"Bud" Herseth
Adolph Sylvester ("Bud") Herseth
has played principal trumpet in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra ever
since
he became a member in 1948 and until he retired in 2001 (53
years!). He is now generally recognized as one of the
world's greatest symphonic trumpeters.
Born
in Lake Park, Minnesota on July 25,
1921
Started playing at 7
His father was the band director at this
little
school in Letcher, South Dakota where he got his first trumpet:
"I remember very distinctly my very
first time playing in the band. It was a summer band concert on the
main
street of that little town. I was sitting on the bandstand, way down on
the 3rd or 4th part, and playing some little march. I was only 8 at the
time, but I can remember it to this day. I thought, Man alive! What
a kick this is! And I'll never forget my Dad looking over at me and
smiling a couple of times. He could see that I really dug it."
Teachers
The first teacher were James Greco during
the summer of 1937 when he went to the first high school state band
camp
that Gerald Prescott held at the University of Minnesota. He had heard
Bud play at a regional contest and invited him to play solo cornet in
the
summer band. "We had a terrific time down there."
The next teachers, Marcel Lafosse and
Georges
Mager, at the New England Conservatory in Boston when he went there for
two and a half years on the GI Bill after World War II. The first year
and a half, Bud studied with Lafosse (the second trumpet player in the
Boston Symphony; first trumpeter Mager's schedule was full), and with
Mager
for his final year. Mager was a very famous orchestral trumpet player
in
those days - he played in Boston under Koussevitsky, even Monteux, and
must have played there 30 years or more. He was a very, exciting,
player
and a very inspiring teacher. "I owe a great deal to that man."
Players who influenced him
In a book by Louis Davidson (Trumpet
Profiles),
Bud lists a number of players he admired and whose playing most
influenced
his own playing:
Louis Davidson "One of the
first
records we had at home - one I played a lot was the recording of the
Shostakovitch
First Symphony by the Cleveland Orchestra with Artur Rodzinski
conducting.
I didn't know at that time who the first trumpet player was, but I was
very impressed with that recording. Later I heard Louis several times
in
person and I always thought him a really very elegant and marvelous
player.
I heard many things that I liked in his playing."
Harry Glantz Glanz played in the
New York Philharmonic (Mengelberg, Toscanini, others) then moved over
to
the NBC Orchestra a year or two after it was formed. He was a big
influence
on all symphonic trumpet players.
"With Glantz I think I was more impressed
with the solidity of his playing. To my way of thinking he was not as
inspiring
a player-in terms of really getting turned on when he played-as Mager
was.
But he was very reliable, with an excellent sound and style of
playing-one
that I think probably influenced more players than any other during
that
period."
Maurice Andre"Well, let's face
it, Andre is . . . he's it in terms of solo playing. The guy sounds
fabulous,
that's all . . .that's all I can say. I heard him play live a couple of
times, once in Amsterdam, and also in this area. I have nothing but the
greatest admiration for the man's playing-fabulous."
He also list other player's: Adolf
Scherbaum's playing because he was the first to really go into the
Baroque high trumpet playing in a big way-a very exciting player. And
jazzplayers
like Maynard Ferguson:
"Yes, I think Maynard Ferguson is the
greatest brass player in this part of the century."
Other musician
The Swedish tenor Jussi Bjoerling.
"Ahh ,.. his singing was out of slight, out of sight."
Frank Sinatra "The guy really
puts across the lyrics of a tune."
Preparation for performances
"As far as the individual players are
concerned,
preparing for the job is just mainly keeping up with fundamentals. I
practice
scales, long tones, and nice broad vocalise-type studies every day."
Books, specific materials
He try to vary it quite a bit, but there
are
several books he use, like the Charlier 36 Etudes, the Walter
Smith Top Tones, the Herbert L. Clarke second and third
books.
And of course he practice the difficult things that are coming up. But
he try not to over-practice and go stale on them. He always like to go
on the stage with the feeling that he is doing this for the first time.
. .
"and let's really go!"
Warmup routine
Bud does not use any particularly warmup
routine.
"I do believe in warming up, and as I grow older I find that it
takes
a little longer to get all the brain cells and all the red corpuscles
going.
It's a fact of life. You know, a warmup is just a practice session
gradually
approached - that's really all it is. You try to cover some of the
fundamentals,
first of all to get a nice freely-produced musical quality sound. And
then
you go through a few articulations, and gradually extend the range
until
your top, bottom, and middle registers, articulations, and lungs, are
all
there."
Equipment
Herseth uses a Bach 1B mouthpiece with 22
size throat, and sometimes a 1, both on the C trumpet that he uses 99
percent
of the time. On the higher pitched trumpets (piccolo for the Bach
Brandenburg)
he uses a shallower cup.
Advice from Bud
Practice.
Lesson with Bud
Here are some notes
that Tim Kent took when he studied with Bud.
Commentary from Bud
Here are some comments
from Bud that Bill Dishman compiled and sent to TPIN.
In the book Arnold Jacobs: Song and
Wind,
by WindSong
Press you can find an appendix with info on all the brass players
in
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO). The author, Brian Frederiksen has
given
permission to use this info here.
Bud on DVD
CSO recorded Mahler
5th in Germany, 1997.
Hindemith conducting CSO in 1963 -
(was on
YouTube for a while)
Bud on records
Here is an incomplete list of his
recordings. Except for a few (where Assitant Principal played), Bud
play on all the CSO records (where there are trumpet parts) for the
last 50 years!
Bud and Norway
His anchesters came from Norway, so in
1977,
he visited Norway to see the places where his relatives lives (in
Stange
in Hedemark). He also held a seminar.
News, other sites, etc.
Sources: THE INSTRUMENTALIST (April 1977), Trumpet
Profiles
by Louis Davidson.
