Jeffrey Agrell

Harmony Kopprasch Jeffrey Agrell

The most popular all-time etude collection for horn (also used by low brasses) are the 60 Etudes (op. 6) by German hornist and composer Georg Kopprasch (c. 1800 - c. 1850). The Kopprasch etudes are more mechanical than musical in content and are useful to work on the basics of music: scales and arpeggios. There's just one problem with a diet of pure Kopprasch (as we familiarly refer to the whole collection): K etudes are great preparation for the early 19th century, but if we look around it should be apparent that the world is a different place than it was back then. Clothing, medicine, sports, communication - on and on - are all very different now from then. Shouldn't musical studies also reflect the demands of the current era? Enter the Millennium Kopprasch Series, of which Harmony Kopprasch Vol. I is the second, following Rhythm Kopprasch. This series takes the original etudes and dramatically extends them in various ways so that the musician of today can acquire the depth and breadth of skills they need to survive and thrive almost two hundred years after the original etudes were written. Harmony Kopprasch uses the original rhythms and meters, but applies them to a vastly more challenging array of scale and arpeggios types, chords, and keys. The player who knows the originals with their very limited scale types, chords, and keys can take their technique to the next level by revisiting the original pitches in HK in these contemporary harmonic contexts.