Debating
Philip Farkas
The primary book used with nearly all current horn players, as previously mentioned, is Phillip Farkas’s The Art of French Horn Playing, which was published in 1956. Farkas and his horn-literature examples have set the foundation for horn playing and technique for nearly seventy years now. While there is a great deal of information provided to the reader in this book, the issue of the embouchure is not emphasized. His separate book published later in his lifetime, A Photographic Study of 40 Virtuoso Horn Players’ Embouchures, consists of a two-and-a-half page explanation, along with forty pages of pictures and data, such as a vague description of the participant’s job, age, height, relative lip size, and details regarding tone, range, tonguing, etc. All participants remained anonymous; however, all participants were male-identifying. Race is unidentifiable due to black-and-white picture publication.
Figure 1a. A Photographic Study of 40 Virtuoso Horn Players’ Embouchures (Philip Farkas, 1975)
Shows an example of the layout of his book and what data is included.
This book is a sort of I Spy game. It is designed for the reader to go through by themselves to identify patterns amongst these forty embouchures. These patterns within the embouchures will supposedly help the student to configure a superior embouchure of their own. In comparing these photographs to each other, it will allow the reader to find the “common denominator” in what setups and musculature are the best to obtain these players’ “special ability.” Each one of these photographs looked nearly identical, with the exception of a few, which presented a similar two-thirds upper and one-third lower embouchure. Farkas states in this book:
"The author is well aware of the great number of superlatives used in describing these various playing qualities. But it must be remembered that each of the hornists chosen is a superlative player. This is exactly why he was chosen. Of greater interest, perhaps, than all of the superlatives used in these descriptions, are the occasional less-than-superlative remarks. For instance, why do so many of the very finest virtuosi admit to having a relatively slow tongue? Perhaps it is to be expected that we find many hornists who have a “superior” high register to have only a “good” low register or vice versa. These seemingly odd facts do show up occasionally in this book and only point out the fact that real study and contemplation are needed to obtain full benefit from it."
Farkas found it odd that some of his virtuoso participants were honest about any deficit they may have. For example, participant 26 in Figure 1b. above rated his high register “good,” while rating his low register “superior.” The delineation of his responses seems to have perplexed Farkas, as he selected these people based on their superior abilities; however, many of these participants' self-ratings did fall into the superior or excellent classes for all categories. Farkas does admit to needing “real study and contemplation” of why these “deficits” may make an appearance. Overall, for part of the horn population, books like this may be helpful in terms of finding someone’s embouchure to imitate based on similarities in facial features. For the rest of the community, this again bears the weight of being non-applicable due to the fact that this is only based on male physiology, and also the inability to determine if race is a factor.
While the Farkas books have trended towards being the most popular method books, there are a plethora of others that have echoed the same sentiments, such as those by Harry Berv, Frøydis Ree Werke, John Ericson, and Wendell Rider. Each of these method books state that the “standard” approach is the correct, or most recommended, way of playing. Some of these books, like Werke’s, have disclaimers regarding physiological differences. However, there is still no other technique that is given as an option for those whose facial features differ from those of the Caucasian man. A handful of these books have provided reasons for not recommending a different setup. For example, Wendell Rider has proclaimed that less upper lip limits flexibility on the instrument, and John Ericson claims that too little lower lip will affect the projection of the low notes on the instrument. While some of these reasons may be valid in certain circumstances, the overarching statement about these negative results is quite as presumptuous as the statements of the “standard” approach being the only true option for success.
Where each of these authors prove correct is in their statements regarding the embouchure set up being the most important part of successful horn playing. Harry Berv states, “The development of a good embouchure is the single most important element in horn playing.” This leads to an open-ended question: If the embouchure is the most important, then what do those whose facial features do not correlate with the Caucasian man do for an embouchure setup?
