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Elsewhere in this site I have shared (probably several times) a story involving my Master’s degree studies with Verne Reynolds. He had a thing he would say along the lines of “you never know how loud some idiot, I mean conductor, will ask you to play.” This was varied to the situation – soft, fast, slow, short, etc. It was part of a plan for students to master playing extremes of all kinds.
Extremes!
To the tenth item in our list of Fundamentals from the Douglas hill book, a central point that I believe Hill would agree with is that while you should not default to very extreme dynamics, you do need to be capable of playing extremely loud and extremely soft.
Conductors sometimes want extremes for reasons of balance
Another story comes to mind. When I was in the Nashville Symphony we recorded the Dvorak New World Symphony. There is a passage in the last movement, the offbeat passage after rehearsal letter 2, that the conductor wanted to be very loud and aggressive. At the time I was like really? Well OK then! It seemed like too much for sure. But listening to the actual recording later, it worked, it was not out of balance, just has presence. It’s part of the craft of horn playing to do what conductors ask, trusting that they have a good result in mind.
Sometimes also, their ears are shot, and they don’t hear balances correctly due to the quirks of how hearing loss progresses. I’ve experienced this too. But still they are your boss in the situation so you need be able to play softer/louder/shorter/etc. than any reasonable person would want.
Intonation in extreme ranges
I was taught to play in such a way that if your horn was in tune and you were playing it right that all the ranges would be equally in tune. However, I know there are players that close their hand more in the upper range to bring it down and also players that open the hand in the bell in the low range to bring it up. Especially in the low range I tend personally to see this approach as a bit flawed, that they are just sagging flat on the pitch, but I can recognize that the hand position variation approach is valid. Mainly, you just need to be in tune and have a way to do it consistently in all registers. If it sounds good, it is good.
Adding though, that if for example the three central octaves of G in our range (below the staff, second line, and above the staff) are not in tune with each other, I think that is a big flaw in either your horn or how you have it set up. Horn makers make horns that should play those three notes at the same pitch level.
For a podcast looking at the topics included in articles 7-10, see Hornnotes Episode 62 everywhere you can get podcasts, with a direct link here.
When the series returns the topic is a biggie: Accuracy.
Continue reading the Fundamentals series
