Notes from a Clinic with Bud Herseth

[_Don Herman]

These notes are graciously provided by Mark Minasian, who this past April was able to attend a clinic and obtain a lesson with Mr. Herseth, former Principal of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Enjoy! - Don
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Ok, it's 12:35 a.m. in Hawaii, I just read Kristin's post and I'm also still buzzed over this day as well as a little drunk on a combination of cocktails, wine and spending three days calling a man I've idolized since childhood "Bud". I'm not going to get much sleep tonight, so might as well recount some of what has happened.

First, his clinics of Thursday and Friday:

A key point of his clinics and lessons was that "All music should tell a story". Don't just play the notes, communicate to the listener. He demonstrated this multiple times, playing orchestral parts flawlessly, but blandly, then playing again but with a clear mental image of what he wished to communicate.

In every clinic, someone would ask him who his influences were. He pretty much said that he played the trumpet as he wanted it to sound but that musically, his favorite people to listen to were operatic tenor Jussi Bjorling and jazz singer Frank Sinatra. Bud stated that the voice is the greatest musical instrument and both of these artists truly communicated through their music.

Over the two days of clinics, Bud performed excerpts from Pictures at an Exhibition, the Lenore calls, Lt. Kije's wedding, Mahler symphonies 1, 3, 5, Brahms' Academic Festival Overture, Shostakovich's concerto for piano and trumpet, Dvorak's New World Symphony, Debussy's La Mer and Fetes, Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy, Strauss's Don Juan, Wagner's Prelude to der Meistersinger, Gershwin's American in Paris and Rhapsody in Blue, the Haydn and Hummel concerti and songs from when he was a child, military marches, multiple tonguing sections from various cornet solos. All was supremely musical, played from memory and each a demonstration of why he's such a legend.

An example: Promenade from Pictures, he said that you should imagine a man strolling through an art gallery. Hear the footsteps with each quarter note of the trumpet solo. He also told a story of one time Georg Solti asking him to come over to a grand piano. Solti played the original version of the promenade on the piano and asked Bud to listen to the sound of the piano. Listen to the sound of the hammers striking the strings and the decay of the vibrating strings. "That's how I want the promenade to sound" said Solti. I heard Herseth play the promenade several times over the past few days and he does it with an articulation that is hard to describe. Not really an accent, not an sfz or fp, but every note "pops" out of the horn in a fashion similar to the sound of a piano being played.

On breathing, he said that "there has to be flow. Keep the air moving but don't make a big deal out of breathing." He used the analogy of breathing when you are talking. If you are going to state a long sentence, you take a big breath. If you're just going to say something succinct, you take a smaller breath. In either case, you don't think much about the process, just do it.

On vibrato: in Germany and when playing Germanic works, little to no vibrato is expected. Gershwin works should have lots of vibrato. Understand and play the style and context of the music.

Practice music in different styles and tempi so you have the flexibility to provide whatever a conductor may ask of you.

For each clinic, George Nomura, the organizer of Herseth's trip, arranged for brass ensembles to perform for and with Herseth. On Thursday, The Royal Hawaiian Band's trumpet section was suppose to perform but passed (The Hawaiian spirit of Aloha is all fine and good, but sometimes people around here are a little too laid back!). The organizer made some last minute calls and I and two other free-lance trumpeters performed a trumpet trio arrangement of Prelude to Der Meistersinger and received some coaching from Bud. On Friday, the full brass section of the Honolulu symphony performed Der Meistersinger, with Bud conducting in a parody of Fritz Reiner that left Honolulu's principal trumpet, Mike Zonshine laughing so hard he was unable to play. The brass section played through the entire prelude, with Herseth coaching not only the trumpets but also the horns, bones and solo tuba on their passages. The brass left except for the trumpet section and Herseth worked with the Honolulu Symphony trumpets on several excerpts, demonstrating the use of different mouthpieces, mutes and rotary horns on various works.

On trumpets: Herseth brought with him the Bach large bore 229 C that was made by Vincent Bach and purchased by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony back in the early '50's. He said that Reiner liked Herseth's sound, asked him what he was playing and then ordered a dozen identical horns from Vincent Bach. When the horns arrived, the section tried them out. All the horns played differently and each player found a different horn that he preferred. Herseth has used the same horn throughout his career. There was a short time when he did play a horn made for him by Monette but Bud said he started getting comments that he no longer sounded like himself so he went back to the Bach.

At dinner, I asked Bud if the Selmer Bachs were comparable to the Mt. Vernon or NY Bachs. He just said "NOPE". He went on to say that Vincent Bach was a close friend and when Bach sold to Selmer, Bud told him "You're not my friend anymore."

After my lesson with Bud, I had him play my Bach C. Now, I'll tell you I've played C's by Bach, Yamaha, Kanstul, Monette, Blackburn, Scodwell, as well as modified Cs by Malone, Scodwell, Akright and Monette. My Bach, which I recently purchased from Dr. Karl Sievers, is the best C I've ever played. Bud played my horn and said that it was a very good horn but a bit stuffier than his horn, which stunned me as my horn is one of the most open, free blowing C's I've ever played. Listening, I could hear that his vintage Bach had far more core to the sound than my horn. Old man Bach must have been doing something right with his horns!

Well, it's now 2:00 a.m. Guess that's enough for now. Perhaps tomorrow I'll talk about my lesson with Bud.

Mark Minasian