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Continuing our series on fundamentals (using, as prompts, the list of fundamentals found on pages 92-93 of the Douglas Hill book of Collected Thoughts), is stopped horn a fundamental? Certainly!
The three rules
Well over 20 years ago I posted an article about this in Horn Articles Online,
There we find this, very central to the topic of playing them on the horn:
Stopped notes are an effect unique to the horn. The basic rule often given for fingering stopped notes on the horn is to finger the note a half step below the note you want to play, close the bell tightly with the right hand, and play only on the F horn for intonation.
As you slowly close the hand in the bell the pitch will get lower. However, once the bell is TIGHTLY closed, the pitch will rise or appear to rise by approximately a half step. This is not actually what is happening acoustically (interested music educators should read the discussion in Scott Whitener, A Complete Guide to Brass, third edition, page 57) but a practical way to think of it as a performer or educator is that you are effectively shortening the horn by “cutting off” the end of the bell with the hand. It should be noted though, again, that this is not what is actually happening acoustically–actually you are lowering the next higher harmonic to a half step above the harmonic you are playing–but the result is the same as in the suggested, practical method.
Reading it now, the angle I took in that was certainly more aimed at a music educator. But the three basic rules are there; tightly close the bell, finger a half step lower, and use only F horn fingerings. This will work well with a stop mute and for a fair percentage of horn players.
But there is an issue of hand size and your bell, which might lead you to look at alternate fingerings to get pitch under control.
B-flat horn fingerings? Flat harmonics?
Turning back to the Horn Articles Online article,
If you play stopped horn on the F side of the double horn pitch will generally be close to being in tune, raised ½ step above the open notes. If you play stopped on the B-flat horn though, many notes will be nearly 3/4 of a step higher–in other words, badly out of tune. Some naturally flat fingerings are however quite usable on the B-flat side of the double horn; experimentation is very much in order when in doubt.
Here’s where I give away a secret for the Saint-Saens Morceau and other works
For smaller hands and bigger bells, stopped notes are likely to be rather sharp. Good teaching involves problem solving, and at some point early in my years at ASU I came up with the idea of using the harmonic that would be a flat B-flat as the basis of fingerings. The year the Women’s Brass Conference was at ASU I gave a presentation about it as well.
Backing up a step, another way to say this is this. Instead of playing a B-natural in the staff with the standard B-flat F horn fingering (first valve), instead play it open which is a quarter step low. For some players it is just magically in tune, totally solves the intonation issue. Try this:
They are strange looking fingerings but all based on the flat B-flat harmonic and will likely be much better in tune for many players. There are many stopped passages right in this same range that can benefit from taking this approach.
The other very useful flat high harmonic, for Gliere and other works
Besides the “flat Bb” harmonic just described, the other really useful harmonic is high A fingered T0. It is flat enough to solve some higher range stopped issues. Here’s a couple versions of how to play the end of the second movement of the Gliere with that harmonic.
Stopped notes in Mahler, etc.
This is one of my favorite horn memes. Mahler did love some stopped horn! It needs to be really loud.
For this type of excerpt, you won’t find proper balance in ensemble unless you use a stop mute, likely at more or less your maximum volume. On paper it looks like it should cut through the texture, but reality is it won’t.
Final questions to ask: Is it loud, or is it soft? Present, or distant?
All stopped notes are not created equally. Some need to be very loud and with as much bite as possible, but many need to be very soft and distant, like an echo. Use your good judgement to put them in the right place. With a final tip being, for solo works on a recital especially, it is really difficult to gauge if it is loud enough or not, this is something you have to check with another set of ears in a dress rehearsal or sound check.
When the series returns the topic is a related one, muted horn.
Continue reading the Fundamentals series.
