Thoughts on Playing the Horn Well


Book Description

Contains thoughts and exercises on playing well, warming up, practicing, facial muscles, dynamics, sound production, breathing, intonation, memorization, endurance, self-instruction, performance, etc.










Collected Thoughts on Teaching and Learning, Creativity, and Horn Performance


Book Description

Douglas Hill is professor of music and horn at the University of Wisconsin at Madison as well as a past President of the International Horn Society, and a respected teacher and clinician. The 27 chapters of Collected Thoughts cover topics ranging from getting started to preparing for college and professional auditions, and include other subjects such as composing and improvising. There are seven chapters on repertoire that include reviews of music and texts that are the most comprehensive of any horn (or other instrumental) text to date. The process of learning and teaching is extremely insightful for everyone, from the serious student to the most experienced instructor. This book is a must for anyone interested in the horn. It is invaluable!!




The Art of French Horn Playing


Book Description

First to be published in the series was The Art of French Horn Playing by Philip Farkas, now Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Music at Indiana University. In 1956, when Summy-Birchard published Farkas's book, he was a solo horn player for the Chicago Symphony and had held similar positions with other orchestras, including the Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, and Kansas City Conservatory, DePaul University, Northwestern University, and Roosevelt University in Chicago. The Art of French Horn Playing set the pattern, and other books in the series soon followed, offering help to students in learning to master their instruments and achieve their goals.




Blow Your Own Horn!


Book Description

Fergus McWilliam has been a member of the Berlin Philharmonic since 1985 and was a founding member of the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet in 1988. He has spent the last twenty years touring the world with the Berlin Philharmonic and has made over a dozen recordings with his ensemble. During his career, he has performed with many of the major conductors of our times, including Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Ababado, Sir Simon Rattle, Leonard Bernstein, Carlos Kleiber, Seiji Ozawa, Pierre Boulez, James Levine, Daniel Barenboim and more. In addition, McWilliam also founded the Horns of Berlin Philharmonic and has helped re-establish the Winds of Berlin Philharmonic. His solo and chamber music activities continue to take him throughout Europe, the Americas and the Far East. Fergus McWilliam is also an internationally esteemed and sought-after teacher. He continues to give master classes at leading music schools in many countries, including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Academy, the Hans-Eisler Musikhochschule in Berlin, the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School in London, the Paris Conservatoire, the Tokyo University of Fine Arts, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, the Venezuela Youth Music programme and more. Blow your OWN Horn is Fergus McWilliams 'take' on horn playing and more generally on music education. Written in a very spirited style, the book covers all aspects of playing and the profession, including, practical elements such as: auditions, embouchure, breathing, exercises. In addition, McWilliam explores topics such as: mind games, attitude, strategies, relativity, under pressure, why do we need teachers and much more




Dennis Brain


Book Description

The British horn player Dennis Brain (1921-1957) is commonly described by such statements as "the greatest horn player of the 20th Century," "a genius," and "a legend." He was both a prodigy and popularizer, famously performing a concerto on a garden hose in perfect pitch. On his usual concert instrument his tone was of unsurpassed beauty and clarity, complemented by a flawless technique. The recordings he made with Herbert von Karajan of Mozart's horn concerti are considered the definitive interpretations. Brain enlisted in the English armed forces during World War II for seven years, joining the National Symphony Orchestra in wartime in 1942. After the war he filled the principal horn positions in both the Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras. He later formed his own wind quintet and began conducting. Composers including Benjamin Britten and Paul Hindemith lined up to write music for him. Even fifty years after his tragic death at the age of 36 in an auto accident in 1957, Peter Maxwell Davies was commissioned to write a piece in his honor. Stephen Gamble and William Lynch have conducted numerous interviews with family, friends, and colleagues and uncovered information in the BBC archives and other lesser known sources about recordings that were previously unknown. This volume describes Brain's life and analyzes in depth his musical career. Its appendices of information on performances will appeal to music historians, and its details on Brain's instruments and equipment will be useful to horn players.




Wolf in the Snow


Book Description

Winner of the 2018 Caldecott Medal A girl is lost in a snowstorm. A wolf cub is lost, too. How will they find their way home? Paintings rich with feeling tell this satisfying story of friendship and trust. Wolf in the Snow is a book set on a wintry night that will spark imaginations and warm hearts, from Matthew Cordell, author of Trouble Gum and Another Brother.




The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind


Book Description

National Book Award Finalist: “This man’s ideas may be the most influential, not to say controversial, of the second half of the twentieth century.”—Columbus Dispatch At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only three thousand years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion—and indeed our future. “Don’t be put off by the academic title of Julian Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Its prose is always lucid and often lyrical…he unfolds his case with the utmost intellectual rigor.”—The New York Times “When Julian Jaynes . . . speculates that until late in the twentieth millennium BC men had no consciousness but were automatically obeying the voices of the gods, we are astounded but compelled to follow this remarkable thesis.”—John Updike, The New Yorker “He is as startling as Freud was in The Interpretation of Dreams, and Jaynes is equally as adept at forcing a new view of known human behavior.”—American Journal of Psychiatry




An Illustrated Dictionary for the Modern Trombone, Tuba, and Euphonium Player


Book Description

Modern low brass instruments—trombone, tuba, and euphonium—have legions of ancestors, cousins, and descendants in over five-hundred years of history. Prominent scholar and performer Douglas Yeo provides a unique, accessible reference guide that addresses a broad range of relevant topics and brings these instruments to life with clear explanations and the most up-to-date research. Brief biographies of many path-changing individuals highlight their influence on instrument development and use. The book’s inclusive scope also recognizes the work of diverse, influential artists whose important contributions to trombone and tuba history and development have not previously been acknowledged in other literature. Extensive illustrations by Lennie Peterson provide insight into many of the entries.