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
>>

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