Home > Wagner

SubCategory Archive (tags): ‘Wagner’

See the complete archive.

Random Monday: The Sword, The Womb and The Fines

PUBLISHED: May 23, 2011, Bruce Hembd

Tag, you’re it! A new tag has been added for “Contributing author.” In case you missed it, contributing authors Dave Weiner (brass technician) and Tom Varner (jazz/solo artist) have written some great articles to look at. The comfort of the womb? Canadian researchers have reported that floating in an isolation tank increased the technical …

Categories: Sub-categories:
Opera, Wagner, Wagner tuba

My Best Article

PUBLISHED: April 26, 2011, John Ericson

Most every semester people working on research projects contact me about various topics related to the horn in the 19th century. This spring in particular I was contacted by someone researching the odd notations in the horn parts of Wagner. They had found a reference to this article “The Valve Horn and Its Performing Techniques [...]

Categories: Sub-categories:
Wagner

The Deadliest Horn Part

PUBLISHED: July 29, 2010, John Ericson

I was recently given a copy of volume 1, number 1 (February, 1971) of The Horn Call and in it there is a most interesting item on a work that proved deadly for the first horn. Max Hess tells a most interesting story about Friedrich Gumbert [sic] and Oscar Franz: “In the first performance of [...]

Categories: Sub-categories:
Wagner

An Interpretive Approach to Siegfried’s Horn Call

PUBLISHED: July 9, 2010, Bruce Hembd

A good place to start when studying the horn calls from Siegfried or the Rhine Journey is within the character of Siegfried himself. The Ring and its roots in Nordic mythology are a huge interpretive resource. Building this story in your mind — whether it be for an audition, an orchestral performance or in …

Forging the Sword; The End of ‘Siegfried’ Act I

PUBLISHED: July 7, 2010, Bruce Hembd

Even with the Long Call aside, playing principal horn in Wagner’s horn-tastic opera Siegfried is nothing short of a Herculean task. To help reinforce and illustrate that notion, today’s article features a few samples from Siegfried, Act I/Scene III. Scene III begins with the hero Siegfried becoming persuaded then determined to reconstruct Nothung, a mythical [...]

Categories: Sub-categories:
Excerpts, Opera, PDF, Siegfried, Wagner

Slaying the Dragon; Before & After the Siegfried Horn Call

PUBLISHED: July 2, 2010, Bruce Hembd

For the French horn player, there is lots of fun playing to do in the opera Siegfried from Wagner’s Ring Cycle. This composition, in my opinion, should always rank high in any hypothetical list of top classical compositions for French horn. Of course for starters, there is the famous Long Call in Act II of [...]

Categories: Sub-categories:
Excerpts, Opera, PDF, Siegfried, Wagner

The Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin and Crazy Horn Notations in Wagner

PUBLISHED: May 18, 2010, John Ericson

One excerpt horn players learn is the Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin. I was recently working on this with a young student as it was requested on a local youth symphony audition, and it occurred to me that this excerpt is one that has a lot of mystery associated with it. The main question [...]

Categories: Sub-categories:
Wagner
John Ericson & Bruce Hembd
on the French horn, brass related topics, and the field of classical music.