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On the Demise of “Playing High Horn,” a Descant Dissertation, and E-books

PUBLISHED: January 31, 2012, John Ericson

Last week I was able to post a video of my performance last year of the Bach B minor mass on descant horn. Randomly in another search I also stumbled upon a very interesting 2011 University of Miami dissertation, “An Equipment Guide to Performing Baroque Horn Music” by Joseph T. Falvey. The full text is [...]

On Playing the B-Minor Mass on YouTube

PUBLISHED: January 26, 2012, John Ericson

This past week was my week to become a YouTube star, as in addition to the Konzertstuck from the Southwest Horn Conference my performance of the Bach B-Minor mass from January of 2011 was uploaded to YouTube as well. It is below, with a few more comments to follow. (Direct link to video here). This was [...]

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Descants & Triples

On Performing the Konzertstuck, and being Ready to Play Horn

PUBLISHED: January 19, 2012, John Ericson

Of all the memories of the recent Southwest Horn Conference, one of the strongest will be performing the Schumann Konzertstuck for four horns and orchestra as a soloist with a truly stellar group of soloists. It had a bit different flavor from that seen at other workshops, as all of the soloists are presently full time [...]

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

PUBLISHED: October 18, 2011, John Ericson

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 [...]

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Descants & Triples

What is a Compensating Triple?

PUBLISHED: August 25, 2011, John Ericson

Back earlier this year in an article I described my compensating triple as being sort of a super single B-flat horn. But there is a lot more to it than that, and this is a model of horn that deserves a bit more of a look. In my Horn Articles site there is a page [...]

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Descants & Triples

Parody: The Oath of the Triple Horn

PUBLISHED: July 7, 2011, Bruce Hembd

Learning to play a musical instrument takes a lot of work, dedication and perseverance. Looking at a parallel example from Western art, there is the story of the Oath of the Horatii (1784).  In this scenario, a father is swearing in his sons for a contest that will end a long-standing war – between ancient [...]

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Descants & Triples, Famous art

From the Mailbag: What is the Full Range of a Descant Horn?

PUBLISHED: July 5, 2011, John Ericson

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 double horn. You can play just as high and [...]

John Ericson & Bruce Hembd
on the French horn, brass related topics, and the field of classical music.