Farquharson Cousins on the Embouchure and Mouthpiece Pressure

Be afraid! Technology is the enemy! In researching and blogging on the topic of narcissism in the classical music business I have run across one belief more than once. Web 2.0 — blogs and social networks in particular — are driven by narcissism. Social media is to blame for this growing trend. It’s all about [...]

One topic I get asked about, as it is one of the exercises in The Brass Gym, is that of pitch bending. I think of it being basically a muscular thing, forcing the note down in the “groove.” I just noted that the Brophy book has a section on pitch bends where he describes how [...]

A Jaded Clam for predatory behavior and breaking the rules. From page 14 of the April 2009 International Musician — the trade journal for the American Federation of Musicians — comes a story alluded to in the last Random Monday post. Until recently, it was an open secret among musicians in the local scene that [...]

Following up on yesterday, I really do find the “response” of Harry Berv to The Art of French Horn Playing interesting. I would propose that most books written about the horn after 1956 are in one way or another a response to Farkas. Berv in his A Creative Approach to the French Horn feels that [...]

The number of truly great horn quartet pieces can pretty much be counted on one hand … okay, maybe two hands. Thomas Bacon wants to add one more major staple to the quartet repertoire with a special commission project. The piece will be a serious work for 4 horns to be composed by Anthony Plog. [...]

One name not too familiar today in horn circles in that of Harry Berv. He wrote a rather interesting horn method, published in 1977, A Creative Approach to the French Horn. Harry Berv and his horn playing brothers Arthur and Jack joined the NBC Symphony in 1938, having previously performed in the Philadelphia Orchestra. At [...]