- #The art of french horn playing philip farkas how to
- #The art of french horn playing philip farkas series
For my taste, the most attractive staccato is one in which each note is ever so slightly tapered at the end. This latter fault gives the note an unpleasantly abrupt ending and makes the staccato sound choppy and aggressive. Common faults in staccato playing are: a) the attack, because of the speed with which the tongue is required to move, is often fuzzy and unfocused b) the tone, because of its relative brevity, is neglected and allowed to sound think and pinched and c) the tongue, rather than the larynx, is used to stop the note. Essentially, a staccato note is produced exactly like any other note that is to say, a clean attack (in staccato fairly sharp and pointed) is followed by a fully centered tone and ended quickly by the action of the larynx. When we stop the note almost immediately after starting it, we call this ‘staccato’ playing.Ī common misconception exists that staccato playing requires a different technical approach than more sustained playing. This can be done in various degrees of intensity and at various points in the duration of the note. …the closing of the larynx is the means by which we properly may stop a note. Schuller agrees with Farkas that the tongue should never be used to cut off very short notes. This is unfortunately one of the most neglected areas, not only of horn playing but of all wind instrument playing. If the attack of a note is in musical essence decoration, so is the ending of the note. Gunther Schuller in Horn Technique points toward note endings being the key to staccato. Actually, there is infinite variety to staccato effects that can be used, and in many melodic passages the student has to be urged to make his staccato long enough! There is too great a tendency for students to assume that staccato notes are simply to be played as short as possible. His major concern is to cultivate a melodic, long staccato well suited to the average situation in Classical music. The end of the Farkas discussion of tonguing in The Art of French Horn Playing has to do with a normal, medium staccato. Perhaps the most accurate description of the articulation would be the syllable “tooh” or “tuh”. Simply stop all air pressure immediately, at the moment the note is to stop.
#The art of french horn playing philip farkas series
It is not a beautiful sound when used for only one note, but when a series of them are played, the result will be a very cleanly defined staccato.Ī word of caution: never stop the air column abruptly by using the tongue, as in forming the articulation “toot”. Make it end abruptly, giving the note a “dry”, quick ending. Don’t stop the air column with a tapered ending. The air column is then forcibly stopped, almost at the moment the note starts sounding….
#The art of french horn playing philip farkas how to
Next he gets to the topic of how to insert space between the notes. The object is to get the note started immediately and as cleanly as possible.įarkas in this brief passage clearly notes a different general tongue placement for staccato than he did for regular articulations, tonguing further forward on the teeth. The tongue forms the articulation “too” in a very definite and hard manner, touching well forward on the upper front teeth. …the player makes both ends of the note as “dry” as possible and the middle of as short duration as possible. One of my teachers was fond of saying “you never know how short some idiot, I mean conductor, will ask you to play it.” Farkas noted that for these extremely short notes There is a great value to being able to play as short as possible. Therefore, if we can learn to play rapid staccato passages we should be able to play all staccato passages. The prime consideration of staccato is to have space between the notes and the faster the passage, the less time there is to produce the notes and the spaces. Philip Farkas in The Art of French Horn Playing notes that I will give them both long quotes to make their cases. First up are two big name horn pedagogues, and they will be the focus of this part I on the topic of staccato. One of those approaches I strongly agree with and the other I can see their point but … well, more on what I think later. There are speaking broadly two approaches to staccato presented in horn methods. Continuing on the topic of tonguing, we finally turn officially to staccato tonguing.
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