<p>I’m new to needing orchestral excerpts for auditions, and I’ve been practicing the 5 I’ve selected for my Hartt audition, but there are several sections to all but 1 of the excerpts and each section contains multiple parts (horns 1-4). Do i just play one section of each excerpt, or do I play (as I’ve been practicing) the entire excerpt from each piece? Also, should I switch between parts when playing if, for instance, theres a solo or moving line on horn 3 and then just a sustained note while there’s a moving line on horn 1? Thanks</p>
<p>This is all that I see for Hartt’s orchestral excerpts requirements for horn:
“Five orchestral excerpts from standard repertoire.”</p>
<p>Normally an orchestral excerpt will not be an entire movement (unless it is quite a short movement). </p>
<p>As well, normally one would NOT switch parts within an excerpt (i.e. do not switch from horn 1 to horn 3 or from violin 1 to violin 2). </p>
<p>It would be unwise for someone to give you advice about how many “sections” you should play as part of an excerpt without knowing what exact work the excerpt is from and what you mean by “section.” If a section is only 8 bars long then it is probably too short. If it is 3 minutes long, then it is plenty long to constitute an excerpt. These are rough guides and perhaps for an undergrad audition at a school with lower standards, a very short excerpt would do as one of 5 excerpts.</p>
<p>Three suggestions:<br>
a) Ask your teacher about an appropriate length for an excerpt. I hope that your teacher has helped you select appropriate works from which to take the excerpts.
b) Purchase or borrow a book of orchestral excerpts for horn. It sounds like you have the actual horn parts for some works. The excerpts in an excerpt book will be an appropriate length and will not skip between horn parts.<br>
c) If in doubt, call the Hartt School and ask to speak to one of the horn instructors. </p>
<p>In any case, it is highly unlikely that your audition will be long enough for you to play all of all 5 of the excerpts. If the excerpt is too long, the panel will cut you off and move on to something else. It is rare at any audition to perform all of your audition repertoire.</p>
<p>@violindad
I do have an excerpt book (Orchestral Excerpts from the Symphonic Repertoire for French horn/ Compiled and edited by James Chambers Vol. III). It contains excerpts from different pieces, but each excerpt has several sections from each piece (i.e. it has measures 1-12 of piece 1 followed directly 24-28 and then by measures 104-128) so I am unsure if I am to play all of the excerpt from a given piece (one of the ones I had been looking at has over 320 measures from various parts of Scheherazade) or just one of the sections (in Scheherazade they range from 1 measure only to 28 measures). Most excerpts also contain more than one of the horn parts both at the same time and individually, and if all the sections are to be played cocurrently they do switch between them.</p>
<p>Beethoven – Symphony No. 8, op. 93</p>
<p>Excerpt 1 – III. Tempo di Minuetto
quarter = 126
ms. 45-78</p>
<p>As an example, for the piece above you should be able to play the entire excerpt, measures 45 - 78 for both Horn 1 and Horn 2. They will specify which horn part they want you to play 1 or 2. If there are 4 horn parts you should be able to play all 4. </p>
<p>Mendelssohn – Nocturne from Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 61</p>
<p>Excerpt 1 – Con moto tranquillo
ms. 1-34 (beg – 5 before A)</p>
<p>Excerpt 2 – Con moto tranquillo
ms. 66-end (C – end)</p>
<p>For this piece you should know both excerpts.</p>
<p>Most of the time you will fill out a form to be mailed in for your audition or you will be asked to fill one out at your audition that will ask which orchestral excerpts you have at your disposal and when you go in they will say “play the Mendelssohn 66 - End” or “Play Horn 2 of the Beethoven 8”.</p>
<p>If you are auditioning at a remote audition, say for Eastman in NYC the auditioner (sp ?) might specify or ask you to pick two excerpts on your list.</p>
<p>Sagiter’s advice is very good. Use the specific excerpts that Sagiter has mentioned as guides for how much to prepare. Be certain that within your five excerpts you have opportunities to display your playing at a fast tempo and a slow tempo, and your articulation abilties.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help. Alas, I am with one question more. My excerpt book doesn’t give me measure numbers…so how huge a problem would that be on filling out the form if/when i most likely get it? Should I find originals and match it up and find them manually?</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.hornexcerpts.org/[/url]”>http://www.hornexcerpts.org/</a></p>
<p>They have a bunch online and the book is like $30.</p>
<p>If they remove this post I’ll PM you :-))</p>
<p>Do you have a private teacher ? He/she should really be involved in the choice of your excerpts which should highlight your strengths.</p>
<p>Hey thanks.</p>
<p>…Sadly I do not have a private horn teacher (just piano); I’ve applied as a transfer from the community college I currently attend and there are no teachers close enough I can get to do to transportation conflicts…</p>