- - Please visit: Legacy Horn Experience - -
For the next topic in the Hornmasters series we turn to horns and begin again with Philip Farkas. For the average reader today, this section of The Art of French Horn Playing must seem especially dated (the book was never revised, and a lot has changed since 1956!), but is still worth a closer look. Because…
Conventional wisdom comes from somewhere
Because the book was so iconic and influential, in many respects the Farkas book defines conventional wisdom that continues to today.
In the context of his era there were three possible models or types of horn that could be used, the single F, the single Bb, and the double horn. Farkas came out strongly against the use of the single Bb for beginners, saying “elementary organizations should use F horns exclusively. Beginners should always start with F horns if they intend to have a firm foundation for their advancement.” However, earlier on the very same page Farkas wrote that by use of the B-flat horn players “will miss fewer notes, have a fuller tone in the high register, and gain in endurance and confidence.”
In short, in his era and continuing to this day there is a divide between players who advocate for starting horn players on the Bb horn as they will advance more rapidly and those players who advocate for the F horn out of a sense of tradition. To again quote Farkas,
The F horn, having an inherently “correct” horn tone plus requiring the student to develop a really good embouchure in order to negotiate the many lip changes which produce the notes unaided by valves, invariably gives a more solid foundation to the student who intends to continue into professional playing. Because of this ability of the F horn to instill the proper tone and general approach to horn playing, I prefer to see all beginners use the F horn.
Personally, I think this advice has set beginning horn players back, there is a lot to say in favor of beginners starting on a single Bb. But his argument for the single F is the definition of conventional wisdom on the topic.
A note of caution, and two types of players
Farkas also presented one important caution about trying new equipment, from his perspective as a professional player.
There is one necessary warning, I believe, about this experimenting. It is best to do little or no experimenting during the playing season, as it is quite detrimental to precision, tone, and finesse. Wait until the off-season.
My observation is there are two types of players, those that are extremely reluctant to change anything (such as he suggests) and those that are always looking and would switch happily and immediately to any better horn or mouthpiece that they found. Some restraint is good, don’t insert a lot of change into your equipment at important moments, but do always keep looking, and in particular don’t be afraid to make small incremental changes.
Continue in Hornmasters Series
