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With the corona virus canceling so many horn events this spring, this is the first of a series of articles with podcasts, on topics presented as might be heard at a horn workshop.
While the words “Kruspe” and “Geyer” have near universal recognition in the horn world today, I recently realized that these terms had become marketing buzzwords, separated from actual roots and meanings. In modern usage they are used to describe two popular types of horns, but reality is Kruspe was a manufacturer and Geyer was a horn builder.
Ed Kruspe is the name found on all the various brass instruments made by the Kruspe firm. Eduard Kruspe took over proprietorship of the German musical instrument manufacturer in 1864 and retired in 1893. It is significant that his sons Fritz and Walter Kruspe were involved with the development of the first double horn in 1897, but the horn we think of as “the Kruspe” horn is their Horner model, introduced in 1904, seen here in their 1929 catalog illustration. This model is just one of 13 horn models you can find for example in that catalog, making also a variety of models of every type of brass instrument. (Noting also, they are still in business! Website here: http://www.edkruspe.com/)
However, over the passage of time, this one model has become widely known in the U.S.A. as the Kruspe horn, and was the design copied by Conn to make their model 8D, introduced in 1937.
Meanwhile, Carl Geyer (1880-1973) emigrated to the U.S.A. from Germany in 1904, answering an ad to be an instrument repairman/maker in Chicago. He originally made horns for his employer Wunderlich, then ran his own shop from 1920-55, sold the business, but then continued to make horns for the new owner until age 90! He personally constructed over 1,400 instruments, the Geyer model as we think of it today being the most successful among the models he made (including single horns and a number of Schmidt model instruments with a piston thumb valve).
But I don’t think we can say Geyer originated this design — Knopf clearly made a very similar design starting in the same time frame — he just refined it, based on parts he could obtain, with solid craftsmanship and a desire to keep improving.
Comparing the two types, the Geyer is a more “open” design, and the Kruspe was probably more suited to factory production. Typically the Geyer style instruments are built in brass with a smaller bell and the Kruspe style horns in nickel silver with larger bells, the reasons for which are covered further in Episode 39 of the Horn Notes Podcast:
http://hornnotes.libsyn.com/hornnotes-39-geyer-kruspe-and-more
Access it from this link directly or anywhere you listen to podcasts, with additional tips to be found on tuning, tone, audition taking, etc.
This series will continue about every two weeks this semester, hopefully providing interesting and needed content for horn players during the present health crisis.
