Greg's suggestion is right on. The horn can sound pretty gross and
ugly up close, but quite beautiful in the audience.
It is important to practice both loud and soft extremes regularly so
you can 1) play the dynamics and 2) develop a good sound at those extremes
and get familiar with the required air support. Some people are surprised to
learn that good soft playing actually requires a LOT of a air support.
Yes, there is a composer who notate something like the FFFFFFFFFF,
but I don't remember the piece either.
Many amateur groups stick to the mezzo range no matter what; some
try to blow their innards out when they get to FF and FFF passages primarily
because their mezzo-whatever and p dynamics are too loud to start with.
While my claim that FFFFFF+ is impossible, a super soft ppppppp definitely
is possible, but it takes a bit of practice to achieve it. It is possible to
play a note so softly that you have to hold your ear only a few inches from
the bell to hear it. Being able to do long tones from ppppppp to FFF and
back to ppppppp is not easy, but it is achievable. It is also very good
exercise for developing and conditioning your embouchure and enables one to
perform certain soft dynamics with good on-time entrances in consonance with
the composer's aricular conception.
If anyone has had the good fortune to listen to Dr. Revelli's
concert bands, especially the famous Russian Tour Band, you will hear a 100
member group able to produce a whisper quiet, almost inaudible sound that
will have your ears reaching for the first row and a molto fortissimo that
will blow you out of your chair (all without the aid of electronic
amplifiers) and the sound quality of both extremes was something many
conductors, even today, can only dream of achieving with their ensembles. I
don't mean to imply that no one can do it, but it certainly seems to be the
exception. We learned to do it because we had to or else risk getting our
heads chopped off.
Loren
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
001 (520) 289-0700
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Greg
Campbell
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2008 8:31 AM
To: The Horn List
Subject: Re: [Hornlist] How to convince others
Mathew James wrote:
> Hey all,
> I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to convince people. that
> FFFFFFFFFF is a sometimes dynamic....
>
I think your question really is "how can you convince a student (or
someone who mostly plays as an amateur) to learn the wide quality
dynamic range actually required in the professional world?"
The important word is quality. A lot of people can play loud, but it
sounds terrible. Same on the soft end. It's a lot easier to sound good
at "mezzo-something."
One way to show the loud end of the dynamic range would be to invite
them to sit in on a professional rehearsal of a large, loud orchestral
piece. If there is seating behind the horn section, even better. Then
they can attend the performance from the "audience side" and see how
that kind of playing actually creates appropriate balance in certain
situations.
Greg
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