Well Andrew and All, Playing in the Buffalo Phil for all the years that Lucas Foss was music director, I learned to play half tones... quarter tones... eighth tones... and many others. Much easier than playing in tune :) Milton Milton Kicklighter 4th Horn Buffalo Philharmonic Retired
________________________________ From: Andrew Joy <[email protected]> To: The Horn List <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, December 28, 2010 1:11:33 PM Subject: Re: [Hornlist] quarter tones Playing contemporary music is often extremely challenging, frustrating, difficult and time consuming. However, opportunity often comes dressed up in overalls. The rewards, in my opinion, more than make up for hard work involved. I'm grateful to Dan for having created this new etude book, have already ordered it and am looking forward to working on it. I waited twelve years, after hearing a brilliant performance of Horn Lokk from Eric Terwilliger at a horn symposium in Germany in 1980, before tackling the piece myself. Once difficult, now easy. It took me twenty years and a stunning performance in Cologne by Marie Louise Neunecker to discover the special, captivating beauty of the Ligeti Horn Trio and get to work on it. It remains difficult to play and I appreciate the challenges it presents for most audiences. And I've been able to introduce non-musician music lovers to the piece such that they have acquired a taste for not only for the Trio, but Ligeti's music in general. Gerard Grisey is another French composer who has shown special genius in his writing for and has pushed the envelope every bit as much as Richard Strauss did in his day. Andrew Joy [email protected] On Dec 28, 2010, at 18:03 , Daniel Grabois wrote: > I will try to respond to Hans' objections: > > First of all, Hans, your final point is something I can agree with > completely. >You say that my book may be valuable for some people, but not for all. Yes, >indeed! In writing this book, I am not proposing that we abandon Kopprasch, >Kling, Maxime Alphonse, Gallay, and company, have a big bonfire with all their >books, make everyone buy the quarter tone book, and start over with just that >one book. This is a specialized book. It is hard. it (hopefully) helps people >learn to play a certain kind of music (which not everyone likes) which is >pretty >new to us horn players. My career is very different from yours, and I am >constantly asked to play many kinds of new music in which I have to figure out >how to execute what I am asked to do. From a professional point of view, if I >want to put food on the table and pay the rent, it will not behoove me to >point >out to the composer that nobody likes his or her music. In fact, believe it or >not, I often like the music. Taking the case of the > Li > geti Trio, a piece with lots of quarter tones in it, I would describe that >piece as absolutely hauntingly beautiful (anybody on the list who doesn't know >Ligeti's trio or his horn concerto, called the Hamburg Concerto, has a big >treat >ahead, and I would highly recommend checking those pieces out). > > Hans, you say "Sounding VERY COOL is not an argument. The audience must like >the music, not just very small selected group." This is a tricky argument. >First, I would propose that, if I am right and the music sounds "very cool," >then by definition people will like it. People like things that sound cool. So >I >think what you are saying is that, while it sounds cool to me, it does not >sound >cool to you. Fair enough. I think we should remember, however, that much of >Brahms' music was heard as cacophonous when it was first heard. Luckily, >people >lived with it, grew to understand it, and now we horn players have a chance to >hear people like you play it so beautifully in concert halls and on >recordings. >Also, most music being written at any era was garbage. I don't spend my days >listening to Stamitz, for instance, because that same period produced >Beethoven, >who was a lot better. But we can't make a rule that only the good composers >get >to write. People like me play all kinds of n ew > stuff, and devote a large part of our lives doing so, with the understanding >that the good stuff will rise to the top and will last. Many of the pieces >will, >as you say, get performed only a single time. That's the way it goes. > > > I agree with you that "Composers write much garbage using any kind of writing >technique & expect that we learn all this stuff." It's true. Believe it or >not, >I enjoy figuring out how to play the stuff they write. You clearly don't, >which >is fine. Part of the point of my new book is to explain to composers, who are >already writing lots of quarter tones (this is not a one-shot deal, with the >quarter tones: I see them all over the place), how to notate them clearly and >consistently, precisely so we hornists won't have to figure out what has been >written every time. Also, I would gently suggest that, in comparing Haydn's >horn >writing with Mozart's, you see a composer (Mozart, of course) pushing WAY past >the boundaries of what hornists had previously been asked to do. And thank God >for it. Using the example of Strauss (one of my favorite composers, and BTW, >if >readers of the horn list have not checked out the horn parts in the opera Der >Rosenkavalier, you have another major trea t > in store), I would suggest that he also pushed the boundaries of what horn >players could play. Of course Strauss had "a sound imagination & sound taste." >You get that kind of composer once or, if you are lucky, twice a generation. >But >we're always looking, right? > > > I promise not to compel Hans, or anyone else, to work through my new etude >book. I have written it for people who are curious to learn something new, or >who want to explore a side of music they hadn't encountered yet, or who are >always looking for ways to experiment on the horn, or who have some really >hard >music to play and want help preparing. If anyone is interested in the book, >you >can get it at my website, www.danielgrabois.com. I appreciate all the >discussion >of it on the horn list. I myself spend lots of time thinking about >contemporary >music, its place in society, our relationship to audiences, and what it means >for a piece to be good. I am enjoying reading other people's thoughts on these >issues. > > > _______________________________________________ > post: [email protected] > unsubscribe or set options at >https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/andrew%40andrewjoy.com _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/kicklighgter%40yahoo.com _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
