Playing

Nerves, Pills and Doping

Behind a debate once confined to musicians lies a wider shift in how performance anxiety, medication and professional responsibility began to be separated instead of confused.

By Christian Baechler

Jazz and the Horn Series • Part 8

Dale Clevenger

Principal horn of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Dale Clevenger spent his Tuesday evenings playing jazz, discovering a freedom that classical training alone could not provide.

By Jeffrey Agrell

The trombone: changing times, changing slide positions

From Virgiliano to Praetorius and Eisel, early sources reshape long-held assumptions about trombone tuning, slide positions and historical playing practice.

By Howard Weiner

Part 1

The Baroque trumpet, the high trumpet and the so-called Bach trumpet

Edward H. Tarr examines the Baroque trumpet and clarifies the origins and meaning of the so-called “Bach trumpet.”

By Edward H. Tarr

Part 1

Articulation or bowing on the trumpet

Trumpet articulation becomes a precise study of attack, sustain, release and legato, linking tongue, breath, lips and sound in Dokshitser’s method.

By Timofey Dokschidser

Part 3

A study of musical intonation

From wind quintets to brass sections, balance, overtones and perception shape intonation in ways that often diverge from measurable frequency.

By Christopher Leuba

Part 3

Maurice André

Biography

Maurice André reflects on maturity—balancing performance, recordings and teaching, refining his approach to instruments and audience, and preparing for the limits of a virtuoso career.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Part 1

A study of musical intonation

Resultant tones, harmonic series ratios and chord spacing challenge equal temperament, linking acoustics and practical ensemble intonation.

By Christopher Leuba

Frequency and Pitch

A = 440 became the international standard only in 1939, after centuries of competing pitches that shaped orchestral practice, instrument making and musical notation.

By Benny Sluchin

And approach the realm of making beautiful music

A rare and powerful call from maestro Roger Bobo: at the height of the “Tuba Explosion”, he challenges players to define — at last — the ideal instrument.

By Roger Bobo

Breathing and the physiological mask

Air is not everything: Michel Ricquier challenges the “air column” myth, revealing how breathing and the “physiological mask” together unlock control, power, and ease.

By Michel Ricquier

Editorial

So your trumpet plays in tune

Keyboard tuning, just intonation and string phrasing place brass players between conflicting pitch systems, as Thomas Stevens outlines practical compromises.

By Thomas Stevens

Good intonation on the trombone

The trombone’s fixed positions meet the compromises of natural harmonics, as Raymond Fonsèque proposes a different logic for pitch across major and minor keys.

By Raymond Fonseque

Part 2

A study of musical intonation

From harmonic-series tuning to valve-slide adjustments on the horn, practical listening and resonance become more reliable guides than equal temperament alone.

By Christopher Leuba

Part 1

Ornaments in 18th-century Horn Concertos?

Performance once depended as much on informed invention as on written notes, and early horn concertos still carry that forgotten freedom in plain sight.

By Peter Damm

Part 2

Articulation or bowing on the trumpet

Trumpet articulation becomes a full performing language, from détaché and staccato to legato, glissando, dynamics and score interpretation.

By Timofey Dokschidser

Barry Tuckwell

Interview

Between the London Symphony Orchestra, international solo tours and Mozart or Strauss concertos, Barry Tuckwell reflects on sound, risk and musical instinct.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Jazz and the Horn Series • Part 6

Peter Gordon

Classically trained but drawn elsewhere, Peter Gordon made the horn at home in jazz, studios and popular music without abandoning its orchestral foundations.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Jazz and the Horn Series • Part 5

Tom Varner

Choosing jazz over the orchestral path, Tom Varner confronts the horn’s stiffness, projection and unlikely place as a front-line improvising voice.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Brass Techniques Series • Part 2

The Body

A brass player's physical condition depends on more than muscular strength, with sleep, nutrition and recovery shaping the balance between technical control and fatigue.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Jazz and the Horn Series • Part 7

John Clark

John Clark made the horn a jazz voice on its own terms, balancing improvisation, studio realities and an instrument still fighting to escape classical expectations.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Jazz and the Horn Series • Part 4

Thomas Bacon

Classical discipline meets jazz-rock freedom as Thomas Bacon confronts improvisation, stylistic crossover and the physical demands placed on the horn.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Jazz and the Horn Series • Part 2

Julius Watkins

A pioneering career, landmark recordings and collaborations with jazz legends gave the French horn a place it had never occupied before.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Brass in the Operas of Berlioz

Berlioz turned a changing brass section into a dramatic force, using horns, trombones, cornets and saxhorns to shape colour, distance, ceremony and fear.

By Benjamin Perl