Archived under: News & Announcements
On Playing Berg
This fall for me a big challenge was learning the first horn part to the Berg Kammerkonzert (chamber concerto) for piano, violin, and winds. At first it was really slow going, I was not that “up” for it, the work is twelve tone and pretty difficult! What I have found though is the work and the music has grown on me. Working on it in rehearsals I realized that I had actually studied the work in a music history class during my MM studies and also many of the most awkward passages used the same notes, so once I got the patterns down it began to come easier.
So while there are still a couple impossible passages in the work (what was he thinking! No horn player can double tongue that low, etc.) most of it is in very good shape and I can actually whistle some of the melodies. The soloists sound great as well. So while it might have been more fun (and profitable) to be playing the Wagner series this week with the Phoenix Symphony (several of my former students are, at least), in the end this has been a good experience, one that I hope a number of people will also enjoy at ASU tonight.
Related to this article
- Playing the Schubert Octet
Horn ensemble fans when they think of the Schubert Octet may think of Nachtgesang im Walde, the arrangement for 8 horns of a work of Schubert for four horns and men’s chorus. I like the work a lot with a large horn ensemble, I wrote about... - Horn Playing Can be Fun
As you are reading a horn-related blog, my guess is you might be a horn player. Why did you start playing horn? There are many reasons but one element of why you kept doing it was because it was enjoyable. On some level it is fun... - Take Charge of Your Horn Playing
One exercise we did in the ASU horn studio as this semester began involved self-examination. Students were given a pair of written tests, one that related to all sorts of technical skills and one that related to excerpts. They were required to rate themselves on a...
Parody: Beadle the Hutt in Columbus
Random Monday: Under Siege, Buried in Snow and Taking a Taxi
