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Part 7 of Arthur Lehman's 10-part Article on Harold Brasch

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The 7th article by Arthur Lehman about euphonium virtuoso Harold Brasch has just been added to our site. Arthur Lehman shares more of his memories of the great player and teacher (who was called "Mr. Euphonium").


Here is an excerpt:


...Now don't anyone get the idea that Harold Brasch's high range was limited. It wasn't. I have no idea of just how high he really could play. I strongly suspect that he could possibly have gone so high, easily, that it would have been unbelievable. All I can say for certain is that one time when I was studying with him, we were working on high notes. The problem was not in reaching a high note. It was in playing octaves. A medium range note and then up to the octave above that. Alternating notes in one octave followed by notes exactly an octave above. For me that was a very hit or miss effort. With Harold it was a sure thing. He never missed. He explained to me how it's done and demonstrated. When he went up to the high note, he would say, "I set my lip like this, and then I play the note." He demonstrated this. Out came the high note clear as a bell. He'd just plucked it out of the air and there is was. Then, he repeated the process a third higher. Same thing. Perfect results. Finally he set his lips for the high "F" concert, and that rotten - for must euphonium players it is a rotten note - note also came out as clear as a bell. Well, it did sound quite easy. For him it may have been easy. For me it was always difficult. However, I did improve a lot in this area. I never was able to pluck out a high "F" concert out of the air as Harold did, however. That fellow was never stumped by anything on the euphonium. If it could be played, he could do it. What's more, he could do it better than anyone else. Amazing! What a genius! ...


Read the whole article here:

Harold Brasch Remembered, part 7 (by Arthur Lehman)


See more of Arthur Lehman's writings here:

Arthur Lehman Articles

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