The transition era from the natural horn to the valved horn is a fascinating one. Perhaps the clearest way to understand the basic issues at work is to focus on the natural horn writing of three major composers in this transition era, Beethoven (whose Sonata was just briefly examined in the previous installment of the University of Horn Matters series), Schubert, and Brahms.
Context: Not everyone welcomed valves with open arms
NOTE: The following section is based on materials that were for many years posted as part of a longer article on Horn Articles Online. A version of these materials was also published in my article “Brahms and the Orchestral Horn,” The Horn Call 52, No. 1 (October, 2021), 47-51.
In the nineteenth century there were a variety of attitudes toward valves. While we, from our perspective today as valved horn players, would think that the valve was a great invention and that it must have immediately been recognized as such by all parties, the valve actually had a very mixed and rather slow reception. In some areas the natural horn remained in use for many years and it certainly had its strong supporters [4]. Differing opinions circulated on the valved horn; recognition of this fact is essential in understanding the musical reality of the time.
Among composers, the lines had been drawn by the 1830s. On one side you have composers who were open to the use of valved brass instruments. One composer of this side who actually composed no works for the valved horn, making his example even more interesting, was Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1849). Commenting in 1834 on his overture Die Schöne Melusine, Op. 32 (1833), which featured the horns and trumpets outlining the minor triad (written c”, eb”, g”), Mendelssohn stated that
The E flat for the horns and trumpets I put down trusting to luck, and hoping that Providence would show the players some way to do it; if they have new contrivances for it, so much the better [5].
In other words, the work was composed to require hand stopping by not only the horns but also the trumpets (!), but Mendelssohn was open to the idea of valved instruments playing these parts [6].
On the other extreme you see composers who felt that valved brass instruments were simply a bad idea. One such composer was Karl Gottleib Reissiger (1798-1859). Reissiger was an important musical figure at the time, holding the position of Hofkapellmeister in Dresden during from 1828; this was the court where Richard Wagner (1813-1883) would hold the position of second Kapellmeister (under Reissiger) from 1843-49. Reissiger wrote in 1837 that
I hear such a beautiful, sustained solo performed in a colorless monotone on a valve horn, and it seems to me as if the instrument is moaning: ‘My love, I am a horn. Don’t you recognize me any more? I admit that I am too severely constricted, I am somewhat uncentered and hoarse, my sweetness is gone, my tone sounds as if it has to go through a filter sack in which its power gets stuck.’ [7]
His comments about the “colorless monotone” get at the idea that the tone of the horn should have shades and nuances of tonal color, a central characteristic of the tone of the natural horn. Many other later quotations relating to this same idea could be cited [8]. This division between supporters of the valved and supporters of the natural horn is central to understanding what Brahms is getting at in his horn writing, as he is the most successful of those composers whom advocated the natural horn in this period.
NOTES:
4. See for example my article, “Trashing the Valved horn? Comments on Valved and Natural horns from Turn-of-the-Century England,” The Horn Call 29, no. 1 (November, 1998), 53-56.
5. Felix Moscheles, ed., Letters of Felix Mendelssohn to Ignaz and Charlotte Moscheles (1888; repr. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1970), 97, cited in David Whitwell, A New History of Wind Music (Evanston, IL: The Instrumentalist, 1972), 26.
6. That Mendelssohn did not think much, however, of the keyed trumpet is shown in a letter of February 14, 1831 to clarinetist Heinrich Bärmann (1784-1847), cited in Edward H. Tarr, “The Romantic Trumpet,” part 1, Historic Brass Society Journal 5 (1993), 248, footnote 90, trans. Tarr. Of the trumpeters in Rome Mendelssohn wrote, “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!”
7. C. G. Reissiger, “Über Ventilhörner und Klappentrompeten,” Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 39 (September, 1837), 610, trans. in Ernest H. Gross III, “The Influence of Berlioz on contemporary nineteenth century use of brass instruments,” part 1, Brass Bulletin 67 (1989), 21.
8. “Trashing the Valved Horn?,” ibid.
The serious topic of aesthetics and the hand horn
Continuing a thought expressed in the quote above, there is a very serious topic of aesthetics to consider. Dauprat in his Method (published in 1824, a massive publication) gets at the idea that shifts of tonal color from open notes to stopped notes was to be desired and gave important shades and nuances to the sound of the horn. His comments may be read in the brief article linked below:
Links related to Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms
Longer articles specifically related to Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms are linked below, and will be considered to be required reading for those following the University of Horn Matters series in full.
- E. C. Lewy and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (1824)
- Schubert Nachtgesang Im Walde (1827)
- Schubert Auf dem Strom (1828)
- The Brahms Horn Trio (1865)
- Brahms and the Orchestral Horn
Question older sources and conventional wisdom on horn history
In all of the above articles there is a bigger picture to see, and that is that there is an older literature on horn history that says some sketchy things that modern students of horn history need to keep clear. They would include:
- Beethoven 9 is rumored to have been for valved horn but that is not the case, it is natural horn writing even if the first player to perform it was a valved horn pioneer,
- Schubert did not compose Auf dem Strom for valved horn either; it is still natural horn writing even if associated with the brother of the same valved horn pioneer associated with Beethoven 9, and
- Brahms wrote all his horn parts for natural horn, there is no indication at all that he was thinking of sections split between natural and valved horns in any way, natural horn writing for him was to maintain traditions as part of an anti-Wagner stance
As to major natural horn players and teachers of the time, in terms of today certainly the best known is Jacques-François Gallay (1795-1864), as several volumes of his etudes have become standards. This image is from his Method. For an introduction to Gallay and one of his best known publications please read:
In honor of Gallay, the featured horn image is a horn of his time, Halari as copied by Richard Seraphinoff.
The nineteenth century was a transition era; it took us from the natural horn with no valves to the double horn! We will have more on that era in the next installment of the University of Horn Matters.
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