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One of my strong interests is the history of horn pedagogy, and over the years I have accumulated quite a number of interesting horn methods from the 19th century.
The Otto Langey Tutor is little known and most likely not used anywhere today. Otto Langey (1851-1922) was a cellist and educator who published quite a few method books in a series of publications, including one for the French horn. The edition I referenced was copyrighted in 1892 and is the “New and Revised Edition” of the Tutor.
Elements of the Tutor are identical to materials found in the Oscar Franz method, but most of the publication is unique. In terms of comparable horn publications of the time I think the most unique thing is the fairly extensive group of orchestral excerpts. Those are of course very dated now, but still the Tutor has two sections that are very worth a look at today.
The 15 “Various Duets” are a nice little set and are made available here as a short PDF document. Nothing real fancy here, most are somewhat generic and by uncredited authors, but it includes works of Schubert and Weber in the mix. Good duets for reading with friends or with students!
The other PDF I have created is of the 12 “Grand Studies.” These make a nice set too but not an easy set! These are fairly advanced, challenging etudes. Most of the credited etudes are by Belloli, one is credited to Gallay, and the others are not credited — but for sure two (numbers 8A and 11) are Gugel etudes. Readers are welcome to chime in with guesses as to the authors. They cover a wide range and would require the development of strong chops. Curiously, there is as published no etude No. 9! (But #8 is a compilation of two etudes, the 1st half is Gugel, transposed up a P4). I have added a [9] at the break point.
I have included at the end of my PDF version a nice “Thema with Variations” by Belloli (which was also published in the Tutor), rounding out the collection.
These both may be downloaded for free from our Horn Matters PDF Library or directly from the links below:
15 Duets from the Langey Tutor for French Horn
12 Grand Studies by Belloli, Gallay, etc. from the Langey Tutor for French Horn
Be watching for more short collections like these of materials from obscure 19th century publications, materials that are still of use to the horn teachers and players of today.
