Setting up Horn and Piano in a Hall

One topic that has been an ongoing experiment for me at ASU has been how to best set up horn with piano in our halls that are used for recitals. Especially the bigger one, Katzin hall; it is a nice acoustic but it is still a challenge to hit that balance between the look and sound.

This Friday at 7:30 one of our DMA horn students Derek Wright will present a recital that I am really looking forward to. Not only because it has a varied and interesting program but also because he is using a different set-up than we have ever tried.

One first note: for sure in our hall the horn player standing and the lid up fully on the piano is the way to go.

With that is established, there are basically four tactics for the set up that we have tried. One is what I loosely call the “European” approach,where the hornist is beside the pianist and facing generally toward the audience at a 45 degree angle, like a violinist. The other three options place the horn in front of the crook of the piano with the bell pointing either at the far end of the piano (almost sideways to audience), at the center of the lid of the piano (45 degree angle), or at the head of the pianist (looking straight out at the audience). Pointing at the center of the lid looks the best from the audience and allows an easy visual connection with the pianist but can sound a little harsh in our hall. The other three positions while they don’t look as good do sound better. Reynolds at Eastman made us stand with the bell pointing right at the pianist, which sounds good and looks OK but pianists hate it. It is a struggle.

On discussing all this yet again the pianist for Derek had an interesting solution, to turn the piano at about a 30 degree angle to the audience, in the position that would leave it so you can’t see the hands of the pianist from the audience. Then Derek could set up over on the left (“European style”) at an angle that looks good and he and the pianist can see each other when needed. The piano in this position looks rather striking. It sounded quite nice in the dress rehearsal, and I do look forward to hearing it in context and seeing what the audience reaction is.

Be willing to experiment. For trumpet or trombone the same type of set up will work in every hall but for horn you may have to work on it a while to find a spot that is a good compromise between what looks best and what sounds best in any given hall.