CONTENTS IN THIS CHAPTER:

Latest updated 4/7 – 2024

1 – VIENNESE CLASSIC, or THE FIRST VIENNESE SCHOOL (1750 – 1830)

2 – TRANSPOSING

3 – THE TRUMPET

4 – THE KEYED TRUMPET AND ANTON WEIDINGER

5 – THE HAND STOPPING TRUMPET

6 – THE SLIDE TRUMPET

7 – THE FRENCH HORN

8 – THE HAND HORN TECHNIQUE

9 – HORN CONCERTOS AND HORN SOLOISTS

10 – THE HORN SECTION IN THE ORCHESTRA EXTENDS TO FOUR

11 – CHAMBER MUSIC WITH FRENCH HORN

12 – PURE HORN ENSEMBLES

13 – THE HORN USED FOR SIGNALLING

14 – THE POST HORN

15 – THE TROMBONE

16 – CHANGES IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE TROMBONE

17 – TROMBONE ENSEMBLES

18 – THE TROMBONE AS A FASION INSTRUMENT

19 – THE KEYED BUGLE

20 – THE SERPENT

21 – NEW BRASS INSTRUMENTS

22 – THE OPHICLEIDE

23 – WIND ENSEMBLES

24 – STUDY BOOK FOR ALL BRASS INSTRUMENTS

1. VIENNESE CLASSIC, or THE FIRST VIENNESE SCHOOL (1750 – 1830)

 

The components of the orchestras of the Viennese classic era were the same instruments that we see in the Symphony Orchestras of today. The Continuo group disappeared, the Strings became the basis of the orchestra, and the Wind components got standardised. The group of Woodwind instruments existed (some of them or all together) of: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, and from about 1770 also of 2 clarinets. The group of Brass instruments existed of 2 French horns, often with 2 trumpets. Later the group was enlarged by 3 trombones and the horn group was extended to 4. Timpani were almost always there and were sometimes accompanied by side drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle and various other instruments. The trumpeters and horn players had big trouble though when they had to change between instruments or tubes to change the pitch of the various music pieces they had to play.

 

 

MOZART WITH ORCHESTRA

Drawing from around 1770 by Johann Zoffany (1733-1810)? To the left: 2 hornplayers

2. TRANSPOSING

Trumpet/French horn in D

WRITTEN              SOUNDING

TRANSPOSING:

To make it easier for trumpeters and French horn players to ”switch”, their parts were written in ”C” major. If one should play in ”D”, there only stood ”in D” in the part and the player should switch to another instrument or change a tube to get the right pitch.

3. THE TRUMPET

 

FRENCH IMPERIAL GUARD TRUMPETERS

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

A detail of the painting by Theodore Gericault in oil on canvas of the trumpeters of the Napoleons Imperial Guard in full dress parade uniform. The painting was completed in France between 1813/14. Although the horn made its entrance into the military, the trumpet was still the leading military signal instrument. Over time, the 2 instruments grew together in THE BUGLE HORN (see below 13 – THE HORN USED FOR SIGNALLING).

The beginning of the 18th century shows various trumpet concertos of real virtuous playing, especially in the trumpet upper registers, for example by Johann Melchior Molter, Johann Wilhelm Hertel, Leopold Mozart and Michael Haydn – the latest goes up to the 24th natural tone. These pieces were written for the German and Austrian Trumpeters of the Court, being the last trumpeters who could manage the difficult Clarion playing method.

The Trumpeter Corpses of the Court were now on their way out. Altenburg (see under BAROQUE, 5 Fig.18) praises their quality and defends their privileges. He was a trumpeter himself but became a lawyer and he knew how to choose his words, but the development had both musical and social grounds. At this time quit a few small Courts were suppressed, and with them their Trumpeter Corpses, that bore the Clarion tradition. The status as Solo- instrument disappeared, and the trumpet became a real tutti-instrument. What we know about the orchestral instruments at the time of Beethoven, we have for a big part learned from the German music scientist and pedagogue Franz Joseph Fröhlich (1780 – 1862). He stated that the trumpet pair in an orchestra existed of one Clarion player and one Principal player, so the old names were still alive, but this configuration was dangerous for a dominant 2nd trumpet. The parts were seldom higher than the 12th natural tone, and the problematic 11th, that was no problem in the Baroque, was abandoned by Beethoven.

 

 

NATURAL TRUMPET IN G FROM 1806

The trumpet comes with six crooks for F (U-shaped), E (U-shaped), E-flat (U-shaped plus small coil), D (U-shaped plus large coil), C (U-shaped plus one large and one small coil), and B-flat (U-shaped plus two large coils). Engraved on garland in script: Michael Saurle in München 1806

When you look at a real Viennese Classic trumpet part, as for example in a symphony by Haydn or in a piano concerto by Mozart, it can really look so spartanic that one may wonder whether the composer even wanted to have trumpets in his piece. But as soon as you hear the music it is immediately clear that the trumpets (and timpani) almost gild the orchestral sound and give the music its character. The trumpet kept its fanfare-like expression – mostly in the tutti parts, but sometimes as a soloist, like in Beethovens Leonora overture.

 

TRUMPET SOLO FROM LEONORE

 

To overcome the limitations of the natural harmonic series of the trumpet, 3 old ideas came up again, although in a new form.

4. THE KEYED TRUMPET AND ANTON WEIDINGER

 

ANTON WEIDINGER (1767 – 1852)

At around 1775 new attempts came up to build trumpets with holes,  just like earlier  when the Cornett saw the light, though this time with a key system to close the holes (like woodwind instruments). It was the Viennese court trumpeter Anton Weidinger  who developed a trumpet with 5 keys. He did not invent it as some have believed. He developed his own instrument (Klappentrompete) that could play chromatically based on earlier examples of keyed trumpets. Weidinger’s teacher was Chief Court and Field Trumpeter (Oberhof und Feldtrompeter) in the Imperial and Royal Court Trumpeter Corps, Vienna, a position Weidinger later would assume. Fist Weidinger was employed in the military, in 1792 he was In the Mannella Theater i Vienna and 1799 he joined the Imperial and Royal Court Trumpeter Corps (Hoftrompeterkorps).

KEYED TRUMPET

The keyed trumpet was pitched in G, and had extra tubes to obtain a lower pitch. Normally one should move the holes when changing the pitch by expanding the tube, (impossible of course) . To eliminate intonation problems the trumpeter could alter the fingering for different tuning. And it was a success, the keyed trumpet got a rather positive verdict! The brilliant trumpet sound was now supplied by a soft woodwind-like sound. Nowadays we know that the keyed trumpet had a few defects, especially the holes were too small. The positive approach could also well be because of the ”ideal” sound of that era: They just did not expect an ”even” sound in all registers.

In 1796 Joseph Haydn wrote his Trumpet concerto for Weidinger, both as an act of friendship as to his interest in innovation.The 28th of March 1800 the concerto was performed for the first time at the Imperial and Royal Burgtheater. Until then, Haydn’s writing for the trumpet had rarely risen above the level of providing harmonic support or underlining a particular Affect. Now he took a closer interest in the new potential of Weidingers organisirte Trompete (organized trumpet), writing a trumpet part for him that was totally unlike the traditionally type of writing with the instrument. In this concert , thrills, chromatic runs and diatonic melodies replaced the standard fanfare motifs. The Concerto disappeared together with the keyed trumpet (when in the 19th century it was superseded by the Valve Trumpet) but it reappeared again in 1908, and has been the uppermost favourite piece of trumpeters and the audience.

By around 1803 Weidinger had succeeded in interesting johann Nepomuk Hummel also to write a piece. It was written 1803 and his Concerto a tromba principale received its first performance at the Esterhazy court on 1 January 1804 to great acclaim. The concerto was marking Hummel’s entrance into the Esterházy court orchestra, following Haydn. The concerto was originally in the key of E Major, but to day often played in the key of E Flat Major. Weidinger himself is believed to have reworked the piece, at least in part, in order to adapt the writing to the instrument’s technical capabilities. Hummel also wrote a Quartet for (keyed)trumpet, violin, cello and piano for Weidinger.

Haydn and Hummel’s concerts have ended up being some of the most famous and played trumpet concertos at all, but it is believed that also W.A. Mozart has written a concerto (for naturel trumpet). The only evidence for the existence of the concerto is a letter written on 12 November 1768 by Mozart’s father Leopold Mozart. Even though the concert is now lost, it has nevertheless been given a Köchel registration number, K 47c.

The keyed trumpet disappeared from the musical scene by the 1840s. During the 1820s the valve trumpet in the area around Vienna displaced the keyed trumpet. Only in Italy did it find a temporary refuge in the operas of Rossini and Meyerbeer. The Italian brothers Alessandro and Antonio Gambati made a tour around Europe in the 1820ies, as soloists on the instrument, and up till 1840 the keyed trumpet was used in military music in Austria and Italy. Although Weidinger, however, got some success and he toured in public halls throughout Germany, England and France. A German music newspaper raved: “The crescendo and decrescendo, the clear high register that penetrates to the very marrow, especially in those places where Mr. W. remained within the natural key of the instrument, are truly incomparable and in the literal sense of the word, unheard of.”

 

The composer Felix Mendelssohn did not think much of the keyed trumpet. In a letter of February 14, 1831, to clarinetist Heinrich Bärmann (1784-1847), Mendelssohn wrote about the trumpeters in Rome:

I must still add that the trumpeters play all the time on the accursed keyed trumpets, which seem to me like a pretty woman with a beard or like a man with breasts–they simply do not have the chromatic notes, and now it sounds like a trumpet castrato, so dull and unnatural. But there is one here who plays variations on it!

5. THE HAND STOPPING TRUMPET (STOPPED TRUMPET)

The technique of hand-stopping was taken from the French horn, and introduced in 1777 by a court trumpeter in Karlsrue Michael Woggel.( He bent the trumpet to make it easier to reach the bell). The technique was rather simple, by putting 3 fingers of the right hand into the bell, the natural tones would be a semitone lower. The stopped trumpet became extremely popular in Germany, France and Spain until about 1840. Three well-known German virtuosos on the stopped trumpet were Zenker, with 62 solo performances are recorded from 1818 to 1833, Johann Heinrich Krause was active between 1821 and 1827, and Karl Bagans, Krause’s successor as Royal Prussian Chamber Musician.

The stop trumpet was used for quite some time even after the invention of the valve system. As late as 1830, trumpeter in Berlin Karl Bargans wrote an article about the trumpet at this time: By folding the trumpet (in F) together, the distance to the bell had become so short that one could apply stop technique to the trumpet. The available tones consisted of open natural tones, stopped tones that lowered a natural tone a half tone and fully stopped tones that raised a natural tone a half tone. The latter were the most problematic with their dull sound that was far from the brilliance of the open natural tones. He shows the following table for the available tones of the stop trumpet:

 

 

 

MUSIC FOR STOPPED TRUMPET

Trumpeters using this hand stopping technique could go very far. In 1829 the Preussian chamber musician Karl Bagans wrote an article, showing this melody, which according to him easily could be played on a stopped trumpet.

Both Beethoven and Schubert used this stopping technique in some of their orchestral works, by lowering the 5th natural tone with a semi tone, that means a written E flat. Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) writes in his famous Treatise on Instrumentation from 1843 NEVER to let a trumpet start with a stopped note, and to use the technique only in loud nuances.

6. THE SLIDE TRUMPET

In the late part of the 18^th century a third type of trumpet came along, which grew to utmost popularity in England: The Slide Trumpet, a natural trumpet in F to which was added a backward moving double slide (like the trombone) with an automatic return mechanisme joint.

. It was, as stated by the first known slide trumpeter John Hyde, invented by himself, although he mentions in his Preceptor for the Trumpet and Bugle Horn (1799) that Richard Woodham – an instrument maker from London – was the first to make such trumpets. The slide could lower each natural tone by one or two semitones. It was different from the keyed trumpet and the stopped trumpet, by the fact that this slide trumpet had the same sound as the natural trumpet and therefor perfect for the Oratorio in the Baroque (which were ever so popular in England). Henry Purcell had earlier used a slide trumpet in his Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary, the English Flatt Trumpet, but this trumpet had a double slide. One of the biggest reasons for the popularity of the slide trumpet was the authority of the important trumpeters: father and son “Thomas Harper”, Sr. (1786-1853) and Jr. (1816-1898) both ”stars” in the music life of London.

 

 

ENGLISH SLIDE TRUMPET IN F

A natural trumpet by George Henry Rodenbostel, London, before 1789/90, converted into a slide trumpet by Richard Woodham, London, before 1797/98. The earliest surviving English mechanical slide trumpet and possible prototype of the design that dominated English trumpet manufacture for a century.

 

THOMAS HARPER, SENIOR

Lithography from his Method for the Slide Trumpet, 1836. The Slide trumpet was pitched in F, and had tubes that could lower the pitch. The ”slide” was the bend next closest to the mouthpiece. It was used with the left hand and it moved back with a spring lock. The slide could lower each natural tone by one or two semitones.

THOMAS HARPERS “SIGNATURE MELODY” – Thomas Harper often wrote this little tune together with his signature, and it is just perfect for an English Slide Trumpet:

 

THOMAS HARPER, JUNIOR. WITH HIS SLIDE TRUMPET

7. THE FRENCH HORN

 

HORN PLAYERS IN AN ORCHESTRA

Konzert im Zunfthaus der Schumacher in Zürich (1753). Lost original painting. Reproduction Zürich, Zentralbibliothek

The method of playing in duets, which was common for French horns could easily be used in the symphonic orchestras, and the French horn became the leading brass instrument in the orchestra. It was rather difficult though for the horn player to be able to play the whole register and it became common to specialise in a “high” horn player (corno-alto) or a “low” player (corno-basso). These 2 categories used different mouth pieces, and there was 2 mm difference in the width of these mouthpieces. The French horn also got a leading role as a solo instrument, and it was more and more used in chamber music.

 

 

FRENCH HORN WITH DIFFERENT TUBES TO LENGTHEN THE INSTRUMENT

These tubes lengthened the distance between the mouthpiece to the bell. Anton Joseph Hampel (1710-1771) a horn player in Dresden, together with the instrument maker Johann Werner, came with the so-called Inventionshorn. This horn used sliding crooks inside the loop, to achieve a fully chromatic instrument.

FROM “MÉTHODE POUR LE COR, BY FRÉDÉRIC DUVERNOY, PRINTED 1802.

 

 

INSTRUCTION DRAWING

 

DIFFERENT MOUTHPIECES FOR THE FRENCH HORN TO PLAY HIGH OR LOW. 

The high and low horn are switched.

8. THE HAND HORN TECHNIQUE.

The biggest renewal of horn playing came in the middle of the 18th century with the discovery of a technique that made it possible to make corrections in the tones, simply by putting a hand in the bell. The above mentioned Anton Joseph Hampel, a horn player, born in Prague but working at the Dresden court, is credited for the development of the ‘hand-muting’, or ‘hand-stopping ’ technique. He discovered this technique when he was experimenting with mutes. The technique goes as follows: The right hand, slightly formed as a cup is placed in the bell of the instrument with the back of the fingers touching the bell throat. The pitch gets higher by pulling the hand out, and down when putting the hand further in, (about one half or even a whole step). When putting the hand still further in the bell the pitch gets a half-tone higher, but the sound will be sharper. That is what we nowadays call for Stopped Horn.

DRAWING AF THE HAND POSITION IN THE HORN BELL

– from two different angles.

From the late nineteenth-century horn tutor by Henri Kling, Horn Schule c1900.

The consequence of the technique was a change in the sound of the French horn. Even with the hand in the ”neutral position” the open baroque sound changed into a more soft and romantic sound, and that strengthened the opinion of the French horn as an instrument to describe ”nature”. Later this quality was used in an exceptional way by Carl Maria von Weber (1786 – 1826) in the opera The Hunter’s Bride (1821) (der Freischütz). This ”new” sound made the French horn suited to play with all the other instruments, strings and woodwind as well as the other brass instruments. This ability to ”play together with other instruments” made a lot of composers (to be on the safe side) to overdo their parts, so they had to play all the time. The tones of the stopped horn are not even, there is a big difference between the open and stopped notes, and the horn player who mastered the technique was seen as a true wizard.

 FROM BEETHOVEN’S SONATA FOR FRENCH HORN AND PIANO

One of the methods, for composer as well as for the player, was to play pronounced on the open safe notes and softer on the stopped notes. In the beginning of Beethoven’s Sonata the phrasing is almost build in in the use of the open and stopped notes. The first two phrases in forte are ”safe” natural tones, and after that the hand stopping method is used in the lyrical part in piano.

9. HORN CONCERTOS AND HORN SOLOISTS.

 

The French horn got immense popularity as a solo instrument and the setting in corno-alto and corno-basso duos got its continuation in a range of double concertos by (amongst others): Leopold Mozart (1719 – 1787), Joseph Haydn (1732 – 1809), Antonio Francesco Rosetti (1746 – 1792) and Friedrich Kuhlau (1786 – 1832). Hampel himself was a corno-basso in one of the most famous horn duos together with Carl Haudek (1721 – 1800?) on corno-alto. Another famous duo was Johann Palsa (1752 – 1792) and Carl Türrschmidt (1753 – 1797).

 

COR MIXTE

When being a solo horn player ( a corno-alto or a corno-basso) one could get into trouble, when playing in the middle register. So particularly in France a 3. category came into being, COR MIXTE. Around 1770 C. Türrschmidt and the Parisian instrument maker Joseph Raoux developed a French Horn, the COR SOLO, especially for this middle register (in a way an improved version of the Inventionshorn). The extreme registers were not necessary and with this instrument you could play in the keys of D till G. After some time though the key of F became the most popular, even if the piece was not written in this key. Later the valved horn overtook this key as standard tuning.

In the Viennese Classic time an incredible lot of Solo Horn concertos was written. Not only by the above mentioned composers of the double horn concertos (not Kuhlau though) but also by Édouard Du Puy (1770-1822), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791) and Carl Maria von Weber (1786 – 1826).

Especially Mozart’s solo pieces for French Horn and orchestra, 4 Concertos and a Rondo, are well known, these was written for Joseph Ignaz Leutgeb (about 1745 – 1811) from Salzburg who was a close friend of the Mozart family. When Leutgeb had travelled to Paris, Frankfurt and through Italy, he moved back to Vienna in 1777 and bought a house, it was financed by a loan from Leopold Mozart. It is also said that he owned a cheese shop, to expanded his methods of income, but this was a sausage shop, owned by his father in law – Leutgeb never owned a cheese shop. Viennese archival records, however, show that Leitgeb never ran a shop? Since it is highly unlikely that he had the expertise and the necessary business prospects to actually run a cheese- or sausageshop. Maybe the story only served as part of a scheme to elicit money from Leopold Mozart. When in 1777 Leitgeb and his wife bought the house “Zur Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit” they had to borrow the money.

 

 Left: LEUTGEB’s HOUSE “Zur Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit” in 1950

Right: Leitgeb’s seal on the envelope of his will.

Leutgeb continued to work as a horn player. A press review of one of Leutgeb’s performances in Paris (Mercure de France) indicates he was a fine performer:

A “superior talent”, with the ability to “sing an adagio as perfectly as the most mellow, interesting and accurate voice”.

FROM THE LAST MOVEMENT OF MOZART’S 4th HORN CONCERTO

As a remembrance of the horn as a huntsman’s instrument, all Mozart’s Horn Concertos end with a rondo in 6/8th.

 

 

 Mozart liked making fun and supplied his notes with personal mocking comments to Leutgeb, for example:

Allegro for strings – Adagio for horn

Just before starting – it is you M. Funny

One bar pause – now you can breathe!

After repeating the theme – did we not finish? Oh you mean pig!

After several times repeating the theme – and now, please help me God, for the fourth time

 

 

THREE FAMOUS FRENCH VIRTUOSI ON HAND HORN

Left.: FRÉDÉRIC NICOLAS DUVERNOY (1765 – 1838) was a big star in the musical life in Paris, and highly valued by Napoleon Bonaparte. As an example of his fame it was written on the tickets to Gaspare Spontini’s opera ”La Vestale”(1807) (The Vestal Virgin) that the ”Solos on the French Horn are played by M. FRÉDÉRIC DUVERNOY” – otherwise there were no names on the tickets. Duvernoy was a professor at the Conservatoire de Paris from 1795 till 1817.

Middle: LOUIS FRANCOIS DAUPRAT (1781 – 1868) Succeeded Duvernoy as a professor at the Paris Conservatory from 1817 till 1842. In his ”Méthode pour cor alto et cor basse” he describes the art of playing the Hand Horn as such: If you don’t understand the imperfections of the horn, you never can make it to the perfect instrument it is”.

Right: JACQUES FRANCOIS GALLAY (1795 – 1864). He too was a hand horn virtuoso. He especially is known as a perfectionist on the two middle octaves on Cor mixte. He succeeded his teacher Dauprat as a professor at the Paris Conservatory from 1842 till 1864. The illustration fig. 9 is from his horn school. Gallay also composed – mostly for horn: A horn concert, 3 horn trios, a horn quartet, etudes and pieces for horn and piano.

 

GIOVANNI PUNTO (1746 – 1803)

Hampel and Haudek not only were known as capable horn players, they were capable teachers as well. Their star pupil of almost epoch-making standard was JAN VACLAV STICH from Bohemia. As a young boy he was send to study music by Count Joseph Johann von Thun, at which estate his father was bonded. He stayed at the Court for four years, but was rather a troublemaker and at age 20 he ran away with four friends. The Count got very angry and hired soldiers to catch his prodigy, or at least to knock out his front teeth to prevent him to play the horn. Stich came to Italy, and changed his name to GIOVANNI PUNTO. From there he started to travel through Europe as a soloist with great success. Mozart wrote the horn part in his “Sinfonia Concertante” for Punto, the same did Beethoven with his Sonata for horn and piano op.18. The premiere of this piece was performed by Beethoven and Punto, but the piece was finished very late and Punto had to play most of the piece a prima vista!

 

MEMORIAL PLAQUE FOR GIOVANNI PUNTO

At the House čp.301 Marketplacein Praha is a memorial plaque with the text: “On February 16, 1803, Prague died in the world virtuoso horn composer and teacher Giovanni Punto, born September 28, 1746 in Žehušice as Jan Václav Stich.”

 

LUIGI BRIZZI (1737-1815) , Bolognia, Italy

– was the head of three generations of distinguished horn players and probably teacher of:

 

LUIGI BELLOLI (1770-1817), Italy

Today, the hornist family Belloli almost has fallen into oblivion. Luigi Belloli, principal horn at the Scala Opera, his brother Agostino Belloli, Giuseppe Belloli and the two sons Luigi Bellolis, Giovanni and Giacomo . Everyone worked as hornists in different orchestras of Italy.

 

 JEAN-JOSEPH RODOLPHE  (1730 – 1812)

French  horn player, violinist and composer. He wrote music for ballets and operas and music for horn. From 1798 he was professor at the Paris Conservatory. He popularized the horn as a solo instrument and was probably the first in Paris to use the technique of handstopping.

 

 

 BENEDETTO BERGONZI (1790-1839)

– was one of Luigi Bellonis pupils, hornplayer, composer and inventor from Cremona, Italy. To improve the natural horn then in use, Bergonzi in 1822 applied keys similar to those used on the keyed bugle in order to obtain a chromatic range. However this keyed corno da caccia, was different from other keyed instruments in one respect: its “trombini”, which were kinds of small bells to amplify the sound issuing from the four key holes and make it sound more like that coming out of the bell. Twice Bergonzi submitted his “new” instrument to competitions that were aimed at promoting national enterprise and organized by the Imperio Regio Instituto di scienze, lettere ed arti di Milano. After failing the test the first time, the instrument was awarded a silver medal on 7 October 1824.

 

 Left: BEGONZI’s CORNO DA CACCIA, RECONSTRUTION.Right: closeup of the “TROMBITINA” – NELL.

Note that the actual key has been removed only to illustrate how the trombino might have appeared. Imagine what four of them would have looked like!

The sound is not changed appreciably on the reconstructed model horn and the problem of how to configure the lever and key inside the trombino has not been pursued.

 

JOHN MELLER’s COACHBOY

Painting by Wales Date 1770 – 1799. In the late 18th century, Philip Yorke, then owner of Erddig, England, decided to commission portraits of his servants.  This painting was seen as the first in the series.

 

HORN PLAYER

Painting from c. 1815 by  Jacques-François Gamelin (1774-1871)  

 

 

HORN PLAYER

Painting by Albert Schindler, Portrait of a Gardener and Horn Player in the Household of the Roman Emperor Francis I, 1836.

PORTRAIT OF FRANCIS JOHNSON (1792-1844) 

the famous American keyed bugle player obviously also played the horn? (see also 19 KEYED BUGLE)

The New York Public Library

10. THE HORN SECTION IN THE ORCHESTRA EXTENDS TO FOUR.

 

 

 

PIANO CONCERTO PLAYED AT THE ZÜRICH MUSIC SOCIETY HALL 1777

– among others 2 horn players.

In the Viennese Classic period there are almost always two horns in the orchestra, but Beethoven extended the group to three horns in his Symphony No. 3, Sinfonia Eroica, (Heroic Symphony) (presented in the well know ”Horn Trio” in the Scherzo), and to four horns in his Symphony no. 9. After some time four horns became common and from the beginning the group was divided in two pairs, each with its own pitch – which gave more possibilities in the use of the natural tones. That is why 1^st and 3^rd horn play the high parts and the 2^nd and 4^th horn the low parts. This is still the case even with the valve system, which makes this division not necessary.

11. CHAMBER MUSIC WITH FRENCH HORN

 

 

HORN PLAYER IN A CHAMBER MUSIC ENSEMBLE

Painting by Louis Carrogis de Carmontelle (1717 – 1806), Musée Condé, France.

The horn easily melted with the different chamber music ensembles – often with outstanding parts to play, as in Mozart’s Horn Quintet (horn, violin, two violas and cello), A musical Joke (Ein musikalischer Spass) (two horns and string quartet), Quintet for piano and winds in Eb major, Beethoven’s Quintet for piano and winds, Sextet for two horns and string quartet op. 81b and Septet op. 20 (violin, viola, cello, double bass, clarinet, horn and bassoon), and in Schubert’s Octet in F major (like Beethoven’s Septet, with an extra violin).

 

TITLE PAGE OF MOZART’s “EIN MUSIKALISCHER SPASS” ( A MUSICAL JOKE)

Mozart finished the piece June 14, 1787. This is from a version published 1797. The close up below showing the 2 natural horn – players.

At the end of the 18th century the wind quintet was created. The wind quintet consists of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and FRENCH HORN. The first quintets were written by Giuseppe Cambini (1746-1825) – 3 pieces, and Franz Danzi (1763-1826) – 9 pieces, and the Czech born composer Antonin Reicha (1770-1836) wrote his 25 wind Quintets in Paris between 1811 and 1820, and they were played all over Europe shortly afterward. He has therefore been named “father of the wind quintet”. See also 23 WIND ENSEMBLES.

 

 TOWN MUSICIANS PLAYING FOR A WEDDING

Painting on panel from a farm in Grimstrup, Denmark. Left a cellist, right. a horn player. In Denmark and Germany town musicians had privileges in offering music at weddings. They performed for the guests’ arrival, during dinner (to “play to the table”) and to dance. From the mid 1700s until the 1800s hornists often played with strings and woodwinds – as in chamber music.

12. PURE HORN ENSEMBLES

 

In the ”Time of the Hand Horn” pieces were written for ensembles that existed of utter horns. From chamber music, like the beautiful Horn Trios by the Czech-born Anton Reicha (1770 – 1836) to music, played by big uniformed Horn ensembles like “The Danish Livjaegerkorps’  Ensemble“(the Royal Danish Corps of Volunteers’ Ensemble) that worked from about 1785 – 1850, with horns with different pitches that the entire ensemble could produce all tones as clear natural tones.

 

MARCH and HUNTING PIECE by Johannes Frederik Frøhlich (1806-1860) FOR 9 HORNS

– is the Pearl in the repertoire from The Danish Livjaergerkorps’ Orchestra. It is written for: 2 horns in G, 2 horns in F, one horn i E, one horn in Eb, one in horn i D og 2 horns in C.

Another rather grotesque solution to fill the gaps between the natural tones was the “The Russian horn music” (1751 – 1830). It was considered a kind of world wonder, and created by Johann Anton Maresch (1719 – 1794), a horn virtuoso from Bohemia who had become a czarist court musician. He was already the leader of a sixteen-member hunting-horn group, when the Empress Elisabeth of Russia in 1751 ordered him to reform the imperial hunting music and to organize a new horn corps.

 

JOHANN ANTON MARESCH (1719 – 1794)

He hit upon the idea of having simple single-tone copper horns constructed, pitched like organ pipes, and of fitting out a larger team of musicians with them. Each one of these hornists had now nothing more to do, than to blow only one single tone whenever it was supposed to be sounded in the piece being played. The greatest difficulty naturally consisted in the attention to all of the rests.

To make the playing easier a special notation was used.

This phrase in normal notation:

 

Would be written:

 

One can imagine how much patience and drill were necessary, in order to train 30 to 40 young huntsmen, until they were able to perform faultlessly difficult pieces with rhythmically complicated tone figures or fast passages. They could play in three octaves, and could play 1/8ths in an allegro tempo without any difficulty (as they say).

Upon hearing the Russian Imperial Horn Band in 1803, the German composer Louis Spohr commented:

“The hornists executed an overture by Gluck with a rapidity and exactness which would have been difficult for stringed instruments; how much the more so, then, for hornists, each of whom blew only one tone! It is hardly to be believed that they performed the most rapid passages with the greatest precision, and I could not have conceived it possible had I not heard it with my own ears”.

 

THE RUSSIAN HUNTING MUSIC OF THE CZAR

 – consist of straight one-tone horns, from small descant horns to big bass horns, on holders.

 

  A RUSSIAN HORN BAND OF TODAY FROM SCT. PETERSBORG

13. THE HORN USED FOR SIGNALLING

 

 

 

 HORN PLAYER FROM THE FRENCH LA GARDE IMPÉRIALE 1800 – 1810

Painting by Hoffman

 

 HORNPLAYER FROM THE 10 BAYRISCHEN LINIEN-INFANTERIE-REGIMENT 1825,

About 1760 a new design came along in connection with the new military corpses, the horn in the shape of a half-moon. During the American War of Liberation (1775-1783), a new tactic of military formation was developed – widely known as ‘hunter tactics’, and spread rapidly to Europe. Now, more refined signal resources needed to control the advancement of the individual devices. For that, one used the chosen horn and a simpler version of them: the half-moon horn. 

 

 

HALF MOON HORN FROM SHAW OF LONDON 1785

 

 HALF MOON HORN PLAYER

FROM HUNTER-TACTICS, SEALAND DENMARK 1786 

 

 HALF MOON HORN PLAYER 1806

From ”Königl. Preuss. Infanterie-Regiment von Puttkammer”

 

GERMAN HALF MOON HORNPLAYER

FROM HAMBURGER BÜRGERWEHR 1816

In England, the instrument was circulated around 1800, its folded trumpet image called Bugle horn. Over time, the bugle horn replaced both the trumpet and the half-moon horn, and it became the most widely used military instrument right up to our time when it is still used for ceremonial use. There are hardly any limits on which types of messages have been signaled. As time passed, the bugle horn was more considered a kind of trumpet than a horn.

 

FOLDED BUGLE HORN

 

 THE BUGLE HORN

IN USE IN A BATTLE UNDER THE AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 1775-1783. PAINTING FROM 1786

 

 BUGLE PLAYER

FROM THE NORTH STATES KAVALERI IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 1861-1865

 

 A SERGEANT MAJOR, A CHIEF MUSICIAN (BUGLE PLAYER), A DRUM MAJOR AND A MUSICIAN FROM THE US-MARINE-BAND 1859

The use of the bugle horn to send signals continued through the 19th century. But now it was more often trumpeters than hornists who played the instrument.

 

LOUIS BENZ, BUGLER AT WEST POINT, USA

Benz was the chief bugler at the United States Military Academy at West Point for 40 years, from 1834-1874. He is shown with a bugle and his dog Hans. Benz died on active duty and is buried in the cemetery at West Point (19 – THE KEYED BUGLE).

TEXT TO THE ”REVILLE”

The amount of different signals is plentiful, and as the bugle is without valves or other pitch-altering devices and therefor limited to notes within the harmonic series, the kind of signal can be difficult to remember, which counts for the various texts to the various signals.

I can’t get ’em up,

I can’t get ’em up,

I can’t get ’em up this morning;

I can’t get ’em up,

I can’t get ’em up,

I can’t get ’em up at all!

The corporal’s worse than the privates,

The sergeant’s worse than the corporals,

Lieutenant’s worse than the sergeants,

And the captain’s worst of all!

I can’t get ’em up,

I can’t get ’em up,

I can’t get ’em up this morning;

I can’t get ’em up,

I can’t get ’em up,

I can’t get ’em up at all!

14. POST HORN

 

The German post horn was a spiral horn:

 

 

THE GERMAN POST HORN

Around the 1800’s it got a finger hole, and when that was open, the pitch was raised by a fourth.

 

GERMAN POST HORN WITH KEYS from the 1800 s

GERMAN POSTILLONS WITH SPIRAL-POST HORN FRA 1820:

 

KOENIGLICH BAIERISCHE POSTILLONS

 

FÜRST BRAUNSCHLLEIG LÜNEBURGSCHE POSTILLONS

 

 BAVARIAN POST WAGON FROM THE FIRST HALF OF THE 18TH CENTURY

In England  the post horn still had a straight form (like the english hunting horn):

 

 ENGLISH POST COACH

with the postillon playing on a straight horn, from 1804

 

 ENGLISH POST COACH, from about 1814.

 

PAGE 19 FROM:

“THE COACH HORNS: WHAT TO BLOW AND HOW TO BLOW IT, 1807, SEVENTH EDITION”

 

BELL FROM AN ENGLISH POSTHORN BELONGING TO “THE ROYAL MAIL”

INSTRUMENT- NAMES FOR HORN

The instrument maker William Bull, who worked in London from about 1671 until 1712 advertised at he had trumpets and French Horn for sale. This is the first time the name ”French Horn” is used, and it became the English name for the instrument.

Danish: Valdhorn

Norwegian and Swedish: Valthorn

German: Waldhorn

Dutch: Waldhoorn

Finnish: Käyrätorvi

Hungarian: Vadaszkürt

Italian: Corno

French: Cor (el. cor allemand)

Greek: Ceros

Chinese: Yuen ho

Taiwanese: Fa kuo how

Polish and Czech: Rog

Russian: Baptxopha

Spanish: Trompa (el. cuerno)

African: Franse Horing

English: French Horn, (the English Horn – ”Cor Anglais”- belongs to the Oboe-family, and has nothing to do with the French Horn)

When horn players talk with each other about their instrument, they will always use the name HORN, but when they speak with other people they will use the official name (Wald Horn or French Horn etc.). In 1971 »The International Horn Society« suggested at the correct official name should be HORN…….But this will probably take a lot of years. (When a Jazz-musician says: “I will get my horn”, he means that he is getting his saxophone, trumpet, trombone or tuba).

15. THE TROMBONE

 

After queen Maria Theresia got to the throne of Austria and Hungary (1740) the advanced trombone playing went on at the court in Vienna, culminating in two concertos for alt trombone and orchestra by Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715 – 1777) and Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (1736 – 1809). Apart from this both Leopold Mozart and Michael Haydn wrote serenatas for orchestra with some parts for the alt trombone as a solo instrument. In the same tradition the 11 year old W.A. Mozart composed the 1^st act to a church opera: Die Schuldigkeit des Ersten Gebotes (KV 35) (the Obligation of the First and Foremost Commandment) with the aria Jener donnerworte Kraft for tenor-singer, obligate alt trombone and strings.

 

ALTO, TENOR AND BASS TROMBONE from the 1800s

The trombone players of the Renaissance and Baroque should be able to play in two pitches, but now they needed only one pitch which was not very high. When the slide was completely in, the pitch got a halftone higher than before – the earlier high A now became  a Bb. That is why the trombone trio in the Viennese school existed of an Alt trombone in E flat, a Tenor trombone in B flat and a Bass trombone in E flat or F.

 

 

BASS TROMBONE I F

A picture of a bass trombone in F with extension handle and position chart, published in Prague, Czech Republic in the early 1800s.

GOTTFRIED WEBER (1779 – 1839)

was a prominent German writer on music (especially on music theory), composer, and jurist.

In Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung volume 18, 1816 he presents a double trombone slide

Apart from Vienna and some parts of Northern Italy the trombone lived a kind of hidden life in the orchestras, and the playing was bad. The English composer and music historian Charles Burney (1726-1814) tells us how difficult it was to find trombone players to the Haendel festivities in 1784: “Among these, the sacbut, or double trumpet, was sought; but so many years had elapsed since it had been used in this kingdom, that, neither the instrument, nor a performer upon it, could easily be found”.

The trombone was saved through its Biblical use as a producer of the “sound from the other side” – from heaven or from hell (se trombone under BAROUQUE). It happened first at the Opera. One of the first who used one as such was Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714 – 1748) in the opera Orpheus and Eurydice. There is a development showing in W.A. Mozart’s operas. In Idomeneo there is trombones in a group, that on stage in some places accompanies the sea god Poseidon. In Don Juan the trombones accompany the dead commander (being the statue at his grave), first alone back stage, but later when the statue visits Don Juan, they are in the orchestra.

In Die Zauberflöte, (The Magic Flute) the trombones are part of the orchestra, they are in the Overture, and in other places they give a sacral sense to the music. In some works for choir and orchestra the trombone got a natural role in the orchestra to double the voices in the choir. Joseph Haydn has trombones in his Creation, but in The Seasons he first adds the trombones and the clarinets after the premiere 1798.

There is a solo in Mozart’s Requiem in the Tuba Mirum. People thought it rather unique, but it was just a follow-up of the trombone tradition of that time in Vienna.

Generally Beethoven is getting credit for having introduced the trombone in the symphony orchestra, when using it in his 5^th symphony, where the trombones come in in the last part. In his 6^th symphony there are two trombones and in his 9^th there are again three.

A FAMOUS MUSICIAN ON A LESS KNOWN INSTRUMENT

 

Although the trombone was not a prominent instrument in the Viennese classical period, one trombone player’s name still emerges: Thomas Gschlatt, mainly because he worked in Salzburg at the same time the Mozart’s did. In 1757 Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg wrote:

“Mr. Thomas Gschlatt of Stockerau in Lower Austria is a great master on his instrument, which very few will do as well. He also plays a good violin and violoncello and blows the horn no less well”.

From that description, it might appear that he was simply better on the trombone than other bandsmen. Most trombonists in Salzburg at the time were tower musicians, but Gschlatt was directly employed by the Prince-Archbishop’s household 1756-1769. When Gschlatt 1769 decided to leave Salzburg for the city Olomouc, he left the pages of history but the tradition of trombone solo music lasted longer in Olomouc than in Vienna. Never again did the court of Salzburg have a trombonist at such a high level. Besides playing the trombone solos in works by now-forgotten composers, he participated in works by more well-known composers including both Mozarts:

 

LEOPOLD MOZART (1719), MICHAEL HAYDN (1737-1806) and a 14 year old WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791)

All wrote music for Thomas Gschlatt

 Leopold Mozarts  Concerto  from 1756, is in fact three movements extracted from a larger Serenade  intended for multiple soloists. Leopold Mozart wrote on the manuscript of the Serenade: “In the absence of a good trombonist, a good violinist can play it on the viola”. He may have added the annotation after Gschlatt left Salzburg, because he knew that the chances of coming across another trombonist of Gschalatt’s calibre were slim indeed.

Michael Haydns Concerto, consists of three movements from a 10-movement work Divertimento  in D written 1764..

Michael Haydns Concertino for horn and alto trombone is the fourth and fifth movement from a Serenade for Orchestra from 1767.

A special story goes with Wolfgang Amadeus’s youthful Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots (KV 35, 1767): Prince–Archbishop Sigmund Schrattenbach was not persuaded that an 11-year-old boy could write such excellent music as he in fact did. He suspected that the boy must have at least gotten considerable help from his father. So, Wolfgang wrote that cantata locked up in a room with little but desk, chair, ink and paper. It included the first of at least five trombone solos he composed during the archbishop’s lifetime.(They later disappeared!).

16. CHANGES IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE TROMBONE

 

It was a real renovation when the trombone in the late 1700rds came into the military music corpses. Here more ”sound” was needed, and the trombone got both a bigger bore and bell. Beside its sacral sound the trombone got an until now unknown powerful and dramatic fortissimo, which strengthened its reputation as “dooms day” instrument. Hector Berlioz (1803 – 1869) writes in his “Treatise on Instrumentation” from 1844 about the sound of the trombone: “In my opinion, the trombone is the true head of that family of wind instruments which I have named the epic one. It possesses nobility and grandeur to the highest degree; it has all the serious and powerful tones of sublime musical poetry, from religious calm and imposing accents, to savage, orgiastic outbursts. Directed by the will of a master, the trombones can chant like a choir of priests, threaten, utter gloomy sighs, a mournful lament or a bright hymn of glory. They can break forth into awe-inspiring cries, and awaken the dead or doom the living with their fearful voice”. Berlioz wrote a big trombone solo for the French trombone virtuoso Antoine Dieppo in his Grande Symphonie Funebre et Triumphale. In addition to making the trombone more powerful, the military band developed 2 special trombone types:

BUCCIN – TROMBONES

In the military orchestras the bell of the trombone could be formed like a serpent or dragon head. Such a trombone was called buccin referring to the Roman buccina of ancient times (see ANCIENT and MEDIVAL, 6 – THE ROMAN IMPIRE ).

 

 BUCCIN France, ca. 1830, Museum of fine arts, Boston

 The buccin was popularized in military bands in France between 1810 and 1845. Parades, outdoor festivals and civic celebrations were an important part of French cultural life from the time of the Revolution (1789) through most of the 19th century. The visual appeal of band members in uniform playing instruments with dragon heads  made an impression and manufacturers were quick to supply more and more exotic designs. The buccin bell was often vividly painted red, green and gold and the protruding metal tongue included by many makers would flap while marching and playing. Lyon (France) seems to have been a center of buccin manufacturing. Berlioz scored for buccin in the Kyrie and ‘Resurrexit’ of his Messe sonelle 1824.”

When the International Trombone Association was founded in 1972, it chose the buccin for its logo (see THE 20´CENTURY III, 7 – ASSOCIATIONS and MAGAZINES for BRASS PLAYERS).

 

BUCCIN

– from the musical instrument collection of the Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart.

 

BUCCIN, Barcelona Music Museum

The buccin was also popular in Spain, used in the processions and festivals held around Catalonia. The Barcelona Music Museum (Museu de la Música) has fifteen buccins, some of them made in Barcelona by renowned instrument maker Francesc España.

 

TROMBONES WITH REAR-FACING BELLS

Another phenomena was the rear facing bell of the trombone. The construction was first of all for the ear, the sound was easier to hear by the marching musicians and soldiers in the back – but for the eye as well, for never has trombonists been painted and drawn that often as these uniformed military trombone players with their rear facing instruments .

 

 

HOLLAND 1805

 

 FROM: MUSIK DER BÜRGER-GARDE MUNICH, GERMANY c.1815

A print by J.C. Hochwind.

 

BELGIAN GRENADIERS 1821

 

 BELGIUM 1824

 

FRANCE  1828

 

 

 A REAR-FACING BUCCIN AND A REAR-FACING TROMBONE

– FROM A BELGIAN MOUNTED BAND, 1830

 

 HOLLAND 1831

 

17. TROMBONE ENSEMBLES

 

As a last momentum of the old Town-musician tradition the trombone ensembles were used in churches. This had been common among the Moravian Brotherhood (a religious community of refugees from Bohemia, living in Germany) since 1731, from which date there are kept some music books, most with Chorales, but also with some three part Sonatas, written for different combinations of Soprano-, Alto-, Tenor-, and Bass trombone.

 

TROMBONE QUARTET FROM THE MORAVIAN BROTHERHOOD

The tradition with trombone ensembles has been kept in the USA up till our time. The picture shows a trombone quartet from Bethlehem Pennsylvania, USA, playing before the evening service in 1888.

 

TROMBONE PLAYERS OF THE BETHLEHEM MORAVIAN CONGREGATION IN 1867

The players are (from the left) Charles F. Beckel, Jedidiah Weiss and Jacob Till. The trombone on the empty chair is in homage to their deceased colleague Timothy Weiss.

An EQUALE is a piece of music for equal voices or instruments. In the 18th century the Equali was used in Austria to commemorate the dead and often played by 3 or 4 trombones. Here the trombone again appeared to be the ultimate sacred instrument. The Equali were performed from towers on All Souls’ Day (2 November), and on the previous evening. They were also performed at funerals.

 

LUDWIG EMIL GRIMM: A TROMBONE QUARTET IS PLAYING AT THE MORNING SERVICE AT ALBRECHT DÜRE’s GRAVE

Nuremberg 1828, at the 200th anniversary of Dürer’s death.

The most well-known Equali are written by Bruckner and Beethoven. Beethoven’s 3 equali for 4 trombones were commissioned in the autumn of 1812 by the Stadtkapellmeister of Linz, Franx Xaver Glöggl for performance as tower music on All Souls’ Day. They were first performed at the Old Cathedral in Linz on 2 November 1812.

Two of the equals (nos. 1 & 3) were performed at own Beethovens funeral on 29 March 1827, both by a trombone quartet (named Messrs Böck (brothers), Weidi, and Tuschky), and also in vocal arrangements for men’s voices by Ignaz Seyfried of two verses from the “Miserere” . No. 2 was sung at the dedication of Beethoven’s headstone on 26 March 1828, again in a choral arrangement by Seyfried of a poem by Franz Grillparzer.

 

 THE FUNERAL OF BEETHOVEN 1827

Above: the march at Beethoven’s funeral. Below: part, which shows the four trombone players.

18. THE TROMBONE AS A FASHION INSTRUMENT

 

Because of its presence in the military orchestras the trombone became immense popular. The instrument had otherwise been used rarely and it was as if a new instrument was born (which was not the case of course). The enthusiasm was not overall, a quote from Paris in 1802 says: ”Trombones, trombones, it is the best thing that happened for our new composers, it is like drums for children”. Charles Burney, who had been complaining before about the lack of trombones in London writes in 1805: ”People are now using trombones and large drums in operas, oratorios and symphonies, in such an amount that it has become a pestilence for the lovers of harmony and clear tones, because the vibrations of these instruments produce noise and no music what so ever.

 DANCE- AND ENTERTAINMENT- ORCHESTRA, PARIS 1828

The musician in the middle plays a trombone with a backward pointed bell. In Paris people started to use the trombone to strengthen the bass sound in the dance- and entertainment- orchestras, which altered the opinion of the trombone as a religious instrument. In 1819 a correspondent writes to the “Wiener algemeine Zeitung”: “This use, or rather misuse of this serious instrument – that according to the Bible shall sound at Doomsday, and of all instruments is chosen for this task – is not only common in this great Capital of France, but is now by the military orchestras extended all over Germany”.

In the end special trombone parts were made for pieces that originally were written without trombones! A review of Mozart’s Symphony nr.40 in g-minor, (originally without trombones), played in the German town of Hallé in 1830 says: I like to state that overall it was a fine concert, but many beautiful parts were overruled by the powerful trombones”.

19. THE KEYED BUGLE

 

JOSEPH HALLIDAY

In 1810 the English band master Joseph Halliday got a Horn with a hole in it, and when he found out that the pitch could be altered by closing the hole, a brass instrument was born anew (he surely had never heard of the keyed trumpet). The new patented instrument was called the Keyed Bugle, and to the honour of the Duke of Kent, who was the highest in rank in the English army, The Royal Kent Bugle. You could easily see the keyed bugle as a “missing link”, but it was tremendous popular in all wind orchestras and it was often used as a solo instrument. There is exist even a solo piece for keyed bugle and orchestra, Joseph Küffner (1776-1856) : Polonaise für Klappenhorn und Orchester Op. 126, and Anton P. Heinrich (1781 – ?): Concerto for Kent Bügel or klappenflugel (1834).

 

 KEYED BUGLE

Keyed bugles with up till 12 keys were built, but 6 was most common. The pitch was C, Bb or Eb but extra tubes could alter the pitch. The most important reason for its success was the fact that the mechanism functioned far better on this conical instrument than on the cylindrical trumpet  used by Anton Weidinger. the keys did almost not influence the sound, and it gave the instrument a great amount of possibilities.The keyed bugle had a soft sound that in both wind bands and in pure brass ensembles made the instrument a forerunner of the cornet.

FRANCIS  JOHNSON (1792-1844) – A FAMOUS AMERICAN KEYED BUGLE PLAYER

– from Philadelphia, USA, was a popular composer, musician and bandleader, active from 1818 until his death in 1844. Johnson played several instruments but most the violin and the keyed bugle. He composed more than 200 published works, had students and was a well-organized bandleader. He and his band of black musicians performed across much of the United States playing at many different prominent events, including balls and military functions, and at schools and privately hosted parties. Known for their dramatic style of performance the Johnson band’s repertoire encompassed Mozart, polkas, gallops, waltzes, cotillions, popular songs, country dances, reels, sacred music, jigs, marches and quadrille. Johnson and his band were so admired that they were brought to London to play in celebrations marking the coronation of Queen Victoria.

DANISH KEYED BUGLE PLAYER

Excerpt of the frieze at Thorvaldsen’s Museum, Copenhagen, painted by Jørgen Sonne between 1846 and 1848

 

 

 

AFRO AMERICAN BUGLE PERFORMER

 Early  daguerreotype (around 1845) – maybe one of Francis Johnson’s students?

LOUIS BENTZ

– who was the post bugler at West Point United States Military Academy for forty years from 1830-1870

(see also Louis Bentz in 19 – THE KEYED BUGLE)

 

 

 EDWARD “NED KENDALL” (1808 – 1861)

– was the leader of the Boston Brass Band and the last virtuoso on the keyed bugle. The instrument was popular for quit a long time even when instruments with valves got more in the picture. In 1865 there was a match between Patrick Gilmore, the cornet virtuoso, and Ned Kendall, the leading player on the keyed bugle. Gilmore won, but it was a close finish (see ROMANTICISM III, ). In general the cornet won the battle over the keyed bugle, for even if it had the same possibilities, it had better mechanics and a cleaner sound, and it overtook all the functions of the keyed bugle.

 

 

 PATRICK GILMORE.(1829-1892)

 

 

COLLINS KELLOGG – KEYED BUGLE PLAYER, USA, CAPTAIN ON A BOAT ON THE ERIE CANAL

He played on a keyed bugle that could not only announce his arrival at the locks with a personal flourish, but also play tunes for his passengers.

PHOTO FROM THE 1870s

 

 

 ANONYMOUS KEYED BUGLE PLAYER

Photo from July 14, 1858.

 

 

 KEYED BUGLE FROM BOSTON MUSEUM OF ARTS

This elegantly designed keyed bugle is in Bb and made by John August Köhler (1805-1878), London) in 1835-1836).

20. THE SERPENT

 

 

THE SHARP FAMILY, PAINTING BY JOHANN ZOFFANY 1779-1781 – London, England

A musical family that holds regular concerts in London and here on board their sailing barge, includes 2 french horns lying on the table and James Sharp holding a SERPENT. National Portrait Gallery, London.

In the 19th century, the serpent continued to be the bass instrument of the brass instruments (or ”lip wind instruments”). The serpent appeared even in the symphony orchestra: Rossini – Messe Solennelle, Berlioz – Symphony Fantastique (Serpent & Ophecleide), Mendelsohn – Meerstille und Glúcklicher fart (1828) Wagner – Rienzi. The serpent was, however, especially present in the many military orchestras.

 

BRITISH SERPENT USED IN THE MILITARY, Ca. 1830

Photo © Craig Kridel, Berlioz Historical Brass

 

SERPENT PLAYER FROM THE CATALONIA LIGHT INFANTERI 1807-08, Hamburg, Germany

Painting by Christoph and Cornelius

 

 A FRENCH MILITARY SERPENT PLAYER 1811, FROM THE IMPERIAL GUARD, Paris, France

Print published by Aaron Martinet.

 

 A BRITISH MILITARY SERPENT PLAYER 1828

New York Public Library Digital Gallery.

 

VIOLONCEL-SERPENT 1830/1835

Amsterdam, Netherlands

An invention of Ludwig Embach & Co., which was patented on October 28, 1829 under the designation “Serpent in D” and “Violoncello-Serpent”. The Dutch Technical Commission judged the invention patentable and granted the applicant a ten-year manufacturing privilege on 7 January 1830 under No. 95/A.

 

 CONTRABASS SERPENT IN CC

Build by Joseph and Richard Wood, England c.1840

This is the only known contrabass serpent and has got the nickname THE ANACONDA. University of Edinburg, Musical Instrument Collection.

21. NEW BASS INSTRUMENTS

 

 

THE BASS HORN AND THE RUSSIAN BASSOON 

These instruments were Serpents though. But they were easier to carry, they had more keys and the bell made of brass gave a better and bigger sound.

Right: A version with a bell formed as a dragon head. Inside the dragon head was a red metal tongue that vibrated when you played the instrument. This model was popular in the military orchestras:

The new instruments begin to appear in Italian operatic scores by Spontini and Bellini.

 

PLAN FOR THE ORCHESTRA AT LA SCALA OPERA, MILAN, ITALY

From the English magazine “The Harmonicon” August 1826. You can see that the instruments became more popular in this plan of the Orchestra of the Scala Opera in 1826, where there is a seat for the Serpent (Serpentone?) in the orchestra pit.

The new bass instruments gradually replaced the serpent and were later themselves replaced by:

22. THE OPHICLEIDE

 

After the battle of Waterloo in 1815 the winning allied troops got together in Paris, and at the same time a so called Military Music Congress was held. When the Russian Count Constantin heard John Distin (1793 – 1863), the soloist on the keyed bugle, playing in the English “Grenadiers Guards Band” he became so enthusiastic about the instrument that he asked for one. Of course he could have ordered one from London, but he was to hurry back to Russia, and it was easier to have one made in Paris.

It was made by the Parisian instrument maker Jean Hilaire Asté (1775-1840) (also known as Halary), who in 1819 presented a whole family of keyed instruments, where amongst the bass instrument the Ophicleide (Greek- ophis: Snake, and kleis: Key).

 

YOUNG MUSICIAN WITH OPHICLEIDE

Anonymous french painting, c.1830

 

 left:. OPHICLEIDE

right.: An ophicleide player from the Caussinus ophicleide school 1837

Like the Serpent was seen as the grandfather of the Tuba, the Ophicleide was seen as its father. It soon overtook the serpent in the wind orchestras and it got a place in the symphony orchestras, especially in France and Great Britain. In Germany the tuba was already in use, before the Ophicleide got known. The sound of the Ophicleide is a bit like that of the euphonium – but as the instruments from that time all were less powerful compared to the instruments of today, the ophicleide was a good bass instrument in the brass group, and like the euphonium, it got an important role as a solo instrument. Among the most known orchestral pieces with an ophicleide are:

Berlioz:  Symphony Fantastique (Serpent & Ophecleide)( 1830), Wagner: Rienzi (1840).

Some of the tones of the ophicleide are a bit unstable, and by using two instruments, pitched in C and B-minor, and letting them play unison, the ”bad” tones on one, will be ”good” on the other.

 

 

23. WIND ENSEMBLES

 

 THE BRITISH 1st FOOTREGIMENT BAND 1753

– octet including 2 horns

In the early 18th century, the size and instruments used in the European military corps were only partially standardized. The most common was a group of 6 musicians. In England and in France it consisted of 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons and 2 horns, in Germany of 2 oboes, 2 horns and 2 bassoons.

 

ENGLISH MILITARY BAND 1780

Alderman Kirkman’s funeral procession in London – detail of drawing

Out of the sextet grew the wind octet consisting of 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 horns and 2 bassoons. It was called Harmoniemusic and was popular for both indoor and outdoor performances. Since the Austrian emperor, Joseph II  got his own Kaiserliche Harmonie- und Tafelmusik  April 1 1782, Harmoniemusik became almost a trend.

Well known music for wind octet is Mozart’s Serenade No. 11 in Eb, K.375, Serenade No. 12 in C-minor, K.388 and Beethoven’s Octet in Eb op.103. A special piece is Mozarts Serenade No. 10 in B-flat, K. 361, often called “Gran Partita”, for 13 players: 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 basset horns, 4 horns, 2 bassoons and double bass.

When Mozart had written his serenade No..11 in Eb (first written for 6 players: 2 clarinets, 2 horns and 2 bassoons), the musicians were so excited about the piece that they came home to Mozart and played it for him. From a letter written by W. A. Mozart to his father dated November 3. 1781:

“At eleven o’clock at night I was treated to a serenade –and that of my own composition . . . These musicians asked that the street door might be opened and, placing themselves in the center of the courtyard, surprised me, just as I was about to undress, in the most pleasant fashion imaginable with the first chord in Eb-flat.”

A special prolific and successful composer of  Harmonie was the Czech composer Franz Krommer (ca.1759-1831) who ended as a composer for the Imperial Court of Austria. He wrote up to 70 pieces for wind enesmble and at least 33 of theese were called Harmonie or Partita written for octet, often plus a contrabassoon and occasional with a trumpet included. His music is found in libraries in England, America, and across the European continent. Thirteen of his works were published in two separate editions, first in Vienna at the turn of the century, then in Paris in the 1820’s.

In addition to the original works, an even greater amount of music was arranged for Harmonie, operas being the heavy favorite.  Just after the success of his opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Mozart wrote in a letter: Well, I am up to the eyes in work, for by Sunday week I have to arrange my opera for wind-instruments. If  I don’t, someone else will anticipate me and secure the profits.

 

 

WIND OCTET – “HARMONIEMUSIK”

The first new part added to the octet was a bass line which was not designed as a solo line, but rather enhanced the sonority of the ensemble. Notation of contrabass lines was somewhat inconsistent. The notation was sometimes written on the 2. bassoon part with single set of notes, sometimes written with two staves and two sets of notes. The performer has to decide when to play and when not to play and what octave register is correct.

 

 

FRONT PAGE FROM A HARMONIE BY KROMMER IN THE VIENNA EDITION

The instrument of choice varied in different countries or cities. This suggested the trombone in Paris, or the serpent in London. The contrabassoon was used in Vienna, while the violone (double bass) was used other places. The title page of the Vienna edition of Krommer’s Harmonien calls for “grosse Fagott” while the French edition asks for “Trombone ou contrebasse”. Even Mozart, in scoring for contrabass in his Grand Partita, despite his clear markings of pizzicato and col arco markings, wrote the doublebass line down to a great C, clearly below its range. Perhaps Mozart was not unwilling to use contrabassoon as a replacement.

HARMONIEMUSIK WITH DOUBLE BASS

A silhouette from 1791 of a Harmonie musik: The Oettingen-Wallerstein band, Germany. Far left is the composer Antonio Rosetti (c.1750 – 1792) playing the double bass, he wrote himself extra obligato parts for his instrument. Rosetti has written non less than 17 horn concertos and 7 concertos for 2 horns.

 

 

HARMONIEMUSIK WITH TROMBONE AND BASS HORN

Another silhouette showing a Harmonie music ensemble consisting of flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 horns, bassoon, trombone, and bas horn.

As a next step percussion, piccolo, trumpet, serpent and even more instruments were added to the wind octet, and for this kind of ensembles both Haydn and Beethoven wrote their military marches.

In the beginning of the 19th century all kind of brass wind instruments were added to the wind orchestras and thus the modern Concert Band was founded.

A good example of the transition from Harmony to wind band is Felix Mendelssohn’s OUVERTURE for HARMONY MUSIC op.24. In 1824 he wrote only 15 years old a Nocturno for octet plus flute, trumpet, and bass horn. to the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin’s wind ensemble. In 1826 he reworked the piece, now called OUVERTURE for HARMONY MUSIC op.24, for a larger ensemble. Upon its release in 1838, he added 2 more clarinets in F, so that the total ensemble now consisted of:

Piccolo Flute

Flute

2 clarinets in F

2 clarinets in C

2 oboes

2 basset horns

2 bassoons

Contra bassoon

Bass horn

4 horns

Trumpet

Alto -, tenor – and bass trombone

Tambourine and triangle

Cymbals and bass drum

– A total of 24 parts

In the 1820s there were also pure brass orchestras (with percussion)  consiting of the Keyed Bugle, Natural Trumpet, French Horn, alto-, tenor- and bass trombone, serpent and ophicleide,

 

”SJÆLLANDSKE JÆGER-CORPS” – MUSIC CORPS

– a Danish Military Orchestra with only brass instruments. Lithografie 1817 – 1835

Today it is more common to judge instruments of the time by their limits – but at that time it was more the opposite, the composers wrote their pieces with the possibilities of the instruments in mind. The military orchestras bloomed as never before and were loved by the people.

 

 

 FRENCH MILITARY WIND BAND FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE 18 CENTURY

 

24. STUDY BOOK FOR ALL BRASS INSTRUMENTS

 

In 1832 Frantz Jacob August Keyper (1792-1859) published a unique book: “Studies for the brassl instruments that belong to the Military Music”. Keyper was a bassoon player himself in the Danish Royal Chapel (Det Kongelige Kapel) but knew a tremendous lot about brass instruments. The book shows all known brass instruments of that time, and it gives us a good insight of how people saw them. There are also illustrations of the instruments and small pieces to play together. Keypers idea of how to play is rather interesting. Today there is no doubt that a good health and condition is best for a player of a brass instrument, but Keyper write that it was necessary to avoid all strain by running, riding or swimming, and all that can give you a cold. The last one could be right, like the uttermost important advice: ”to avoid misuse of inciting drinks, – alcohol”.

 

Fig.102   ALTO-, TENOR- and BASS TROMBONE FROM KEYPERS BOOK

  Keyper emphasizes the tenor trombone as being the instrument most suited for playing solos, and he writes about the sound in a trombone ensemble: ”The range of the trombone is expanded by the use of different dimensions, bass, tenor and alto. This gives an important and special effect: with the use of the instruments at the same time the sound is not like that of three instruments, but like one”.

 

Fig.103    KEYED BUGLE  FROM KEYPERS BOOK.

About the keyed bugle: “Suited for the softest and most shaded playing of an adagio. As it with these qualities connects the power and sound of the common bugle, it is absolutely the right instrument to be the head voice in an open air ensemble that only exists of brass instruments. Like it is uttermost suited to double the clarinets in an ensemble mixed with wood instruments. Therefor it is one of best musical inventions of this time”.

 

Fig.104  THE SERPENT FROM KEYPERS BOOK.

About the serpent: “Among all wind instruments the serpent has the most full sound, and as its effect especially is useful in open air, it is indispensable in a well organized open air ensemble. It is not only useful to support the bass trombone, but it gives the whole ensemble more power and sound. This instrument, so unexcelled in its effect, is though so imperfect in its mechanical construction, that in spite of the many improvements, it only can be perfect, when it is possible to play all notes in a chromatic scale.