Here's my latest addition to the ever increasing collection of fortnightly videos as part of my #CornoNotCorona project. You can watch the performance of this week's piece (“Am Abend”, a Lied ohne Worte by Bernhard Eduard Müller) here https://youtu.be/esHoChCwwyA.
This might seem like an oddity - a “modern” horn in this series of “historical horns” but I was keen to include this instrument because the story about how it came about gives a bit more context to the other instruments in this series and I also find it fascinating how long this design of horn has been around.
This is my Alexander 103 - one of the most popular makes and models of horn. I know that there are a lot of people who have very strong view points about Alexs and this model so in a way the instrument doesn’t need any introduction! This one is a relatively old one, I understand from Alexanders that this is probably from the 1960s - there’s little details such as the flat back B flat valve, also this is from before they started putting the badge crest on their horns, so the mark is engraved and actually quite hard to pick out. I’ve had this horn since shortly before I went to music college and it’s the instrument I use for any “modern” playing.
Over the course of this series I’ve included a lot of different designs of horns including a lot of different valve designs, some single, some compensating but this, I think, is the first proper “double horn” I’ve played. I know I included an instrument by the Kruspe firm (here: https://youtu.be/7oLEHzdaCTg ) and it was Eduard Kruspe in collaboration Edmund Gumpert who were the first to make what we call a "double horn", i.e. a horn that is built in both F and B flat back in 1897. Given all the various designs of horns I’m sharing I find it somewhat startling to think that basically today, almost a century and a quarter, us horn players are still playing that fundamental design. There has been so much fluctuation in design of instrument, so many geographical variants plus associated techniques and playing styles, but here we are over a hundred years later and for the modern horn we’ve pretty much universally settled on this German design from the late 19th century.
Alexanders, in Mainz Germany, were founded in 1782 originally making woodwind instruments, turning to making brass instruments in the late 19th century. The model 103 was patented in 1909 and therefore I wanted to find a piece from this period to play this week. I didn’t quite manage to get bang on 1909, so this composition from 1910, “Am Abend”, a Lied ohne Worte by Bernhard Eduard Müller (1842-1920). Müller was the second horn of the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra and is well known to horn players for his studies. For anyone wanting to know more about Müller’s compositions for horn I’d strongly recommend checking out the always excellent hornmatters.com (https://www.hornmatters.com/2020/04/4-charming-works-of-b-ed-muller-for-horn-and-piano-a-closer-look/) website run by John Ericson as well as getting hold of Ericson’s CD entitled “Rescued” - (https://www.hornmatters.com/2016/10/on-the-single-f-horn-part-viii-my-new-cd-rescued-and-where-to-get-all-the-music-for-free/). On this disc Ericson champions a number of works from 1860-1910, all pieces which really should be far better known.
Another good resource is Robert Ostermeyer’s french-horn.net (https://www.french-horn.net/index.php/biographien/90-bernhard-eduard-mueller.html) which really excitingly includes some 1904 recordings of Müller as part of the “Famous horn quartet of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra” (Berühmtes Waldhorn Quartett Mitglieder des Leipziger Gewandhausorchester).
A final element of what I’ve done this week is this vintage mute. This is a Frank de Polis mute - I’m guessing mid 20th century which is when they were really popular, though I’m not sure when they stopped being made. Frank de Polis (1891–1962) was a horn player with firstly the Cleveland orchestra then the Philadelphia. (There’s a nice photo of him with the horn section c. 1920 here: https://www.stokowski.org/Principal_Musicians_Cleveland_Orchestra.htm). The story is that he was dissatisfied with mute designs so in the 1940s decided to design his own and this recognisable design influenced a lot of other mutes made from the mid 20th century onwards (much more to be found here: https://www.hornsmith.net/horn_mute.html)
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