A big THANK YOU to Hans Pizka for his most recent posting. Hans, you had me dancing around my apartment and clapping my hands together.
So many tend to forget that the horn is a "colour instrument" and our sound is most often meant to enrich that which is going on around us. As I listen to many student ensembles, it seems that a concept of "balance and blend" is not taught any longer. It saddens me to listen to an ensemble where it seems players are all striving to be heard above one another. For much of this I blame the conductor for their lack of score study, and I DO NOT mean knowing who to cue on which beat of any given measure. It is also the job of the players to spend time studying scores so that they know exactly how their parts fit into the whole piece. Do you know what note of a chord you are playing, and who else is playing that note? Can you blend you sound to theirs so that you give birth to a new instrument that contains the finest qualities of both individual instruments? A good "dark tone" has vibrancy and brilliance to it. Far too many confuse brilliance with brightness, this is why there are so many amateur groups that are edgy and painful to listen to. If you want a good tone, do "long tone" exercises, and do them everyday! Do them in all registers and in all dynamic ranges. There is nothing quite so close to heaven in the musical world as a perfect ensemble decrescendo. Transposition seems to be a lost art amongst amateur players. I am eternally grateful to my conductors and horn teachers that forced me to transpose from a young age. I thought they were just being cruel when I was ten years old, now I understand. I teach many public school kids on a weekly basis, and only one of them truly understands. She was shocked by the amount of transposing that a professional hornist must do. She took it upon herself to go back through old method books, and start transposing exercises into five and sometimes six different keys. I did not have to suggest this, she did it herself. She already has the technical ability to play Gliere's great concerto. She is working hard to become the "complete" hornist. Beware!! In not too many years she is going to fighting you for YOUR JOB! Anyway, I have carried on long enough. If I have offended anyone, my most sincere apologies. I had to listen to far too many poor ensembles this weekend, and I have had much "strong meat & beer" today. Hans, let me know when your birthday is, so that I may uncork a fine vintage and drink to your continued health. Christopher Bonner Cape Coral, Florida. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Hans Pizka" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2003 5:39 PM Subject: [Hornlist] PENETRATING PROBLEMS ETC: Let us talk about the truth now. You have "penetrating" problems & problems to be heard over the band or over the orchestra. Have you really said such nonsense ? Really ? Did you ever understand the function of the horn ? My answer is: DEFINITELY NOT. The horns & the complete horn sections function is to be FILLER, nothing else, like the violas in the symphony, nothing else. So it is absolutely bad taste, if you try to be really HEARD, heard as a separate voice. Well, there are few, very few pieces, where the section might be on prominent voice, but few times. Mostly the horns just double the trumpets one octave below, if the horns play melody eventually. In the symphony it is still less. Don't come with argument as : but Mahler. This is a foul argument. Even there, the horns have the filling function. And it is just wise, to contribute to the whole thing, and not in a race who is louder. And the tutti (section) players are worse than any principal, as they just fart as loud as they can to impress others "I can play louder than the principal !". Punctum. So they ruin everything in the music. But when it comes, that they have to hit a certain higher note with forte dynamics or even fortissimo accent, there will come a weak mezzo forte only, as soon as they have realized, that they will be playing ALONE. Write solo above a long held middle range viola note, - and create VIBRATO. Fits for many tutti horns too. Remember, playing music is not to be heard as an individual player, but to contribute to the enjoyment of audience & player. If you like to be heard as solo, make yourself independent & play solo. The only solution. The orchestra soli, if they shall be heard above the whole orchestra, well, they are for the whole section mostly. So no problem, to be heard well. If there is a real solo in the concert literature & you have problems to be heard with your soft solo, call the conductor to keep the accompaniment soft enough - it is a greater virtue to play soft than to play loud -, AND play your part as soloist. Solo means, that even the piano or the pianissimo must be altered, enriched with more substance (comes from inside yourself, from your spirit), to carry. It is just a different attitude, different approach. And now the main problem: Many of you seem to be spoiled by your first teachers, who had just trumpeter training,, and even a very miserable training, not to talk here about complete missing basics of musical education like singing, transposing, recognizing chords, arpeggios, tonalities. But you go out & play a Mahler symphony with your community orchestra, just because "it is cool !" Start again with some basic musical work, like reading different rhythm, do it with a metronome, do long notes with a metronome first & later without, start reading scores & following the different instruments. The other problem I notice, is the switching between instruments. Just extremely few individuals in the world might have the embouchure for different, very different instruments. Remember very few. But do not count YOU, to be one of these few. A trumpet embouchure or trombone embouchure will RUIN any serious horn embouchure definitely. Any fine tuning or fine playing will be ruined. All hard work (IF at ALL), will be ruined. And your tone problems: no wonder with these pinching tiny mouthpieces or these great shit pots of mouthpieces for low horn. Did you ever think about the difference between dark & really dark as a tone colour for low horn. Not a fat fart, no, no. There is the black of the toner of a computer printer. Ever seen ? Or the dark of an old worn out diesel truck. But there is also the sparkling anthracite colour of crystal rock coal. Guess, what dark colour I desire ? And the bright colours ? Yes, the flash light of 10.000 Watt, the penetrating blue lights. No, not these colours. But lava red, the blood of the mountains, the burst of a Jupiter rocket, the emerald green laser beam, the sharp sunlight in the forest, YES, this is bright & powerful. Farkas preached the darker tone, yes, yes & yes again, but in contrast to the super light & pinching tone around him in his days. But his preaching is understood falsely. And, why do so many (weak) player care so much about the extra tricks, but the same time missing the simplest note, due to inadequate basic knowledge. Isn�t that more or less nothing else than betraying yourself ? A deflection from your deficits ? As I suppose, that many of you are very successful in their "non musical" jobs, why do you open your mouth that wide, sometimes or even too often ? Don't you notice, that birds are flying around, many birds. And where birds fly, bird droppings will fall for sure !!! For a good horn tone, you are invited, to visit my special pages about the Viennese School of Horn Playing at www.pizka.de/WrHrPlay1.htm & connected pages with many audio & video clips. Look for the Dirge from the Britten Serenade or the Sinfonia domestica. Prof.Hans Pizka, Pf.1136 D-85541 Kirchheim - Germany Fax: 49 89 903-9414 Phone: 903-9548 home: www.pizka.de email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] set your options at http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/cbonner%40 swfla.rr.com _______________________________________________ post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] set your options at http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
