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Center Stage with Philip Myers, page 3

But what about the change from the double to the triple?

My opinion. For me. No application to anyone else.

I was crazy, crazy, crazy, to play a double for twenty-five years. If I knew what I know now, I never would have done it.

1) Clarity -Wherever, whenever, no matter what the range, what the speed, what the volume, what the environment (brass, percussion, etc.)

I think back on all the times that I wanted the ultimate crispness and penetration in the middle register and I was trying to do it on the F horn, then when that didn't work, the Bb horn.

My experience has been that when the horns are playing a loud passage with the percussion section, the trombone section and the trumpet section, and our part should be heard, and especially if we're in the middle or low register, then anyone in the audience is not going to know whether we're on the "X, Y or Z" horn. We'll probably be lucky if they hear the part at all.  And I think I can come through in moments like that clearer and less trashy on the high F horn than I can on the Bb or low F side. Of course I'm sure this depends on the orchestra and on the hall, but from playing in Avery Fisher and hearing really fine orchestras with great horn sections play in Avery Fisher, I would say that this is the case in this hall.

2) Much more control of brassiness. Taking a horn that already doesn't inflict much brassiness on you, on a Schmid triple of any make, if I want a lot of edge or brassiness at a low dynamic level, I will use the low F horn. If I want none, I will use the high F horn, somewhere in between the Bb side of the horn. This may not be the way it works for all horns or all players, but this works for me on the Schmid. I mean, some triple horns of other manufacturers had sounds on the high F side that I couldn't really relate to, so I would be limited to mainly using the high F side for the upper register, but for me on the Schmid I can use the high F horn in any range because I can get a sound that I like and I'm not running into weird intonation that you can get on some brands of triples. This has been my subjective experience. At this point my general procedure is to change onto the high F horn at fourth line written D with thumb, 1, & 3. 1 also tend to use the high F horn from middle written C down a fourth because after years of playing high horn this is no longer my strongest range (my teacher, Forest Standley, also Clevenger's, thought I should be a fourth horn player because I had a strong low register but that is long since gone). And yes,

3) Accuracy. Man, I was so tired of floating through the solo of Tchaikovsky 5th and then a few measures later missing some accompaniment note between third space C and G. Maybe I simply have more of a problem with accuracy than others, but I was tired of not being able to get through a concert clean, usually of some soft attack on an accompaniment note. I remember Clevenger telling me "we're the first generation accurate enough that we're not sitting on stage worrying about whether we're going to miss something or not", but I told him right then, "No, not me, I'm worried plenty." (I don't know if he would remember this conversation, it was 1978 and you see, he is that accurate, but I never was.)

But now, twenty years later, with the triple, I finally feel like part of the generation that Clevenger was talking about - I don't worry about missing stuff, I can just think about what I'm trying to do musically. On the double I couldn't take that approach. So if for me, that takes the triple, I think I've got to accept that about myself.

Here endeth the answer to your first question. At least for now May 10, 1998.

Ooops, one more thing. On the Conn I feel that most of my manipulation of tone color took place at the bottom of the slot of the center of the note. This is not the case with the Schmid, in fact it's counter-productive. Any manipulation I do takes place smack in the center of the slot. It took a while to get used to this difference. This is my feeling anyway. Other players may have a totally different experience.

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