Friedrich Gumpert, Master Teacher of the Horn

Often hornists will look back on their “genealogy” in terms of who their teachers were, the teachers of their teachers, etc. A number of my teachers were Farkas students and I took several lessons with Farkas directly, so this would be a major influence if I had to choose, but I also was certainly influenced by teachers who studied with Chambers and others.

Going back one more generation, in terms of horn in the United States many players can look back to three major players of the early 20th century, Max Pottag (1876-1970), Anton Horner (1877-1971), and Max Hess (1878-1975). All of them had an impact. Hess was principal hornist in Boston and Cincinnati, Pottag put out a number of publications that are still in print and was a long time member of the Chicago Symphony (performing with the orchestra for 40 seasons), and Horner performed in the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1902-46 (serving as principal hornist until 1930) and taught at the Curtis Institute from 1924-42. And all three all studied with Freidrich Gumpert at the Leipzig Conservatory.

I was recently asked about Gumpert by a site visitor, a figure I mention in my main site several times. In his publications his name is curiously spelled incorrectly, his print name is Gumbert. And his nephew was instrumental in the invention of the double horn in 1897. But I don’t have a full bio of Gumpert in the site and who did he study with?

Gumpert still has many publications in print to this day, editions of etudes, excerpt books, solos, and he also wrote a method. In 1999 I gave a presentation in Paris on Gumpert at the Historic Brass Society event, the text of which was recently published in Brass Scholarship in Review: Preceedings of the Historic Brass Society Conference Cité de la Musique, Paris 1999 (Pendragon Press). The main text opens,

The name of Freidrich Adolf Gumpert is today one of the more widely recognized of all the horn players and teachers of the nineteenth century—at least among hornists. Gumpert was born in 1841 at Lichtenau (Thuringia) and studied horn under the town musician Hammann at Jena. He was first engaged as a horn player at Bad Nauheim, St. Gallen, and completed his military service in a band at Eisenach. Gumpert performed at Halle from 1862 until 1864, when the composer Cark Reinecke (1824-1910), then conductor of the Gewandhaus concerts, engaged him as principal hornist in the Gewhandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig. Gumpert held this position from 1864 until 1898 and was concurrently professor of horn at the Leipzig Conservatory, remaining in Leipzig until his death in 1906.

The full text of the presentation gives a number of insights into the secrets of his teaching but in short he certainly placed high importance on the development of lyrical playing and in the study of orchestral excerpts. He was an important and influential teacher, one that virtually every major player in the United States can trace back to among their own teachers.