Robert Patterson wrote:
But even in much more recent history, where the composer is
well-known, questions abound. Here are two thorny ones from the world
of horn music. Brahms wrote is horn trio for the natural horn, but
because it was so difficult without valves, and because valve-horn
playing was so well-established by then, most performance in his
lifetime were probably on valve horn.
Conversely, Schumann wrote his Concertstuck for the absolute bleeding
edge of technology (for his time): valved horns. But valve horns then
were so crude, and the skill of playing them so fresh, that in early
performances the most difficult top part was probably played on
natural horn. (The most objective and informed expert I know on valve
vs. natural horn practice is John Ericson, who I believe is at Arizona
State.)
Just a couple of observations from a horn player.
1. The first part on the Concertstuck is so high, on an F horn it's
almost all open anyway. When you play on the open horn that way,
it's more like singing than playing because it's all lip and ear.
Today it's usually played with a triple horn or a descant double
so valves are more necessary.
2. Somewhere else in this thread someone suggested that the Brahms
2nd Symphony parts in B natural would not be possible without
valves. On the contrary, the hand horn is simply crooked in B and
played as in any other key. No transposition is needed until
valves are involved.
3. Interestingly, there is a lively discussion among horn players
about whether the 4th horn solo in the 3rd mvt of Beethoven 9 was
written for valve horn. Most think that it was. Here we're only
talking about 2 or 3 years after the first (very crude) valves.
Talk about bleeding edge!!
Richard Smith
http://www.rgsmithmusic.com
http://horn.rgsmithmusic.com
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