- - Please visit: Legacy Horn Experience - -
I finally had time this summer to read properly a substantial 2021 publication by Jeff Snedeker, Horn Teaching at the Paris Conservatoire, 1792 to 1903: The Transition from Natural Horn to Valved Horn.
Before getting to the book, I would share this side story. Jeff and I go way back on the horn scholarship thing. Back when I was a Doctoral student at Indiana University I met Jeff for the first time, at the home of Richard Seraphinoff. Jeff was down to try a Raoux horn with a detachable valve section, and to consult with Rick. At the time Jeff had staked out France as his research focus and I was focusing on Germany. Our dissertations stayed in those areas generally as well, but of course we have many intersections of interests, and it is great to see where his have finally taken him with this wonderful new publication.
One lingering problem in our horn world is there has not been much scholarship published in book form on horn history in the past 50 years. With this publication Snedeker has much new to say about the transition from the natural horn to the valved horn, including updates in his own thinking that came from looking at the topic so closely over many years to develop this publication. He makes many connections that have not been noted before.
Looking online for background on the development of the book itself, there is a very interesting 2021 presentation by Snedeker in the video below, from just before the release of the book.
In the video he states that the book “ups the ante on everything I have done before.” Mention is made of an “Elephant in the room” — what was the color of the stopped notes at this time? Question has huge ramifications. I agree with him that in general the colors should match as much as you can, as it would be on natural horn — that is what a fine artist would strive for. A related elephant in the room is that of muted horn, what did composers want at this time? What did players do? Some of these things would be in the end artistic decisions made by players; this topic is but one of many that could be explored in greater depth in further research.
Finally, on a more personal level, the book and all the footnotes bring back good memories of when I was more actively involved with horn history and scholarship. Not that I’m not active now, but I have taken interests in other directions, including instrument making, instead of tracking down obscure sources, translating quotations, and documenting things with footnotes. I do hope some younger players and Doctoral students out there will take up the torch and look deeper into horn history and pedagogical resources, the more you look at them the more you will realize there still is to study.
