I have
been fortunate to work this past month in two North American venues and in both
cases with some of the finest and most highly esteemed brass players in the
world. Both of these locations put me, my colleagues and students in contact
with methods and styles that are different than we experience in our home
environments and consequently we all left enriched and a little smarter than
before we arrived; these stylistic differences are what makes music interesting.
However, there is one of these stylistic differences that needs to be
addressed.
45
years ago when I moved to Europe for the first time there was a style of brass
playing, particularly on horn and tuba, that was played by a few of the
unsophisticated (sometimes referred to as “The Old School”) players of that
period. I’m sure, I hope, that that
style represented a kind of naiveté rather than a deliberate musical decision.
It’s
amazing to me that the habit of allowing short notes to split still exists in
our world of ever improving brass playing, yet I have heard major world players
of both horn and tuba this summer who play short notes with such distorted and
uncentered attacks, that many times the tonality of the intended note was
absolutely undistinguishable, and sometimes these notes were so short that all
we hear is a pitchless “Brrt”. How is this possible in this day and age? Is it
that these players have been playing for so long that they no longer listen to
themselves; is it that the embouchure is no longer focused and it’s just easier
to ignore the problem than to try and fix it? Or perhaps it is by choice; perhaps it’s an effort to
bring back the nostalgia of a time past, to bring back “the good old style”.
Personally, I am quite embarrassed when I hear this kind of playing and I am
very concerned that if younger players might try and imitate it they will never
win a job.
I try
and remember that there are many ways to play music and the styles available
for our listening today in this world are part of the richness of our musical
environment; I try to remember that intolerance is a very dangerous thing in
general and especially in music, but
isn’t there a point that, which if past, we should not accept? Could this habit
possibly be a premium example of a tradition that is in reality is a hundred
years of bad habits rather than some wonderful aspect of music that we try to
preserve?
Just a small observation.
July 2,
2006, Denver, Colorado, USA
