From the Mailbag: A Horn Curriculum

A question came in from a reader who is enrolled in a horn pedagogy class, and I asked if I could answer it publically as I think the answer might be of some general interest out there, a request he was happy to grant. Cutting in a ways into the original E-mail he notes that for the class

…my first assignment is to get in contact with other leading horn teachers at various universities.

In doing this, I am to find out what type of curriculum you have for YOUR horn students. Do you have a syllabus for lessons or horn choir or studio class? Do you have a certain set of method/etude books that you teach from? Do you have certain solos/pieces that are required?

Syllabus

Yes, I certainly have a syllabus! I think any horn teacher at any university should have a syllabus not only because our schools require us to have one (!) but also to clearly set grading policies. Frankly if a professor does not have a syllabus it should concern you as they are in fact putting you as a student at risk of not meeting hidden expectations and unspoken requirements. You need to know specifically for example how the semester grade is calculated. My syllabus for horn covers lessons and studio class, with horn ensemble being treated as an extension of studio class. Other classes I am responsible for have their own syllabi as well.

On the side topic of horn ensemble that is a part of the original question, I have in my teaching treated it as a fall semester part of studio class for some years along the model of the way horn choir was run at Eastman when I was a MM student. Especially at the beginning of the semester it is a great way to get the studio sounding more homogenous, to match pitch and articulations and such. My favorite music to do that with is music for double quartet; my first project this year is the Cantos V (music of Schubert) of Verne Reynolds using the newly published version from Prairie Dawg Press which we will perform for Brass Area in a month.

Method/Etude Books

This I answered not long ago in Horn Matters so I will for this direct those interested to read this article and the one that follows. My generic list of books I like to use may be found here as well. What any individual actually uses in lessons will vary somewhat based on what books they already own and what areas they need to work on.

Solos/Required Pieces

For these I am fairly open. Really, on horn, there is a lot of music we could play. I tend to do the most work on pieces that work well as jury pieces for obvious reasons. I could name them but what is a good jury piece will depend on the way juries are run at a school. For me the ideal works are in the 5-7 minute range.

The closest thing I have to required pieces are the works at the top section of my list of solos. The full list is here but this section is the group of “Essential solo and chamber music literature that all students of the horn should know, study, and own recordings of.”

• Beethoven: Sonata, Op. 17
• Brahms: Trio, Op. 40 for Horn, Violin, and Piano
• Britten: Serenade, Op. 31 for Tenor, Horn, and Strings
• Dukas: Villanelle
• Haydn, J.: Concerto No. 1 in D; Concerto No. 2 in D
• Hindemith: Sonata for Horn
• Mozart: Concerto No. 1 in D, K. 412; Concerto No. 2 in E-flat, K. 417; Concerto No. 3 in E-flat, K 447; Concerto No. 4 in E-flat, K. 495; Concert Rondo; Quintet for horn and strings, K. 407
• Schumann: Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70; Konzertstuck for four horns and orchestra
• Strauss, R.: Concerto No. 1, Op. 11; Concerto No. 2
• Telemann: Concerto in D

In an ideal world I would love to see a DMA student to have worked at some point on everything in this short list. And more.

Still More to Study

There is more, of course, to study in a horn curriculum, the most important element being orchestral excerpts. All college level horn students should have at least an excerpt book and I try to launch into excerpts as a part of the flow of studies as soon as we can. My suggested excerpt materials are here and for an undergrad serious about horn performance they should learn all the major excerpts from the works on the left hand side of this PDF list before they graduate.

So there we have it. In terms of a curriculum certainly there is no one way to teach lessons to advanced horn students but hopefully that is of help to readers to gauge what they are working on by comparison. I believe I am not out of the mainstream on all of this as it largely it mirrors the way I was taught by my teachers but tweaked to efficiently work on what needs covered.