THE ROMANTIC TRUMPET - Historic Brass Society

236 HISTORIC BRASS SOCIETY JOURNAL
to come in France, containing parts for two (valved) comets and two (natural) trumpets. 185
The same is true for Harold in Italy: the autograph score from 1834 had originally contained
one valved trumpet and two natural trumpets in C, but the single valved trumpet was later
replaced by a pair of comets in A. Both the eschewance of the valved trumpet in favor of the
pair of cornets and the use of natural trumpets were certainly due to the influential
Dauvernes personal preference for the natural (or slide) trumpet over the valved one, 186 and
to Berlioz' opinion of the cornet as a "modern instrument." 187
The testimony of two prominent witnesses show that the French orchestral trumpeters
of Dauvernes time, including perhaps the good professor himself, may not have been quite
as proficient as their German counterparts. Felix Mendelssohn, in a letter to his teacher
Zelter from 15 February 1832 (a year before Dauvernes nomination to the professorship),
praises the Conservatory orchestra, composed of the teachers and their best students, saying
that it gives "the most perfect performances heard anywhere" but also putting his finger on
the weak spots: the double bass players, the first clarinetist, the timpanist, and the
trumpeters, who "are insecure in the high register and simplify their difficult passages". 188
And only eleven years later, Berlioz praised German and English trumpeters and mentioned
how the French would have difficulty with a simple passage ascending to high c'" on the E 6
trumpet. 189
The opera La Juive had a profound influence on the young Richard Wagner (1813-
1883) and his opera Rienzi, the first two acts of which he composed during his tenure as
conductor at the opera house in Riga. Wagner had had his early overture Columbus
performed there, and in a review it had been duly noted that "two keyed trumpets, whose
combined parts filled fourteen and a half closely written pages, were in [furious] movement."
190 In leaving that city precipitously to avoid his creditors, Wagner established
himself in Paris in 1839 and stayed there until 1842, where he had ample opportunity to
study the new techniques of instrumentation. Rienzi (first performed in Dresden 20
October 1842) has parts for two valved and two natural trumpets in the orchestra, and for
six valved and six natural trumpets on stage.
According to Dauverne, 191 it was Jacques Strunz (Georg Jakob Strunz, 1781-1852)
who wrote the first work for an ensemble of the new French valved instruments, a quintet
for trumpet, cornet, and three horns; it was performed on 28 April 1833 in the presence of
Cherubini and other authorities of the Paris Conservatory. 192
The valved cornet (Fr., cornet k pistons), an instrument mentioned above, attained
special popularity in France. Dauverne states in his grand method that the apparition of the
valved trumpet gave rise "towards 1832" to the cornet pistons," a kind of small trumpet". 193
In his early cornet method he is more precise, writing that in 1831, Halary had the fortunate
idea of app lying Stoelzel's mechanism to the "Post-Horn (Cornet de Poste)," and that a young
artist, [L.] Dufrene, 1 " was in 1833 the first one to display the new instrument with success
in ballrooms and in concerts, 195 especially the Promenade Concerts initiated in that year
on the Champs-Elysees by the orchestra of Philippe Musard (1793-1859). 196 Dufrene
played at first on a two-valved instrument and later switched to one with three valves.