As a tiny child in his Sunday best, a young Alan Taplin sat in front of the stereo and listened to “the coolest sounding instrument,” an instrument upon which he has since based his career.
“From the earliest point that I can remember I’ve always known what I wanted to do: I wanted to play the French horn,” Adjunct French Horn Instructor Alan Taplin said.
In the 18th century, the French horn led armies into battle, called in the hunt, and in classical repertoire was an elephant call. For Taplin, the French horn drove him to pursue a music performance major at the University of Michigan, and for the past 32 years Taplin has been a member of the horn section in the Toledo Symphony Orchestra.
“You build a reputation and people know who you are and then: ‘Oh, we need another horn teacher. Well, Alan Taplin is a horn teacher.’ You come, you get interviewed, you talk to the department head, and then off you go,” Taplin said.
Taplin has worked at Hillsdale College for 10 years, not only as the horn instructor, but also as instructor of Understanding Music, a part of the core curriculum.
“You’re covering what would normally be five terms of music history in a college if you were a music major into one semester,” Taplin said. “So it’s kind of a Reader’s Digest of music history.”
It is the music in films, television, and even commercials that Taplin believes keeps the music alive and increase the interest therein.
“The culture is kind of odd. It has changed a lot since I was a kid,”Taplin said. “We used to listen to the radio in order to listen to music. Now I think it’s downloads more than anything else. I’m just trying to keep up till I retire.”
The rigorous life of a musician is committed to endless hours of concentrated practice and repetition, as time and time again, according to Taplin, perfection tantalizes its members. Perfection is always at least a practice away.
“There is some tediousness about the repertoire that is not particularly challenging,”
Taplin said, using “The Nutcracker” as an example. “I’m probably in my 500th Nutcracker this year.”
Even though some pieces can become a tad too familiar, Taplin said he still likes to practice.
“There is a certain zen quality to practicing,” he said. “Sitting there, concentrating, working it out until it’s as good as you can make it. It’s a never ending battle. I never come out of a concert thinking it was the best I’d ever played that piece. It’s always like: ‘I can do better.’”
Both senior Mitchell Irmer and sophomore Anna Talcott have answered the battle call of the French Horn at Hillsdale College under the guidance of Taplin.
“I really appreciate that he has that perspective of appreciating that there are a lot of other things that are going on, especially as a biology major.” Talcott said.
As a professional musician, Taplin understands the need to balance the rest of life with music, even if music isn’t always the priority.
“That’s where your focus is to be, and this is going to take a back seat by comparison,” Talcott said. “He still expects you to practice, and he is still expecting you to be prepared, but he also understand if you’re very busy and had a really hard week. He’s willing to take whatever we have worked on and show us how to improve. He’s not looking for extremely polished work.”
Taplin took up juggling in his spare time between teaching private lessons at the University of Michigan.
“They had me teaching in the shop. And when a student wouldn’t show up, there were blocks of wood lying around, and I learned how to juggle,” Taplin said. “It’s a relief from sitting in a little room chewing away at scales for hours on end. I do find that my better players, my better musicians, learned to juggle faster than some of the others, and that is totally unscientific. There is a doctoral study someplace in here.”
By the repetitive motion of juggling, Taplin hopes to instill within his horn students an understanding of the mental motion that assists in the transposition of music during play.
Though it hasn’t been taken under any scientific scrutiny up to this point, many well-known horns learn to juggle and theorize that it works the same part of the brain as we use for transposition, Talcott said. The French horn requires constant mental and physical adjustments for the notes, so some teachers recommend juggling to improve transpositional acuity.
“Yeah, it’s actually something different to do. I actually juggled a little bit this summer. I’m not great at transposing. I’ve had a couple of other easier transpositions done pretty well, but this summer I just practiced juggling. I bought a set of tennis balls from Walmart,” Irmer said. “It generally gives the students something fun. I mean the other sections don’t do anything like that and I think a Friday afternoon doing horn ensemble and juggling is sort of play.”
Taplin, a man of many talents, has come a long way since that little boy who sat in front of a stereo listening to classical music.
“I’d always known that that is what I’d end up doing,” Taplin said. “I guess I’m lucky that I have succeeded at it, too. So I’m living the dream.”
lreyes@hillsdale.edu