Hornmasters: Farkas and Schuller on Jaw Position

Jaw Position. Seems like a simple topic, and it is the next topic to address in this series looking at classic horn texts.

Even a brief look at publications on horn playing will reveal to the reader that there are two distinct approaches to jaw position presented. One approach I will call for clarity a “square” approach and it is the approach advocated by Farkas. The other approach I will call “downstream” which lines up with the terminology used in the teaching of other brass instruments. Most published sources that get into the topic describe one approach or the other.

In The Art of Brass Playing Farkas certainly recognized that his concept of jaw position was very central to his approach to an embouchure, and he also very likely recognized that his approach stood in some contrast to the approach advocated by other brass teachers such as in the horn world for example Gunther Schuller. Farkas wrote,

To sum it up, I believe that the air-column must continue in a straight line through the mouth, the lips, and finally the horn. The only way this can be accomplished is by aligning the front teeth, and consequently the lips, by the proper amount of forward thrust of the jaw.

While I know of no evidence that Farkas is reacting directly to Schuller (his book Horn Technique was published the same year as The Art of Brass Playing) Farkas was again clearly aware of this alternate method. Farkas emphasizes the correctness of his approach by illustrating his approach and the approach advocated by Schuller, labeling his own approach “RIGHT” and the alternate approach “WRONG.”

The big picture I would put out there is that some horn players for sure need to use an approach closer to that of Schuller; for them the square setup won’t work. Schuller wrote that to negotiate the full range of the horn involves

…the simultaneous interrelated application of four procedures: for ascending pitches, slight pressure is applied on the upper lip, the lip opening is made smaller by a proportionate inward and upward movement of the jaw and lower teeth…, the lip muscles are proportionately tightened, and the air stream is directed increasingly downward and closer to the mouthpiece rim…. For descending pitches, slight pressure is applied on the lower lip, the lip opening is made larger by a proportionate downward and outward movement of the jaw and lower teeth…, the lip muscles are proportionately relaxed, and the air stream is directed more horizontally at a point in the mouthpiece cup closer to the bore…. It can not be emphasized sufficiently that all these movements, especially those which involve pressure on the lips, must be moderate and in proportion to the interval change desired.

Schuller includes illustrations (pages 20-21) that further illustrate his concept of jaw position and the direction of the air stream in the mouthpiece.

It would be possible to carefully analyze the embouchures of many players but the second big picture I would present to conclude is that most players use an embouchure setup that is somewhere between the extremes of the very square, Farkas embouchure and the very downstream approach seen in other texts. In relation to that point, in his final treatise that addresses the topic, A Photographic Study of 40 Virtuoso Horn Players’ Embouchures, Farkas documents both types of embouchure accurately; in this work especially note his annotations as to the direction of the air stream of the high and low embouchures. Students don’t always like looking at this book (still available from Wind Music) but it is a classic and does give you one of the clearest views of the big picture, if you know what to look for.