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Continuing on the topic of tonguing, we finally turn officially to staccato tonguing.
Two approaches
There are speaking broadly two approaches to staccato presented in horn methods. One of those approaches I strongly agree with and the other I can see their point but … well, more on what I think later. First up are two big name horn pedagogues, and they will be the focus of this part I on the topic of staccato. I will give them both long quotes to make their cases.
Staccato needs to be “dry”
Philip Farkas in The Art of French Horn Playing notes that
The prime consideration of staccato is to have space between the notes; and the faster the passage, the less time there is to produce the notes and the spaces. Therefore, if we can learn to play rapid staccato passages we should be able to play all staccato passages.
There is a great value to being able to play as short as possible. One of my teachers was fond of saying “you never know how short some idiot, I mean conductor, will ask you to play it.” Farkas noted that for these extremely short notes
…the player makes both ends of the note as “dry” as possible and the middle of as short duration as possible. The tongue forms the articulation “too” in a very definite and hard manner, touching well forward on the upper front teeth. The object is to get the note started immediately and as cleanly as possible.
Farkas in this brief passage clearly notes a different general tongue placement for staccato than he did for regular articulations, tonguing further forward on the teeth.
What makes the space?
Next he gets to the topic of how to insert space between the notes.
The air column is then forcibly stopped, almost at the moment the note starts sounding…. Don’t stop the air column with a tapered ending. Make it end abruptly, giving the note a “dry”, quick ending. It is not a beautiful sound when used for only one note, but when a series of them are played, the result will be a very cleanly defined staccato.
Farkas extends this thought with
A word of caution: never stop the air column abruptly by using the tongue, as in forming the articulation “toot”. Simply stop all air pressure immediately, at the moment the note is to stop. Perhaps the most accurate description of the articulation would be the syllable “tooh” or “tuh”.
Part of an infinite variety of articulations
The end of the Farkas discussion of tonguing in The Art of French Horn Playing has to do with a normal, medium staccato. His major concern is to cultivate a melodic, long staccato well suited to the average situation in Classical music. He wisely advises
There is too great a tendency for students to assume that staccato notes are simply to be played as short as possible. Actually, there is infinite variety to staccato effects that can be used, and in many melodic passages the student has to be urged to make his staccato long enough!
Focus on the note endings
Gunther Schuller in Horn Technique points toward note endings being the key to staccato.
If the attack of a note is in musical essence decoration, so is the ending of the note. This is unfortunately one of the most neglected areas, not only of horn playing but of all wind instrument playing.
The role of the tongue in note endings?
Schuller agrees with Farkas that the tongue should never be used to cut off very short notes.
…the closing of the larynx is the means by which we properly may stop a note. This can be done in various degrees of intensity and at various points in the duration of the note. When we stop the note almost immediately after starting it, we call this ‘staccato’ playing.
A common misconception exists that staccato playing requires a different technical approach than more sustained playing. Nothing could be further from the truth. Essentially, a staccato note is produced exactly like any other note; that is to say, a clean attack (in staccato fairly sharp and pointed) is followed by a fully centered tone and ended quickly by the action of the larynx. Common faults in staccato playing are: a) the attack, because of the speed with which the tongue is required to move, is often fuzzy and unfocused; b) the tone, because of its relative brevity, is neglected and allowed to sound think and pinched; and c) the tongue, rather than the larynx, is used to stop the note. This latter fault gives the note an unpleasantly abrupt ending and makes the staccato sound choppy and aggressive. For my taste, the most attractive staccato is one in which each note is ever so slightly tapered at the end. This gives the staccato a nice bouncy, fluffy feeling.
From that we can infer that Schuller rarely employed a true staccatissimo but for musical reasons.
More questionable ideas from Farkas
Farkas returned to the topic of staccato in The Art of Brass Playing with a rather lengthy discussion. He points out that
…the release of a very short note, coming, as it does, right on the heels of the attack, is most often the point of technical failure. Too often the misguided player attempts to get shortness in his staccato notes by stopping the vibration with the tongue—“tut-tut-tut”. This abrupt stopping of the air-column, and its consequent abrupt stoppage of the tone, produces a most unmusical and unnatural quality. No musical instrument in the world stops its sound suddenly. …any musical note, no matter how short, has a diminuendo at its very end which tapers it down to inaudibility….
This diminuendo effect often occurs only in the last fraction of a second, but the result gives the effect that the notes “ring” or are left hanging in the air….
Try instead of enunciating “tut”, which stops a note dead, or “too”, which might allow it to ring too long, try the enunciation “tuh”. This achieves a very short note, but does not permit the tongue to go back up into its preparatory position, where it would forcibly stop the air flow.
So they have made their cases. What do you think?
Keep on reading to later sources
I personally think the sources we will look at in part II of this article are much closer to physiological reality, so stay tuned for more on the topic.
Continue in Hornmasters Series to Part II
