Horn Articles Online Playing the Natural Horn While horn players visit this site for a variety of reasons, one reason is clearly because they are looking for information on the natural horn--historical information and also practical information on how to play it today. For much more information see my publication Playing Natural Horn Today, described beow:
Playing
Natural Horn Today, second edition Available from Horn Notes Edition | Print version -- Kindle version I have been fascinated by horn history and the natural horn for many years. I was very fortunate during my Doctoral studies at Indiana University to work closely with natural horn maker and performer Richard Seraphinoff. I was able not only to work with him as the coach of a very active natural horn quartet (the Grand Quartet) but also to study and perform with him, to play natural horn in the IU Baroque Orchestra, and to work with him in his shop. The fruit of these labors was the instrument below, constructed with his help and supervision, a great little natural horn based, believe it or not, on a French concert mellophone bell from around the turn of the twentieth century. It can be crooked in every key from C alto to B-flat basso and plays quite well. Why play natural horn today? While it may seem especially pointless in the age of triple horns to play anything on an "obsolete" instrument from the past, there are actually many good reasons to play the natural horn today:
For me in many ways natural horn performance is a window into the past. The whole concept of trying to replicate the sound that would have been heard by the original audiences remains an important motivator in my natural horn playing. I regularly play natural horn today, and own two, the instrument pictured on this page and also an orchestral horn constructed by Richard Seraphinoff. My Doctoral research focused on the development of valved horn technique in the nineteenth century. The basis of any understanding of this transition era is the natural horn, and from this research I developed several online articles which are of interest from both an historical perspective and from the perspective of learning to play the natural horn today: The Natural Horn and Its
Technique
Heinrich Domnich and the
Natural Horn Dauprat on the Tone of the
Natural Horn E. C. Lewy and Beethoven's
Symphony No. 9
Brahms and the Orchestral Horn BONUS ARTICLE: Making a Crook for a Natural Horn Periodically I post items on playing the natural horn in Horn Matters. Click on the category "Natural horn" or use the search function located in the header of the site. There are articles there on materials I like to use for natural horn study and many other topics of interest. And check out my method for natural horn at Horn Notes Edition! It is an ideal resource for the modern horn student who wants to learn to play the natural horn. More at www.hornnotes.com |
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