Sorry, this is a very long posting mostly directed towards those with some interest in certain aspects of brass instruments history:
Weltklang was the second line of instruments from the Markneukirchen based GDR conglomerate-owned-by-the-people (VEB) Blechblas & Signal-Instrumenten-Fabrik, mostly known as B&S. This conglomerate housed master workshops like that of Hoyer (horns) and of the trumpet makers Scherzer and Wolfram. The master workshops engraved their instruments with their own name. But if B&S, which did all the marketing, found it convenient it engraved its own (really: whatever) logo on instruments from the master workshops. A sample of the latter: A certain Copenhagen brass house had the exclusive rights to market Hoyer horns in Denmark. However its marketing efforts were not very intensive. So when a new brass house with a very skilled staff opened, B&S saw a chance to push its products. There were lots of B&S tubas, especially the very good F models with 5 valves. And to have a horn on the shelf, B&S sent a 5 valve single Bb Hoyer horn engraved with the B&S logo. Even if this horn got good reviews by pro players no one dared to buy it with its "wrong" engraving. Until I bought it for a very good price because it was the best Hoyer horn available in Copenhagen at that time. It still sits on its stand right behind me and is played almost daily. It is not stuffy, it only does not have as big a sound as a large bore Conn. When I practise seriously I can take it down to pedal F (concert). The highest note I ever got on it was the high Bb concert giving it a 4 octave plus a fourth range. There are no notes missing or dead, but there is no real low B natural (concert) despite the 5 valves. All of the B&S workshops shared parts no matter models or engravings. That is very obvious when looking at my Scherzer and Wolfram trumpets, B&S flugelhorn, and "Hoyer" horn. Even my Syhre of Desden corno da caccia and Boosey & Hawkes 30 years old bass trombone have parts from these same sources. I have a 1985 catalogue over all of the B&S instruments made under the names Hoyer, B&S, and Weltklang. Within horns, tubas, oval brasses, flugelhorns, trumpets, and saxophones it is obvious, that bells, bows, branches, and a lot of divers tubing are the same no matter what the engraving is. The differences between the upper level Hoyer and B&S brands and the second line Weltklang instruments are to be found in number of valves (Welklang nearly always miss the 4th and 5th valves where applicable, their single Bb horn only has 3 valves, no double horns in the catalogue) Hoyer/B&S have ball&socket linkages and spiral springs, Weltklang has the older S-type links and enclosed clock-type springs the Weltklang horns have no hand guard nickel silver plate soldered on the bell tail and as Hans remarks: the Weltklang engraving is very rough and primitive, most like made on a machine, whereas Hoyer/B&S/Scherezer/Wolfram have lighter and most often more elaborate engravings. The B&S conglomerate was a "Devisenbeschaffer" for the GDR, that is it was a tool to get western currency. In the first years after WWII my country had access to the US and UK markets, but the $ and £ pound earned by export could only be used for certain goods approved by the state (industrial machinery, trucks and so on), so most Danish instruments imported back then were from the GDR and Czechoslovakia. The Weltklang instruments mostly were sold under the brand "Forza", which belonged to I. K. Gottfried of Copenhagen. Until 1943 IKG had built their own instruments. Some based on valve sets made by workshops in Markneukirchen. Even before the state owned B&S forced the private workshops into its conglomerate there had been a long tradition in the Musical Triangle of southwest Saxony of small workshops specialising in making bells, bows, valves, moutpieces, or other spare parts. These were then assembled in master workshops, which put their own names on the finished instruments. Names of such old master workshops still surfaced on the market, even if there were no longer workshops with these names. For these purpose of "Devisenbeschaffung" B&S pulled many tricks. When Boosey & Hawkes lost its market for their piston horns, they wanted to have rotary horns in their catalogue. England has no great tradition of that valve type, so these horn were made by B&S under the name of Meister ?. Schneider (my memory might fail regarding the name) and some text to the effect of : Made for Boosey & Hawkes, London, UK. I have seen 3 such horns. Carsten Smith Nielsen, a Danish pro, had such a Schneider during his young student years. And two female players from a visiting Territorial Army band also played that model, that we here see as the Weltklang Alexander-copy. The large shift valve uniquely is an Alexander idea. I have played 2nd and 4th to Carsten Smith Nielsen's 1st (in Brahms 2 and Mahler 4 respectively), so I can testify, that the GDR Alexander copy put no restrictions on Carsten's sound, technique, or his general very high musical format. That makes me wonder, why we see the not very prestigious Weltklang engraving on an instrument, that has all the facilities of a quite good, at least, double horn. The answer may lie in the country, that this instrument is sold out off: Bulgaria. B&S might not have wanted to compromise their B&S and Hoyer brands as being copycats. Boosey & Hawkes might have bought exclusive rights to the Schneider name. What engraving was easily at hand for the not very attractive trading between the Warsaw pact countries: Weltklang. Of course this is partially speculation on basis of sources, that I only partially can reveal. But I don't think I am very far off. I have scanned the horn, tuba, and oval brass pages of the mentioned 1985 catalogue into high resolution, hence very large, .pdf files, that I have uploaded to a number of free, open, and non-posting Yahoo groups. There are several, ass their max store capacity is 50MB for each. This method is the cheapest and most secure method for a person like me, who can not afford a large and pro-grade personal site. Aside from catalogue scans you will find lots of .jpg's of very diverse brasses from very divers makers. There a very few, if any, illustrations, that can be found on commercial sites from instrument makers. My aim has rather been photo documentation of older instruments and makers and to provide material no longer available. Tubas, conical brasses, and horns have been stressed the most, but there also are a few trumpets and trombones. The newest index, of today, can be found, in Word format with active hyperlinks, at <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/YorkMasterPublicPhotosIII/files/> Please note, that you can not sign up via the links for the thumbnails/.jpg's. But you can sign up via the direct group links found at the first page of the index. Klaus on 14.12.02 6:00, Prof.Hans Pizka at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > This horn looks like an old Alexander Copy from the former German Democratic > Republic in the 1950ies 1960ies. But I will update you regarding "Weltklang". > About quality: I am not sure, but if I look at the name engraving ???? Quite > primitive. > > It also could be a cheap copy made in another East Block country. But wait for > my update. > > Greetings > > Hans > ....................................... > > "Leonard & Peggy Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> schrieb: >> Prof Pizka, and list: >> This Alexander copy is one I have never run across before. The valve >> caps look used in the close up. Is this a Old German copy or a New one from >> the far east? >> >> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=930142365&category=16215 >> >> Leonard >> _______________________________________________ Horn mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/listinfo/horn
