot of time compared to the musical experience you are getting.

“I don’t know anyone in the band.”
Actually, this is a positive, not a negative! In a community band, you will make new friends that share your love for music and who usually live near you. It’s a great way to build community and widen your circle of friends. Also, many members tend to stay in the band for years, so it’s a perfect way to build long-lasting friendships.

“Community bands are only in large cities.”
Not true. There are an estimated 2,500 community or civic bands in the United States and thousands of concert and wind bands across the globe, most notably in Japan, Australia, and across Europe and the British Isles.  

The quality of bands obviously varies based on the quality of the players in it, but you’ll find that most community bands contain some surprisingly accomplished players. I’ve found that most people who will join a band in their adult years are musicians who were at the top of their section in high school or college and are playing again years later because of their love of music, people just like you. You might not be playing The Pines of Rome or Pictures at an Exhibition, but I’ve been in bands that played some very challenging pieces with great horn parts like American Overture for Band and Lincolnshire Posey, or Carmina Burana and numerous other great orchestral transcriptions. There are some very good bands out there playing fun and challenging music. Many are conducted by retired band directors who want to perform challenging music as well.

Membership in your community band can also lead to other musical opportunities. My local band has been blessed with a section of ten French horns, all of whom are very capable players. We love playing together so much that we have begun meeting outside band rehearsals to play Lowell Shaw’s Fripperies and other quartets, octets, and other challenging horn ensemble music. These are pieces that we would never have had the opportunity to play if we had not met and played together in band.

So, if your horn is sitting in a closet gathering dust but you fondly remember the joy that comes from playing in band all those years ago, I encourage you to take the step and seek out a band in your area; there’s probably one closer than you think. You will once again feel joy flowing through your soul as you create music with friends who understand why the smile on your face is so big after the conductor cuts off that long, beautiful chord at the end of the piece.

by Ian Zook

Volume 2—Georges Barboteu

For this installment of Horn on Record, we are exploring a recording that features repertoire for a unique and versatile chamber combination—horn and harp.

Our second album review, Cor et Harpe, features performers Georges Barboteu on horn and Lily Laskine on harp, both exemplars of the French tradition and aesthetic. While the album was released on the French label Erato, an actual recording date is not listed or cataloged. The educated assumption is that the recording was made in the early 1970’s. 

This recording includes selections by the well-known hornists and composers Louis-François Dauprat and Frédéric Duvernoy, and two pieces by a less well-known composer, Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. Significantly, this is the first recording of these pieces, and it is also the first recording of any repertoire for horn and harp.

Bochsa was a contemporary of Dauprat and lived in Paris from 1807-1817. He would have undoubtedly known Dauprat through their years together at the Conservatoire de Paris. Bochsa was a concert harpist and prolific composer, with a catalog of over four hundred opus numbers. He also helped to establish the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1821.

The hornist on this recording, Georges Barboteu (1926-2006), was the son of Joseph Barboteu, a professional hornist and professor at the Conservatoire d’Algiers. At nine years old, Georges began studies with his father and later played alongside him in both the Grand Casino in Biarritz, France, and the Radio Orchestra of Algiers. Georges then entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1950, winning the Premiere Prix and the Geneva International Competition in quick succession.

Georges Barboteu held many prestigious appointments, including the solo horn chairs of the Opera Comique and the Orchestre de Paris. He was horn professor at the Conservatoire de Paris for twenty years and a founding member of the Quintette Ars Nova.

We are indebted to Barboteu not just for his consummate artistry in performing and teaching, but also for his contributions to the hornist’s repertoire. He wrote several etude books and composed over forty pieces for both solo horn and horn in combination with other instruments. His recording catalog is extensive and includes a range of concerti and chamber repertoire.

Frequently featured at symposia of the International Horn Society, Barboteu was a member of the Advisory Council from 1976-1979 and recognized as an Honorary Member in 1998.

As a chamber music pairing, horn and harp were a very popular combination for salon music in the early 19th century. The clear and rhythmic articulation of the harp strings, along with the rich and diffuse resonance of its sound, knits seamlessly with the horn. Of course, in the era of these compositions, it was the veiled and varied tones of the natural horn which would have balanced both melodically and texturally with the harp.

While Georges Barboteu is playing valve horn on this album, we are still treated to a light and fluid phrasing that is reminiscent of the vocal natural-horn style. As a French player in the mid-20th Century, we notice a considerable amount of vibrato by modern standards. Yet his sound his quite rich and full with broad articulations and noticeable delicacy in the softer dynamic range.

In the Allegro assai from Duvernoy’s Duexiéme Nocturne, we hear the harp’s present and effective articulations and how these textures provide clarity for the softer articulations of the horn: 

Duvernoy Nocturne

In Duaprat’s marvelous Air Écossais Varíe, Op. 22, Barboteu plays with arching lyricism across the phrases and ends with delicate rubato:

Duvernoy Air

Barboteu’s bel canto style and subtle portamento are beautifully captured in the Andante varié from Dauprat’s Sonate pour Harpe avec accompagnement de cor oblige, Op. 3:

Dauprat

Last, the lilting melody composed by N.C. Bochsa in his Fantasie, Op. 72 allows Barboteu to showcase his vocal vibrato and dynamic control across phrases:

Bochsa

Thank you for reading of Horn on Record!

If you would like this vinyl album for yourself, they are available here.

Amanecer y Pequeña Venecia: dos composiciones para corno francés

In English

por Gabriella Ibarra y José Luis Colmenares.

Tocar los arreglos y las composiciones de José Luis siempre han representado para mí una ejecución desafiante y llena de mucho brío. Él como buen conocedor de los recursos técnicos,  interpretativos y expresivos del instrumento sabe muy bien cómo hacer gala de las cualidades sonoras del corno. Su carrera musical siempre ha estado entre su rol como cornista orquestal y el de arreglista/compositor con el cual ha podido demostrar ampliamente su talento al ser parte del repertorio de reconocidas agrupaciones como lo es el Canadian Brass quienes grabaran su arreglo del vals venezolano “Andreina”, escrito originalmente por el maestro Antonio Lauro. Para escucharlo está el siguiente enlace: Canadian Brass play Vals Andreina by Antonio Lauro arr. Jose Luis Colmenares

A continuación la sinopsis de éstas obras descrita por el mismo compositor.

Amanecer 
Concierto para dos cornos y orquesta en C menor 
Venezuela, 2016

1. Movimiento  

El primer movimiento es un Allegro evocando aires Argentinos y Españoles con interacción dinámica entre preguntas y respuestas, y en donde la orquesta tiene un gran protagonismo en compañía del dúo solista. Estructuralmente se pueden apreciar momentos de clímax que se mueven en bloques armónicos obligados con la presencia de muchos contra cantos. Al finalizar el primer movimiento tiene lugar a la Cadenza que está inspirada en los Cantos de ordeño del compositor Venezolano Simón Díaz. 

2. Movimiento 

Inspirado en la “Tonada de Luna” llena se desarrolla una estructura orquestal de  contrastes sonoros con gran orquesta y atmósferas en ritmo de Merengue  Venezolano con sonoridades muy cristalinas evocando momentos grandiosos y  texturas suaves y tersas. 

3. Movimiento 

Este movimiento de cierre es más épico, con armonía de puntos cardinales que  evocan a la música de una película en donde se le otorga protagonismo a toda la  sección de cornos de la orquesta y los dos solistas con colores brillantes y una  llamada siempre a cargo de los timpanis. Los metales tienen una gran presencia a  lo largo de la obra emulando las grandes sinfonías, con solos del Concertino y un  desarrollo virtuosísimo de las maderas. 

La obra está disponible en  versiones para: 2 Cornos y Orquesta, 2 Cornos y Banda de Conciertos y 2 Cornos con Reducción para Piano.

Para escucharlo acá está disponible el link de su estreno mundial en Noviembre 2016 con la Orquesta Sinfónica de Aragua, bajo la dirección de la maestra Moiceli Medina en el Teatro de la Ópera de Maracay, Venezuela. El maestro José Luis Colmenares interpreta el primer corno solista y el maestro Carmelo Cacioppo el segundo.

Concert for Two Horns and Orchestra "AMANECER" Composer: Jose Luis Colmenares- "World Premier"

by Jeff Nelsen and Katy Webb

Words good matter, well. 

Let’s eat Grandma! (Punctuation matters too, but that’s another article.)  

…aaaand here’s the axiom:

It’s true! So let’s talk about words and choices. For our short article this month, we’d like to focus specifically on three aspects of word choice: we have found people can be less general, less emotional, and less problem-based. This would mean that we can all be more specific, more scientific, and more solution-finding. While we’re at it, let’s take out the word more: we can be specific, scientific, and solution-based. Here are three case studies which examine the problems with each and potential solutions for each.

Case #1: Specificity directs us to what to do.
*Student performs*
Teacher: How was your intonation?
Student: Pretty good. (a general statement)
Teacher: Okay, good! Be more specific.
Student: Nothing was too bad, but this note here was a bit wonky.
Teacher: Okay, good you’re right! Get more specific.
Student: This note was out of tune.
Teacher: You’re right, get more specific :)
Student: This note was sharp. (a specific statement)

Case #2: A scientific focus on content adds clarity and drops destructive emotion.
*Student performs*
Teacher: How was your intonation?
Student: I felt it was pretty good. (an emotional statement)
Teacher: Okay, get more scientific.
Student: It’s hard to play that note in tune.
Teacher: Did you play that note in tune? 
Student: No, my pitch on that note sucked. 
Teacher: What about that note would you like to change?
Student: These notes were in tune, but that note was sharp, and I’d like to lower it a bit. (a scientific statement)

Case #3: Solution-finding reveals clear habitual actions.
*Student performs*
Teacher: How was your intonation?
Student: I always have trouble with keeping my F’s and G’s low. (a problem-based statement)
Teacher: That’s useful information. Did you? 
Student: No, they need to be lower.
Teacher: Great, what’s your solution?
Student: I will play my F’s and G’s lower. (a solution-based statement)

In the spirit of word choice, we are not saying this is easy. However, simple is different than easy. We have, we hope, made constructive word choice a bit simpler for you. As with all the other things that were not easy at first—but in which you were able to gain ease through practice—this is worth it.  

We wish you a life full of bad at getting frustrated! (See what we did there?) 

Album Release: Manu Scriptum

from Latin, meaning written by hand

by Adrián Díaz Martínez

This album is inspired by composers’ manuscripts and their first sketches and ideas for their works. Interpreting such first musical ideas is a particularly exciting task, because in this way one can trace the original idea of these sounds. Certainly, many of these ideas were later revised and partially modified by the composers themselves. If the creator had revised and corrected his work in such a way, I was in this case always of the opinion that it is not strictly necessary to find out what came before. Yet, a quote by Robert Schumann inspired me for the project achieved with this CD: “The first concept is always the most natural and the best. The mind misleads, the feeling does not.” In order to get as close as possible to this first stage of music creation, Ikuko Odai and I embarked on a long and intense search for information about manuscripts, old letters, books, and materials that were often kept in hidden drawers. It has been a fantastic journey. Moreover, it proved to be a wonderful opportunity to discover how the selected composers thought, what they dreamed of, and how they loved and lived.

The search for Gounod’s manuscripts is undoubtedly a great challenge. Despite numerous attempts to find them in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, among other places, we have never succeeded in finding his first sketches for the Six Melodies for Horn and Piano. Yet, we came across the first edition of 1839, published very soon after he wrote it. These pieces, which he composed shortly before he began his studies and travels through Europe, are of particular importance to the history of the horn since they were written for the cor à pistons, a more advanced version of the natural horn. This instrument had two valves which made it possible to play chromatic steps on the horn for the first time. Gounod dedicated the Six Melodies for Horn and Piano to his friend, the horn player and horn craftsman, Marcel-Auguste Raoux. (Shortly after their publication, Raoux subsequently wrote the first Méthode de cor à pistons, helping horn players to better understand this new instrument, which would continue to be developed in the following decades.) In the Six Melodies, the sheet music for which was discovered along with many other melodies for voice and piano in a Paris bookstore, Gounod sought simple melodies which the horn would be able to play always at a pitch typical of the male voice.

Thanks to the cooperation of the Schumann Institutes in Düsseldorf and Zwickau, we have been able to arrive at our interpretation of the manuscript of his work Adagio and Allegro Op. 70 for Horn and Piano. The first sketch is named Romance and Allegro. The greatest obstacle in dealing with Schumann’s manuscripts was his complex personality, full of seriousness, skepticism, and a lack of conformity. We found it extremely difficult and sometimes almost impossible to discern what his original idea for some passages was. Even harmonies were difficult to discern, as he crossed them out and revised them over and over again. Staying loyal to his credo (mentioned above) was thus anything but an easy task: for us as well as, certainly, for Schumann himself, whose complex and difficult psychological situation probably never allowed him to believe in his first instincts. The Adagio and Allegro Op. 70 for Horn and Piano was written in 1849, in a year when the composer wrote numerous master pieces despite his impaired mental health. It presents an enormous technical challenge for the valve horn in F. The instrument was the German-Austrian parallel to Gounod’s cor à pistons, which was still in development. At the same time, Schumann wrote the Concert Piece for Four Horns and Large Orchestra in F Major, Op. 86, in which he sought to explore the various facets of this “new” instrument with horn players from the Dresden Hofkapelle. The valve horn in F was later further developed into what we know today as the Vienna horn.

by Caiti Beth McKinney

Hello, Horn Friends!

Some of you may know of Jane Vignery’s Sonata for Horn and Piano, Op. 7—especially since it was one of the second round works for the Professional Division of this year’s International Horn Competition of America—but for those of you who do not, it is an absolute must-listen.

Born in 1913, the Belgian violinist and composer studied with several notable 20th century composers, including Nadia Boulanger and Paul Dukas. While her output of works is relatively small, consisting of several chamber pieces, songs, and works for orchestra, it seems that only her horn and violin sonatas have gained any wide recognition.

The Sonata itself is a challenging three movement work with many opportunities to feature both technical prowess and musicality. The first movement begins with a showy fanfare, somewhat reminiscent of the opening call in Richard Strauss’s Concerto No. 1, but it soon moves into a graceful contrasting theme. Fair warning: players need to be on their stopped and muted game for this piece. The second movement is an eerily chromatic Lento ma non troppo with a beautifully haunting melody. Especially noteworthy is the interplay of the piano with the horn line—many moments feel more like duetting voices than solo with accompaniment. (Personally, this is my favorite movement of the sonata…it’s just so beautiful!) The final movement is brisk and lively, featuring numerous technical passages. The perpetually moving piano underneath the horn keeps up the pace while the soloist gets to show off their stopped horn ability. Suitable for advanced college students and professionals alike, Jane Vignery’s Sonata is an absolute showstopper.

November 2022 Edition

Compiled by Gina Gillie, OMS Editor

New Releases Since February 2022

Shorter lists of new releases from the IHS Online Music Sales catalogue will be published as they become available throughout a calendar year. Since this is the first such list offered in Horn and More—and ahead of the holiday shopping season—all 2022 releases are included for your consideration. Click here to go to the online shop. MH

Angels We Have Heard arranged by Douglas Hill

This traditional French carol was arranged to be performed by a large group of alumni from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, all of whom were guest artists, presenters, teachers, and professionals attending the 50th International Horn Symposium at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana in 2018. When the players were students, the UW Horn Choir was often referred to as “Hill’s Angels.” The name stuck and, thus, to celebrate the reunion of so many, Angels We Have Heard was arranged with a joyful character, some mixed meter, and a brief reference to On Wisconsin. 

6/4 Trend (for horn and jazz ensemble) by John Jacob Graas, Jr. (ed. Jeffrey Snedeker)

6/4 Trend was originally released on a 10-inch test record entitled John Graas—French Horn Jazz in 1954. French Horn Jazz was Graas’s first solo release, and featured works by Graas and many of the people with whom he frequently worked, including Shorty Rogers, Jimmy Giuffre, and Nelson Riddle. 6/4 Trend has several innovative aspects, including its meter, tonal ambiguity, a solo section that is harmonically static, and a rather thick wind section.

by Daniel Grabois

A good lip trill makes a thrilling sound on the horn. You trill quickly between two notes, usually a whole step apart, using the same fingering for each note. Many people struggle with learning how to do a lip trill, so I will propose three methods of practice below.

But first, a quick note about fingerings. It goes without saying that any fingering that produces an excellent sounding trill that is in tune is a good fingering. I have found fingerings that work for me, and I’ll offer them to you here.

Typically, the lowest lip trill we will play is from F♯ at the bottom of the treble clef (note that all the trills I discuss will be whole-step trills, since half-step trills can almost always be done as fingered trills; so when I say “F♯ trill,” I mean a trill from F♯ to G♯). I finger the first two trills in my sequence, the F♯ trill and the G trill, with the fingering for the higher note, played on the F horn:

F♯ trill, finger F23
G trill, finger F12

Many people finger the G trill F13, but I find that fingering out of tune for both notes of the trill, G and A. F12 gives me better intonation.

For the next set of trills, from the G♯ trill up to the C trill, I finger the lower note on the F horn:

G♯ trill, finger F23
A trill, finger F12
B♭ trill, finger F1
B trill, finger F2
C trill, finger F0

From C♯ on up, finger the lower note on the B♭ horn. You know those fingerings, so I don’t need to list them.

Now that you know which fingerings to use, how do you actually make the trill “kick in?” Below are the 3 methods to practice; but before examining those, here is one quick explanation: by making the trill “kick in,” I mean having the alternation between the two pitches of the trill gain lightning speed, seemingly by magic, so that it actually sounds like a trill and not a labored motion from note to note. Now, try each of these approaches:

Dear fellow horn players,

We have big plans for this summer! 19 featured artists from around the world will join us in Montreal next July. We have just started unveiling who these artists will be, and we’d love to keep you up to date!

First, we have not one but four artists joining the line-up: Kerry Turner, Kristina Mascher-Turner, Geoffrey Winter, and Denise Tryon will all be in Montreal next summer. Entering its fourth decade and following a hiatus of four years, the American Horn Quartet continues to be unique in the field of brass chamber music. Their exuberant performances have brought audiences all over the world to their feet. In 1982, four American horn players who were living and working in Europe met for the first time to explore the potential of the horn quartet, a chamber ensemble with a surprisingly long tradition. They quickly began to supplement the existing repertoire with their own compositions and arrangements. The group has undergone a few personnel changes since the early days but has always maintained the highest standards of artistry and technical mastery.

Next up, we have Katerina Javurkovà from the Czech Republic. Katerina has won several interpretation competitions but values most her first prize from the Prague Spring International Competition 2013 and the 2nd prize from the ARD International Music Competition in Munich, Germany. She now plays with the Czech Philharmonic.

Finally, all the way from Brazil we have Victor Prado. With a Master of Music degree from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Victor Prado has been working in the Brazilian popular music scene for over ten years. Playing horn outside the usual classical music scene, he started to develop his own musical language, blending jazz, Brazilian music, and improvisation. This places him among the horn pioneers in jazz in Brazil.

…and make sure you check out our website for regular updates: www.ihs55.org

The IHS 55 Organizing Committee