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This series of articles expands on notes taken by Nicholas Smith in lessons with Roland Berger in 1977.
The Conn 8D (K series) I was playing on then was a good horn as far as having a good sound and was relatively easy to play until you went above the staff where it would make you suffer to get out the really high register notes (the written high b” and especially the high c’”. After working on this excerpt with him for maybe an hour, he pulled his Vienna Horn out of its case and played a few “warm-up” notes. In less than a minute, any fuzz or scratchiness in his sound was gone replaced by one of the two best horn “sounds” I have ever heard (the other was Vincent DeRosa). Berger looked over at me, didn’t say anything, put his “game face” on and proceeded to play the entire excerpt. I was awe struck after he finished and gave him a “Bravo.” He smiled and put the horn back up to his face and played the whole excerpt two more times in a row. He barely “chipped” one note on the third playing, otherwise his three renditions of the solo were perfect. To this day (2020) I have never heard anything like his playing. Not only was it technically perfect but the sound he got out of the horn was amazing: so flexible in the ability to have a full, ringing sound for the lyric parts, great dynamic contrast, and the ability to add brightness (edge) to the sound when needed. Even though we were on the empty stage of the Salzburg Festspielhaus, I could hear that he had no problem filling that hall.
Then he surprised me even more by asking if I would like to play his horn? I jumped at that opportunity and as he was handing the instrument to me, I mentioned that it had been a long time since I had played a single F Horn. He said he would give me the fingerings that worked for the Vienna F Horn which I have kept all these years along with the notes which I have used for the writing of this article. The fingerings are directly below:
Fingerings for the Vienna Horn
As given by Prof. Roland Berger
After exchanging messages with Eldon Matlick about Berger’s fingering chart, Eldon was kind enough to send me a set of fingerings given to him by Vienna hornists while he was in Austria several years ago. There are only two notes which vary from Professor Berger’s fingerings, the f#” and high b flat which are to the side in parentheses of the regular fingerings. Eldon warned that these fingerings may not work for every Vienna Horn.
Now to focus on my experience with Berger’s Horn. First, I had to wrap paper around the lower shank of my mouthpiece so it wouldn’t go into the receiver too far. The “bogens” (what we would consider detachable lead pipes) are all too big in diameter for our “American shank” mouthpieces. After solving that issue, I began playing from and middle c’ and gradually working my way up the scale which felt exceptionally secure even as I got to the top of the staff. The initial feel is that of a fair amount of resistance at softer dynamics. Upon pushing the horn to play louder, I felt the resistance fade replaced by the onset of color change (edge). The edge was very progressive; more air developed more edge. This feeling stayed with the instrument the whole time I played it which was such a pleasant change from how hard it was (is) to get the color change on an 8D. By using Berger’s fingerings, the scale on the horn worked really well all the way up to a high c”’ and the note “slots” were very solid and secure. The double piston valves were slow by our rotary standards but were very smooth; great for playing those lyric solos by Tchaikovsky, Brahms, and Bruckner. Articulations could be varied with ease and the horn had no “burrs” on any of the attacks, especially when playing a loud marcato passage. The security on this horn truly astounded me. This was definitely unlike any of the single F horns I had ever played. The smoothness and flexibility of this instrument was incredible. I felt as secure playing it as on my 8D and the range above the staff was frankly easier. Since that experience, I have been looking (in vain) for a horn with that feel. The closest thing to it was the Yamaha 601/801 Vienna Horns I played on at conferences during the 1980’s. The 601 I bought from Siegfried’s Call wasn’t even close to the playing qualities of the earlier Yamahas and I consulted with Eldon Matlick about a fix. He has a Yamaha 601 and had been experimenting with some new “trial” bogens Yamaha sent him. The one he recommended I was only able to get after a four month wait but it was worth it. The H019 bogen is the “go to” pipe and moves the 601/801’s much closer to the feel of the older Yamahas from the 1980’s. My thanks to Yamaha’s Head Engineer Wayne Tanabe for sending me three different bogens to try and to write-up a comparison critique.
Eldon wanted to get interested players together at the 2020 Eugene Conference to organize an American branch of the Vienna Horn Society. He had also hoped to have a Vienna Horn ensemble play some of the works heard on the Vienna Horn Ensemble’s CD’s. Unfortunately, the conference was cancelled due to the Covid 19 virus situation. Eldon (and myself) hope the American branch of the Vienna Horn Society might actually become a reality with organization taking place at a future regional or international conference.
The series concludes in the next installment, looking at the impact of these lessons on a career.
