18 News - Historic Brass Society

Stiftung Kloster Michaelstein Musikinstitut für Aufführungspraxis
25th symposium on musical instrument building: The horn – its
history and musical use
Bradley Strauchen-Scherer
The medieval Cistercian monastery Kloster Michaelstein, nestled in the
gentle hills of the Harz, has been a center for intensive musical study
since the establishment of the Musikinstitut für Aufführungspraxis
devoted to the horn in its many forms and uses, from herald of the
hunt to modern concert instrument.
Three days devoted to all facets of horn design, history and use drew
together a large body of delegates from across Europe and North
America. The topics covered by the speakers were equally wide ranging
and augured well for the quality and vigor of horn research and
organological scholarship. The most inspiring papers were those that
given for organology by Lawrence Libin in the
, 2 nd ed. Social, political and economic history,
performance practice, physics, acoustics, musical instrument making
and iconography were some of the disciplines that informed the presentations.
The symposium also provided the platform for a survey
of horns in the museums of central Germany and lower Saxony. This
session offered delegates a glimpse of the wide array of horns held in
these collections and led to a heightened awareness of these important
resources. The results of such instrument censuses are also valuable
tools for museum curators to use in devising collaborative strategies
about how to develop and steward the collections in their care. Please
see the end of this article for a list of speakers and paper topics.
The sound of the horn, in a series of superb performances, was integral
focused on the rise and development of the horn as a musical instrument.
Horn players Thomas Hiebert and Michel Garcin-Marrou joined
forces with members of the Telemannischen Collegiums Michaelstein
to perform repertoire from Germany, France and England. The German
works, mostly drawn from the Dresden court library, underscored the
importance of support for the horn in the Saxon court during the 18 th
century. The performance of the Michel Corrette concerto
offered a rare glimpse of the horn in chamber music in France during
the 18th century. The Concerto in F major by the London-based horn
player Mr. Charles gave evidence of a sophisticated and technically
advanced horn playing presence in England during this period. The
demanding clarino writing characteristic of much horn music during
the 18th century was realised throughout the evening with great poise
and control.
The second concert was devoted to the nineteenth century, one of
the most technologically and aesthetically interesting periods in the
Seraphinoff, Gabriele Rocchetti horns and Silvia Bertoletti, fortepiano.
Much of the repertoire featured was written during the nascent years of
the valve, leaving composers and performers to decide if and how they
would utilize the valve horn while maintaining the varied tonal palette
of the hand horn that was so prized. The combination of hand and valve
technique espoused by players such as Joseph Meifred elevated the
function of stopped notes from technical necessity to that of deliberate
Giulio Marco Bordogni according to the precepts of Meifred beautifully
demonstrated the musicality of this hybrid technique. Listeners
calls for two natural horns plus a two-valve horn for the lowest
basse part. These performances revived a subtle and sophisticated aural
landscape that is largely lost to the modern horn in the 21 st century,
prompting one to think that Dauprat and Meifred might have known
the best of both worlds. Entirely valve-free virtuosity was also much
in evidence during the evening with suitably liberal and extroverted
performances of compositions springing from the operatic
and solo
works by Guiseppe Devasini, Guiseppe Belloli and Vincenzo Merighi.
Superb musicianship and technical command were demonstrated at
both concerts, but they also underscored the exceptional versatility of
the participants. All of the horn players also presented papers during
the symposium and horns built by Rick Seraphinoff could be heard
on both evenings.
The wonderful solitude and peacefulness of the Kloster grounds were a
perfect foil for this intense period of horn activity and participants also
ments.
The Cellarius restaurant and bar was a convivial gathering point
where the excellent German beer fostered many conversations about
horn playing and cemented the international fellowship of players and
scholars devoted to the .
A list of speakers and paper topics appears below. All of these papers
will be published by Stiftung Kloster Michaelstein at the end of 2005.
Copies can be purchased by contacting Uta Talke, Postfach 24, 38881
Blankenburg, Tel.: +49-(0)3944-903014, Fax: +49-(0)3944-903030, e-
mail: u.talke@kloster-michaelstein.de or on the internet at http://www.
kloster-michaelstein.de
38 | HISTORIC BRASS SOCIETY NEWSLETTER - WINTER 2005