"Study of the horn will take the student through periods of exasperation, elation, challenge, downright enslavement, and finally, fascination and deep love for a noble, thrilling instrument."
-Phillip Farkas (The Art of French Horn Playing)
Multiphonics, singing one pitch and buzzing another, can be a great effect when done properly. Personally, these have always thrown me for a bit of a loop. They're also left out of pedagogy with most teachers, which means it can be quite hard to find a good starting point when first beginning. If anyone knows of any resources or teachers that are good at developing multiphonics it would be much appreciated by many players. In the meantime, enjoy some pieces featuring multiphonics on the horn!
Hello. There are only a few references on multiphonics on the horn SOME OBSERVATIONS ON 'HORN CHORDS:AN ACOUSTICAL PROBLEM' BY W. F. H. BLANDFORD The Musical Times, Vol. 67, No. 996 (Feb. 1, 1926), pp. 128-131 http://www.jstor.org/stable/912948 . the article is quite old (1926) but provides a scientific explanation and an history of the usage in musical works. Recently horn chords have been used in several contemporary pieces. There was a list of pieces with multiphonics at the horn player.net website but because of the migration to the ISH website the article is unavailable. I've managed to get a copy from the waybackmachine, a nice web mirror ( http://web.archive.org/web/20110716234407/http://www.hornplayer.net/archive/a15.html ) Historical sources say that the great Jan Vaclav Stich, the first well known hand horn virtuoso, was also known for making multiphonics. Is not a technique hard to get, most beginner players can do it, the real "thing" is to control it. The great Dauprat wrote on his opinion against multiphonics in his method for for alto et for basse... Usually they are grab in some cadenza or in contemporary music, with a few exceptions from the traditional solo and etude repertoire. So the best way for practicing them is on the warm down. This way they will be practiced every day, but just after practicing all the regular stuff (is like having coffee after the meal :) ) That's a technique I've used a lot in my 3 books of etudes http://www.ricardomatosinhos.com/12etudes.html http://www.ricardomatosinhos.com/10etudes.html http://www.ricardomatosinhos.com/lowhornetudes.html
I'm currently doing a research and writing a dissertation on horn etudes, and when I finish it, I'm planning to get a new project of doing an exercise book for horn, on different aspects of hornplaying. Relating to multiphonics, I've done already some exercises that will be there for sure.
Hello.
ReplyDeleteThere are only a few references on multiphonics on the horn
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON 'HORN CHORDS:AN ACOUSTICAL PROBLEM' BY W. F. H. BLANDFORD The Musical Times, Vol. 67, No. 996 (Feb. 1, 1926), pp. 128-131 http://www.jstor.org/stable/912948 . the article is quite old (1926) but provides a scientific explanation and an history of the usage in musical works. Recently horn chords have been used in several contemporary pieces.
There was a list of pieces with multiphonics at the horn player.net website but because of the migration to the ISH website the article is unavailable. I've managed to get a copy from the waybackmachine, a nice web mirror ( http://web.archive.org/web/20110716234407/http://www.hornplayer.net/archive/a15.html )
Historical sources say that the great Jan Vaclav Stich, the first well known hand horn virtuoso, was also known for making multiphonics. Is not a technique hard to get, most beginner players can do it, the real "thing" is to control it. The great Dauprat wrote on his opinion against multiphonics in his method for for alto et for basse...
Usually they are grab in some cadenza or in contemporary music, with a few exceptions from the traditional solo and etude repertoire.
So the best way for practicing them is on the warm down. This way they will be practiced every day, but just after practicing all the regular stuff (is like having coffee after the meal :) )
That's a technique I've used a lot in my 3 books of etudes
http://www.ricardomatosinhos.com/12etudes.html
http://www.ricardomatosinhos.com/10etudes.html
http://www.ricardomatosinhos.com/lowhornetudes.html
I'm currently doing a research and writing a dissertation on horn etudes, and when I finish it, I'm planning to get a new project of doing an exercise book for horn, on different aspects of hornplaying. Relating to multiphonics, I've done already some exercises that will be there for sure.