the art of french horn playing by philip farkas pdf

Was it mere chance that the street-car conductor, after telling me I could no longer bring my beloved tuba on board the street-car because it blocked traffic, pointed to a French horn being carried by another bandsman that I would be allowed to bring “one of them” aboard? … The more I pondered these questions the more convinced I became that it wasn’t all just haphazard–that I wasn’t just a seashell washed up willy-nilly on the Chicago Symphony’s “shore.” So it wasn’t just a series of unrelated, random events which eventually put me on that stage. Perhaps, back in high school, when I had had that fight with the gym teacher, and the supervisor had suggested that I could fill my physical education requirement by switching to the marching band, it was not just an aimless suggestion.

But, with my change in thinking came the realization that perhaps all these apparently haphazard events weren’t haphazard at all. He relates about how as a young professional hornist he had often wondered why he was there but gradually had a change of thinking.įormerly, I had assumed that all the events leading up to my engagement by the Chicago Symphony were completely haphazard–a bit of luck here, a chance encounter there, until I eventually ended up in the Chicago Symphony, as unpredictably as a seashell washes up on a beach. Farkas clearly had his head screwed on right. There are many interesting sections to this work on all aspects of musicianship and professionalism–more musicians really should read this book–but perhaps outstanding among all the sections and certainly unique among his publications is the end of the final chapter on “Conquering Nervousness or ‘Stagefright.'” For what is presented is not only great advice on stagefright but also a glimpse of his personal motivating philosophy.īacking up, people who do much are motivated and driven by many different things, often including elements of desire for fame, riches, love, and respect. This was not his only publication, however, and in particular very recently I was reminded in a book review given to the horn pedagogy class at Arizona State of a very interesting section in his The Art of Musicianship, his “treatise on the skills, knowledge and sensitivity needed by the mature musician to perform in an artistic and professional manner.” The Art of French Horn Playing in particular has to be the most widely owned book on horn playing. In the world of horn there have been few that made as much impact as Philip Farkas (1914-1992).

The art of french horn playing by philip farkas pdf