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A Lesson With James Romain
Emilio Lyon's "The Sax Doctor"
Variety In The Private Lesson Routine
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Saxophonists Prepare: Meet Thy Maker
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The Sax Quartet: World Sax Congress XV
Walter Cronkite's Funeral By Javier Arau
Rock 'n Roll Sax: Jamming In Gamla Stan
David Demsey's New Saxophone Publications
Symmetry Of The Octave In Jazz Improvisation
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tis rare, in classical music circles, for composers and performers to have as strong a relationship as the musical bond
between saxophonist Brian Horner and composer M. Zachary
Johnson. Together the pair have premiered more than 10 new
compositions for saxophone and have presented premieres in locations as varied as Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Steinway
Hall, New York City's Mannes College of Music and the Glimmerglass Opera's Young Artist recital series in Cooperstown, New
York, to list just a few. Additionally, along with pianist Elizabeth
Avery, they have released two CDs of new music.
Their first, Saxophone Music of M. Zachary Johnson - Live
At Steinway Hall, was released in 2006. Critic Robert Tracinski
wrote of the recording, "The sound (Johnson) creates is something
entirely new: the richness and lyricism of the Romantics, rendered on an entirely different instrument, with a unique timbre
and 'voice." Anna Franco, writing in Music and Vision Daily said,
"The compositions express a full range of emotions: the saxophones evoking tender, warm, playful, and noble feelings, while
the piano is lyrical, powerful, and struggling. The music was full
oflife ... " Horner and Johnson's most recent recording, Serenade,
Music For Saxophone & Piano, has been described by Donald Sinta, the Earl V. Moore Professor of Saxophone at The University of
Michigan, as ''honest, heartfelt, sincere and touching. Simple and
beautiful." The Midwest Record called the CD, "something that
will be grandly enjoyed by listeners looking for some music with
depth that isn't impenetrable."
Of Horner, Johnson has written the following. "Collaborating with Brian has worked well for a number of reasons. First,
there is his playing, which obviously I'm fond of. He has a warm,
14
refined tone and plays musically. Brian has a great rhythmic
sense, which is very important for playing my stuff because of
all the rhythmic tricks I use. Related to this is his ability as
an ensemble player; my compositions involve a lot of intricate
interplay between the saxophone and piano. Brian and pianist
Elizabeth ... have really done an amazing job with such things as
tight interlocking of the counterlines and syncopations that play
against one another."
Horner, a graduate of The University of Michigan School of
Music currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Saxophone at
Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN, has performed
with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra, appeared with the
Nashville Saxophone Quartet on National Public Radio affiliate
WPLN's Live in Studio C, appeared as soloist with the Austin
Peay State University Wind Ensemble and shared the stage with
noted Armenian folk-rocker Gor Mkhitarian. While a student
at Michigan Horner was a member of The Arbor Quartet which
was a prizewinner in the 1998 FischoffNational Chamber Music
Competition in South Bend, Indiana, and a finalist in the 1999
Coleman Chamber Music Competition in Pasadena, California.
In addition to his teaching and performance career Horner is the
owner of Sound Artist Support, a company that provides custom
marketing, booking and logistical support to independent artists,
as well as being a D'AddariolRico and Conn-Selmer artist who
endorses Rico Grand Concert Select reeds and Selmer (Paris)
saxophones.
You studied saxophone with Donald Sinta at The University of
Michigan. What did he bring to your playing?
November/December
2009
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and foremost he brought musicality and an appreciation,
as well as an awareness, of musicality to my playing. In high
s - 001 I had been more of a technical player. Because I was so
cient technically I hadn't addressed that whole other side,
zae musical and expressive side, of my playing. That is so much
3. part of who he is as an artist and what all competent and
great musicians have to be. That was something he stressed and
: mething I worked really hard on. Now it's something I'm really
proud of and something I consider to be a hallmark of my playing,
and it's something I really emphasize with my students as well.
I know you first met M. Zachary Johnson at the University of
Michigan. Can you briefly discuss how you two connected musically?
Don Sinta ran The University of Michigan's program at Interlochen. M. Zachary actually goes by his first name, Matt, and
he and I met when we both worked for Mr. Sinta on the office
staff there for a couple of years. Later on, I ended up subletting
a room from Matt in his apartment during the summer of 1999,
right before I moved to Nashville. We then got to know each other
even better and as roommates we had the opportunity to talk
about music and our interests and goals. At that time he was
working on the piece that later became "Serenade For Solo Alto
Saxophone." He was looking for someone to play it, and as most
saxophonists are, I was interested in performing new works. His
interest in writing tonal music really lined up well with the kind
of music I was gravitating towards. It grew from there. We were
both really interested in trying to do something in the field of
classical saxophone that was commercially viable. We wanted to
take advantage of the public's love of the saxophone. It's such a
popular instrument, and yet when you mention you're a classical
saxophone player people invariably act as though they've never
heard of such a thing! I believed, and still do, that the sultry
mystique that the saxophone has can translate over to the classical saxophone as well. I think it has some trouble doing that in
the more avant-garde side of the music, but in the more romantic
type of music I think the appeal is there. It's a little too early for
us to tell right now, but that's what we're trying to do with the
Serenade album.
Johnson wrote the following of your work with him, "Brian is
receptive to a lot of back and forth about interpretation and
optimizing the composition for the saxophone." I was wondering
how much consulting he does with you during the compositional
process for each piece of his you've premiered?
We have a lot of back and forth conversations and spend a lot
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Saxophone
Journal
15
oftime on the phone. He lives outside New York and I live in
Nashville so we don't actually see each other very often. Usually
there will be two or three calls as he's working on a piece, then
once I get the piece, the first draft, that's when our real telephone
work begins. I might have phrasing suggestions or I might mention that something is particularly awkward. He's very intent on
writing something that works well for the instrument as opposed
to just delivering something and having the performer figure
out how to play it. He really wants to write as though he were a
saxophone player. In fact for a while he rented a saxophone and
took lessons in an effort to really understand how the instrument
works in a player's hands.
You and he have now been working together for a number of years.
As time has progressed do you see Johnson's music changing as he
becomes more familiar with your abilities?
Good question. I think probably some of the corrections and input I had, early on, with regard to excessively long phrases, have
taken root. I think less of that kind of input is required of me now
than it was five or six years ago because he now anticipates these
things and has gotten better at writing in that way. The reverse
is true as well- I now anticipate his tastes for the performance
and therefore eliminate some corrections of his that may have
been necessary in the past. For example, I have a tendency to
phrase within a phrase, or to be too "precious" as he would say.
So I try to do that less. We understand each other's language better now and have grown together much like a band or a quartet.
We've worked together for so long we function, almost, as an
ensemble.
In my research I asked Matt to write about your work together and
he mentioned how he really enjoys writing for you because you are
able to handle the rhythmic complexity he writes into his music so
well. Do you see his rhythmic complexity expanding in the pieces
he's written for you over time?
Yes, in that I think part of what's going on with his rhythmic
complexity is that he really has a very clear idea of what he
wants to hear in the performance of his music from a musical
standpoint. ABa result he tries to notate that as much as possible. I believe he'll even try to notate rubato at times. That's
been a big point of discussion for us over the years in terms of
how much the composer can dictate. He will notate to the point
where I'll feel constrained as a player and I'll say, ''Well, if that
is exactly what you want you should have a synthesizer play it."
I feel the performer has to bring his humanity to the music in
order to make the notes come off the page. That said, we've both
learned a lot through this dialogue and the bottom line is that he
succeeds in writing exactly what he wants to hear. "Serenade" is
a great example of his successfully notating musicality through
his rhythmic figures. I think that's a really rare thing - I've
never seen it before - and so it can appear on the page to be the
exact opposite, a very strict, robotic rhythmic figure. Some of
the rhythms that are particularly difficult for my students to
interpret are those that go across the bar line; perhaps a halfnote triplet that flows across the bar line that and is written in
some kind of crazy way. It's confusing because it's something that
sounds simple and musical and yet it appears to be so rhythmically complex.
Saxophone Journal's own critic Paul Wagner, in writing about
your performance of Johnson's "Scherzo for Alto Saxophone and
Piano," (January / February 2007) said, "Brian Horner has a
warm vibrant sound that blends extremely well with the piano."
How do you and have you worked on your sound?
The main component in my work on tone is voicing. For those
that may not be familiar with that term, it refers to the position
of my tongue and the shape of my throat, and how that affects
the air stream and therefore my tone. The biggest part ofthat
is practicing overtones. Overtone exercises help you master the
involuntary muscles of the tongue and throat in order to manipulate the natural overtone series of the horn. A lot of inward concentration is required to realize, and control, the movements that
you're making. This can be a hard exercise for students to stick
with because it's such an indirect exercise, and you have to spend
a lot of time in order to really master it. Obviously it's not something that you'll actually do on stage, but you'll reap enormous
Don Sinta first published Voicing in 1992 to fill a
void in saxophone
expected
facility
pedagogy
of the
created as the
professional
player
shifted from two and a half to three and a half
octaves. This reissue of Voicing includes a bio
with rare photos, a discography
and a list of
premiers and pieces written for Sinta.
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[email protected]
November/December
2009