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Let me get straight to the point: If you like books, you should read this book. Corno da Capo by Richard Seraphinoff is certainly the most interesting and significant horn publication to come out in many years.
With that introduction, what exactly is Corno da Capo? I hate to put too fine a point on it, but while billed as being a fantasy historical novel, there is also instructional material in relation to learning the natural horn, and much relating to historical figures of music and playing music of this time with good style. Certainly, he puts the horn and the music we play from this period into a new, fresh context.
Backing up a few steps,** I first heard Seraphioff tell a version of the plot of what became Corno da Capo around 1989, and subsequently I read an early draft of the beginning of the book at the 2013 Memphis IHS Symposium. That draft was no more than a quarter the length of the final version published, which comes in at 480 pages. The basic story outline is the same as I first heard him tell orally; a modern horn player, the third hornist of a leading American orchestra on tour in Paris, finds himself after an accident suddenly in Paris of 1770! He not only survives but develops a career as one of the most celebrated horn duo soloists of the time.
Stepping back again, modern horn students must puzzle a bit when they learn that there are quite a number of concertos for two solo horns and orchestra from this time frame (Rosetti being especially prolific). The story of two leading horn artists of the genre, and how they worked as travelling duo soloists and court musicians over a 20+ year career, brings focus to this as historical fiction. This quote gives a glimpse into the beginnings of the relationship of John (Johann) and Carl:
You were also such an enigma in your lack of knowledge of the world of today, that you either have amnesia, or you really are from some other world or time. Whatever it is, it’s intriguing, but there is another side to the whole thing. When we played those first duets last week, I thought, okay, this guy can obviously play the horn, and he’ll catch on fast and be a good orchestral player. But what has happened over the past couple of weeks has shown me that you can be one of the great high horn players of our time, and soon.
Another historical angle I love in this book is there is an element of “setting the record straight” in relation to horn and music history. No spoilers, but be looking for things to pop up that may conflict gently with what you learned in school or from record jackets. Seraphinoff in this regard has done a huge service to the horn community in this publication, with references provided in the final section of the book to the latest historical sources.
Something else that resonates with me is the whole large topic of what the pieces we play now would have sounded like to the original audiences. That is more than anything what has me interested in historic horns, playing them and imagining in the minds eye some version of the original sound and performance situation. Our hero in the book gets to experience many things we can only imagine of today.
But I think where Corno da Capo excels the most is it is in fact simply a good read, and a book of the type that you will want to read every page. Not to mention I think people who are not horn players will also find it to be a good read, and it is of a size that you could put it in your backpack and read it as time allows. Which brings me to the only, potential negative of the book – it is long, reading it all will take some commitment, but well worth the effort.
Many congratulations to Richard Seraphinoff for a wonderful publication! It is available worldwide in print and Kindle versions through Amazon.
**I must footnote that Rick has been a mentor and friend for many years. However, even if I only knew him from a distance, this book would still be an extremely important one that needs to become standard reading in our horn world.
