A History of Horn Articles Online

A History of Horn Articles Online By John Ericson
Recently I was visiting the great Doug Yeo trombone website and noted an article, “Happy Birthday: A Look Back at 10 Years of Internet Presence,” about the history of his site. Yeodoug.com is more than two years older than Horn Articles Online; it went live in February, 1996. His article gave me the thought that visitors might also be interested in this same topic on the tenth anniversary of Horn Articles Online. His article is set up in the form of questions and answers, and I will use the same seven questions he used (only slightly modified) as a starting point to reflect on the history of Horn Articles Online. 1. Whose idea was it for you to have a website? In early 1998 I first acquired a PC powerful enough to run a browser on it, prior to that I had only had E-mail access (and that only for a bit more than two years). At the time I was Third Horn in the Nashville Symphony and was enthusiastic about horn history, having recently completed a very substantial dissertation about the valved horn in early 19th century Germany and also several related articles for The Horn Call. The idea came to me that these materials could be worked into a website. So while in part I made the site because I had an idea and materials to post, that still really does not say why I first built the site. The answer to that question gets into my motivations for doing things. This is a topic which I had thought over a lot the previous few years, after the birth of my son who has Down Syndrome. I could have reacted to that major life event several ways. For me it was a time where my Christian faith grew. As a part of that growth I became even surer of one great truth, that we are all put by God in unique places and given unique opportunities. I knew that I had distinctive materials and experiences and was in a position to create a website of this type, one that could make a positive impact. Exactly how distinctive has become clear over the years, as I know of no other site like Horn Articles Online. 2. How, then, did your site get set up? I started working out the layout in WordPerfect actually, the same program I had used for my dissertation, making charts and dividing up materials from my published articles and my dissertation to flow better on the Internet as sort of an “online book.” The hardest thing is always organization of content. That spring I also interviewed and won the position of Assistant Professor of Horn at the Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam. I contacted the person who did their website and he told me that SUNY Potsdam was well set up to host a faculty website such as I envisioned and that he used a Claris product to build theirs. So I purchased the same software and figured out how to use it to set up the first version of the site. You can actually still access the current site from the original location, http://www2.potsdam.edu/CRANE/ericsojq/articles_online.htm, as there is a re-direct in place. The current “real” location is http://www.public.asu.edu/~jqerics/articles_online.htm and it may be accessed from www.hornarticles.com as well. 3. Who designed your website? I did all the design from the ground up, and on a design level it is a fairly simple site. Good horn players are a little stubborn; there are a lot of easier things to do than play horn. Basically I have taken an attitude that if others can figure out how to build a website I can figure out how to do it too. I developed my own initial template which has been tweaked repeatedly since. 4. What did your website look like at its beginning? It was similar to today. The opening page has pretty much always had a version of an image of an early valved horn and the “next article” header has always been there to aid navigation around (this will probably be removed with coming revisions, however). Memory says that the very first version was on a light gray background, but it was changed to white fairly quickly. When the site was conceived it really focused only on horn history. Now I aim for more of a balance between history and playing the horn, and most of the recent content has been playing related, but also branching out now into the topics of mellophones and Wagner tubas. I am always pondering ways to redesign the site and have ideas in motion to work things over again by the summer of 2008. 5. Why did you name your website Horn Articles Online? Actually, I first called the site a more generic name, “Articles Online.” Thank Bruce Hembd for the name Horn Articles Online, as this is how he linked it from the IHS website not long after I launched the site. I saw the link and said something like, “hmmm, this is a better name,” and adopted it. *6. When did Horn Articles Online* go public? Sometime in August of 1998, in a very busy period right before school started for me my first semester at Crane. With having just moved 1000 miles and a new job and two small children I don’t think it occurred to me to note the actual date. 7. What has happened to Horn Articles Online in the last 10 years?** I moved on from Claris to FrontPage and now Dreamweaver to build the site, so the look has gradually improved. Very early on it was mostly a horn history site. Then, with my teaching at Crane and later ASU, quite a few teaching materials came online, including most of my notes for techniques and methods classes. It has further changed in recent years as I … cut most of the unpublished materials. This was done in part due to the “you can put anything on the Internet” mentality that is out there (for good reason). Articles that had already risen to the level of publications have more impact and give more credibility to the site. (The unpublished, cut materials are coming back in various forms--for example, the old articles on mellophone and Wagner tuba were expanded into books). stopped posting on discussion groups. Among other reasons it just took too much time that I could use more productively elsewhere. developed my blog. This I have enjoyed, it is a much better forum for my thoughts than the discussion groups. Also the writings have more impact as they come up in searches. and now have released several print publications. This, for now, is going to be my next big push, publications relating to horn playing and horn history, along with a general reorganization of the existing site content. Thank you for visiting Horn Articles Online. Your continued support for the site is appreciated and is why I keep it going. What is the future? Doug Yeo has another article relating to this topic in his site, “What Happened to the Internet?” where he delves into the topic rather deeply. Some of his thoughts I do certainly share. I remain an optimist; I believe that the changes that will come to the Internet will be in a better direction. Websites come and websites go. Ultimately I think in terms of long term impact that there really is a place for quality print publications, of which not nearly enough have come out in recent years relating to the horn. That is the big change that is happening for me now and why I launched Horn Notes Edition. I very much hope to positively impact the number of horn players and the quality of horn playing worldwide through these publications. Above all on a personal level I try to put at the center of all I do the idea of using the talents God has given me in the best ways I can. In the coming years I will certainly keep thinking about how to best use the unique talents and opportunities that God has given me to serve not only my family and students but also the horn teaching and playing community. If you would like to comment on this article do so here.

Recently I was visiting the great Doug Yeo trombone website and noted an article, “Happy Birthday: A Look Back at 10 Years of Internet Presence,” about the history of his site. Yeodoug.com is more than two years older than Horn Articles Online; it went live in February, 1996. His article gave me the thought that visitors might also be interested in this same topic on the tenth anniversary of Horn Articles Online.

His article is set up in the form of questions and answers, and I will use the same seven questions he used (only slightly modified) as a starting point to reflect on the history of Horn Articles Online.

1. Whose idea was it for you to have a website?

In early 1998 I first acquired a PC powerful enough to run a browser on it, prior to that I had only had E-mail access (and that only for a bit more than two years). At the time I was Third Horn in the Nashville Symphony and was enthusiastic about horn history, having recently completed a very substantial dissertation about the valved horn in early 19th century Germany and also several related articles for The Horn Call. The idea came to me that these materials could be worked into a website.

So while in part I made the site because I had an idea and materials to post, that still really does not say why I first built the site. The answer to that question gets into my motivations for doing things. This is a topic which I had thought over a lot the previous few years, after the birth of my son who has Down Syndrome. I could have reacted to that major life event several ways. For me it was a time where my Christian faith grew. As a part of that growth I became even surer of one great truth, that we are all put by God in unique places and given unique opportunities. I knew that I had distinctive materials and experiences and was in a position to create a website of this type, one that could make a positive impact. Exactly how distinctive has become clear over the years, as I know of no other site like Horn Articles Online.

2. How, then, did your site get set up?

I started working out the layout in WordPerfect actually, the same program I had used for my dissertation, making charts and dividing up materials from my published articles and my dissertation to flow better on the Internet as sort of an “online book.” The hardest thing is always organization of content.

That spring I also interviewed and won the position of Assistant Professor of Horn at the Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam. I contacted the person who did their website and he told me that SUNY Potsdam was well set up to host a faculty website such as I envisioned and that he used a Claris product to build theirs. So I purchased the same software and figured out how to use it to set up the first version of the site. You can actually still access the current site from the original location, http://www2.potsdam.edu/CRANE/ericsojq/articles_online.htm, as there is a re-direct in place. The current “real” location is http://www.public.asu.edu/~jqerics/articles_online.htm and it may be accessed from www.hornarticles.com as well.

3. Who designed your website?

I did all the design from the ground up, and on a design level it is a fairly simple site. Good horn players are a little stubborn; there are a lot of easier things to do than play horn. Basically I have taken an attitude that if others can figure out how to build a website I can figure out how to do it too. I developed my own initial template which has been tweaked repeatedly since.

4. What did your website look like at its beginning?

It was similar to today. The opening page has pretty much always had a version of an image of an early valved horn and the “next article” header has always been there to aid navigation around (this will probably be removed with coming revisions, however). Memory says that the very first version was on a light gray background, but it was changed to white fairly quickly.

When the site was conceived it really focused only on horn history. Now I aim for more of a balance between history and playing the horn, and most of the recent content has been playing related, but also branching out now into the topics of mellophones and Wagner tubas. I am always pondering ways to redesign the site and have ideas in motion to work things over again by the summer of 2008.

5. Why did you name your website Horn Articles Online?

Actually, I first called the site a more generic name, “Articles Online.” Thank Bruce Hembd for the name Horn Articles Online, as this is how he linked it from the IHS website not long after I launched the site. I saw the link and said something like, “hmmm, this is a better name,” and adopted it.

6. When did Horn Articles Online go public?

Sometime in August of 1998, in a very busy period right before school started for me my first semester at Crane. With having just moved 1000 miles and a new job and two small children I don’t think it occurred to me to note the actual date.

7. What has happened to Horn Articles Online in the last 10 years?

I moved on from Claris to FrontPage and now Dreamweaver to build the site, so the look has gradually improved. Very early on it was mostly a horn history site. Then, with my teaching at Crane and later ASU, quite a few teaching materials came online, including most of my notes for techniques and methods classes. It has further changed in recent years as I …

*cut most of the unpublished materials. This was done in part due to the “you can put anything on the Internet” mentality that is out there (for good reason). Articles that had already risen to the level of publications have more impact and give more credibility to the site. (The unpublished, cut materials are coming back in various forms--for example, the old articles on mellophone and Wagner tuba were expanded into books).

*stopped posting on discussion groups. Among other reasons it just took too much time that I could use more productively elsewhere.

*developed my blog. This I have enjoyed, it is a much better forum for my thoughts than the discussion groups. Also the writings have more impact as they come up in searches.

*and now have released several print publications. This, for now, is going to be my next big push, publications relating to horn playing and horn history, along with a general reorganization of the existing site content.

Thank you for visiting Horn Articles Online. Your continued support for the site is appreciated and is why I keep it going.

What is the future? Doug Yeo has another article relating to this topic in his site, “What Happened to the Internet?” where he delves into the topic rather deeply. Some of his thoughts I do certainly share. I remain an optimist; I believe that the changes that will come to the Internet will be in a better direction.

Websites come and websites go. Ultimately I think in terms of long term impact that there really is a place for quality print publications, of which not nearly enough have come out in recent years relating to the horn. That is the big change that is happening for me now and why I launched Horn Notes Edition. I very much hope to positively impact the number of horn players and the quality of horn playing worldwide through these publications.

Above all on a personal level I try to put at the center of all I do the idea of using the talents God has given me in the best ways I can. In the coming years I will certainly keep thinking about how to best use the unique talents and opportunities that God has given me to serve not only my family and students but also the horn teaching and playing community.

If you would like to comment on this article do so here.