October 18, 2011 by John Ericson

Archived under: Auditions, Equipment   |   Descants & Triples

Then: Double Horn and Descant at the Audition. Now?


Before (and after) winning Third Horn in Nashville in 1991 I took a lot of auditions. Early on, I owned just one horn, and in a fairly early audition I advanced and had to play a very high excerpt from Haydn 31 on a big double horn. I did not win and decided then and there that I had to get a horn with a high F side. I was a Doctoral student at that time.

At first I actually purchased a triple, but it was a very early one and not well suited to playing the full range of excerpts. I only used it on one audition. I replaced that with a descant and used it in combination with a double horn in the majority of the auditions after that date. For sure I used both horns in the Nashville audition I won. That one I drove to, but in that time frame I flew with two horns to a number of auditions as well. Obviously, carry on size was not watched so carefully as it is today.

A double and a descant in combination are in many ways ideal for a high horn audition, you can chose the best horn for each excerpt and play with a higher level of confidence.

Then: Double Horn and Descant at the Audition. Now?Today though, travel with two horns is not really an option by air. So what does the modern horn player do?

Triple horns are more and more widely played by top professional high horn players. A triple can play it all, but for some excerpts not quite as well as combo of two horns. For a light, soft excerpt a descant can be a better choice, and for a low, loud excerpt a double would be a better choice. But it is nice to stay on the same horn all the time; it does eliminate some guesswork to be sure, as everything feels the same.

So what are you to do? Personally I would still be inclined to try to figure out how to get the double and the descant to the audition. But this may be a reflection of my generation of player. It is a bit of a tricky professional minefield to negotiate carefully. If you are approaching the level of being a player looking seriously at high horn auditions, be sure to look into descant and triple horns more, they are serious tools for the advanced horn player.

articles: JOHN ERICSON has wide-ranging experience as an orchestral player, soloist, and teacher.» About John Ericson » More articles » Horn Notes Edition » Contact

Related to this article


  • From the Mailbag: What is the Full Range of a Descant Horn?
    A question came in that wondered if the descant horn can play an octave higher than a standard double horn, with the implication that maybe it would easily play higher than a standard horn. Unfortunately, a descant horn has basically the same range as a standard...
  • Playing it on the Right Horn, or, How Many Horns do you Really Need?
    There are really two approaches to the question of how many horns you need, at least as an advanced horn player. One approach is that you have one horn and mouthpiece that you use for everything. I started out there. I think all horn players do....
  • Bad Audition=Quit Horn?
    A post from the archive of the original HTML Horn Notes Blog dated 9/4/06. Every fine horn player has experienced some poor audition results. These experiences are an essential part of how we learn to play a good audition, both by learning how to better prepare...
  • Review: A New 3/4 Size Double Horn for Young Hornists
    At AMEA in January I saw a new double horn that should be a model that generates some interest out there, the Nirschl D-500 3/4 size double horn. This illustration is linked from their website. It is a compact double horn with an 11 inch bell...
  • Orchestral Excerpts from one of My Audition Tapes
    Talking to one of my former students at AMEA last weekend she mentioned an excerpt from a tape I played for her in a lesson as being particularly memorable and impressive, that it really put out the fact that I was a player. The excerpt is...
  • What is a Compensating Double?
    Over the years a number of times the topic of what is a compensating horn has come up for me a number of times. In the early years of the use of the double horn this type of horn saw much use. A few posts ago...
  • A Bell Front Descant Horn?
    One thing I do is periodically look over the search terms that bring visitors to this blog. This time of year the numbers of searches for “mellophone” pick up a lot. The last few years have seen a number of positive developments for the mellophone due...

Comments ()


Then: Double Horn and Descant at the Audition. Now?
Published on October 18, 2011 by John Ericson

Archived under: Auditions, Equipment   |   Descants & Triples
John Ericson & Bruce Hembd
on the French horn, brass related topics, and the field of classical music.