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One of the things my name has become associated with over the years is scholarship into the horn in the nineteenth century. Even in late high school I was already interested in horn history, and a prominent article in my first issue of The Horn Call was on the topic of Karl Stiegler (1876-1932). A brief bio of Stiegler may be found at present in the IHS website (this photo 
linked from their article) and also a more extended article with more photos may be found in the website of Hans Pizka, who wrote The Horn Call article I first read. To offer a bit of brief info on his career, the version on the current IHS website opens,
Principal Horn Wiesbaden State Theatre (1895-1899) Solo Hornist at the Vienna State Opera (1899-1906), principal Horn of the Vienna Philharmonic (1906-d.) and professor at the State Academy for Music and Art in Vienna (1917-d.).
He was a very significant Viennese player and teacher. This photo (click link to view) was included in the article, showing Stiegler with his Vienna horn in a woodwind quintet.
Among the instruments on my personal bucket list of horns I would like to own someday is a Vienna horn. I believe a lot of players have this same thought. The image below [from a fingering chart published ca. 1830/31] is from my article on early valve designs which gives more background on the double piston valve, which is one of the central, visible characteristics of this instrument, as is the crook.
Hans Pizka later in the issue advertised, and in the advertisement included this information on a Vienna horn available new at that time.
The Vienna-F-Pumpenhorn manufactured by Hermann Ganter in Munich is ready. We are glad to announce, that one of the first 6 instruments is now in the use of a solo-hornist of the Vienna Philharmonics [sic]. The horns have improoved [sic] valves, the fascinating velvet sound, perfect intonation, incomparable. The horn comes with the extra slides for B-flat and the A-crook and a soft shoulder-strap-case.
Note that his model comes with the B-flat slides and A crook in addition to the F crook. I gather that these shorter crooks are rarely used today but they have always been available as options on the Vienna horn.
Back to the Stiegler article, another thing that caught my eye in the context of the issue was the bass horn. In a photo in the article but not online at present Stiegler is seen in the “1st Vienna-Concert-Horn-Quartet” with two other horn players and another player who is described as playing a “bass horn.” What it looks like in the photo is the bass horn is a standard Vienna horn but with a modified crook or mouthpiece. What it allowed was for a player to use a mouthpiece that looks to be sized similar to a trombone or Euphonium mouthpiece on the horn, evidently to provide a more powerful bass line. According to Pizka in the article this group was “Later enlarged to a Quintett, with bass-horn for the fifth part.”
Speaking of Vienna horn quintets, a final quick plug for a group we at Horn Matters love, The Matterhorns. I was not able to find a video that could be embedded but this one on Facebook is a lot of fun and worth checking out. The Vienna horns start about 40 seconds into the video, a window into a different musical world and one that a lot of outsiders are interested to know more about. Their Facebook Fan Page is here.
The more substantial historical article in this issue was on the Brahms Trio, and when we return to this series that will be the topic.
