A One-Liner on Intonation

At the website for Arundel Music Cynthia Carr has incorporated several interesting resources. One is an impressive list of works for horn, oboe, and piano (I never knew there were so many works!) and another resource is a collection of one-liners. One of the one-liners particularly caught my attention as it is from my teacher at Eastman, Verne Reynolds. Under the heading “When does it not have to be in tune?” Carr wrote,

I played a passage in an etude that included a high A, fingering the note open on the B-flat horn. Mr. Reynolds asked me whether I always used open B-flat horn for the high A. I replied, “I use open in fast passages, and one-and-two when it has to be in tune.” (This statement seemed quite sensible to me at age 18; I meant ‘in tune with another instrument’.) Verne Reynolds gave me his trademark deadpan look and asked, “When does it not have to be in tune?” This one-liner introduced me to the life-long study of playing in tune with oneself – every interval, every note.

Actually, Carr at 18 was also correct; sometimes it really does not all have to be in tune. One lone, out of tune note passing by in the middle of a run of 16th notes the ear really does not catch. And as to the high A specifically, different horns behave differently and I am quite sure that every high A I ever played for Reynolds in a lesson was in fact fingered open! I don’t recall any discussion of the topic. Still, it is an interesting vignette from lessons past. I am sure we all can remember many similar moments with our own teachers.

For those not familiar with Arundel Music, they publish a number of different titles including one we are working on this semester with the ASU horn choir, An die Sterne & Ungewisses Licht by Robert Schumann arranged for eight horns in two four part choirs in much the style of the Cantos arrangements of Verne Reynolds.