I'm curious as to what instrument Mahler had in mind (and what
instrument is commonly used today, if different) to play the Tenor
Horn part for the first movement of Mahler 7.
Jonathan, though players outside central Europe to find it hard to
accept, Mahler did
indeed write the piece for Tenor Horn, an actual and very common
instrument hereabouts.
It's played with a trombone mouthpiece, and so in symphonic
situations is played by a
trombonist. It is the middle voiced band instrument that Mahler would
have best known -- its predominance is clear in turn-of-the-century
firm catalogs and in the large amount of period instruments extant. The
German and Austrian ebay sites regularly offer B-flat Tenor Horns
from the period
(that's where I got my three antique instruments). The link below
offers a picture and a 360
degree look of a modern Tenor Horn made by Cerveny. During Mahler's
lifetime this
Bohemian firm was far and away the largest manufacturer of brass
instruments in the Austrian Empire (the Kaiser honored V. F. Cerveny
and sons with a visit in 1880).
http://www.thomann.de/fr/cerveny_57213pxr.htm
The confusion about bugle horns in this tenor-baritone category is a
legacy from the instrument makers of the 19th century who competed to
outfit Europe's incredibly prolific military bands. In 1855 Heinrich
von Gontershausen wrote, "Almost every maker is working on a different
model. Even worse, most bestow a new name on every instrument on which
they make even a small modification. We are so unusually rich in
instrument names that musicians themselves often do not know which
instrument is meant when they hear of a new one." Middle-voiced bugle
horns on offer included the Glycleide, Amateur Voice Horn, Ballad Horn,
Cornon, Euphonic Horn, Phonikon, Baryton, Bassoon Horn, Herculesophone,
Bassalt, Neophon, Orpheon, Sediphon, Sudraphon, and Hell's Horn (named
for its Viennese inventor Ferdinand Hell).
This tangle of instruments went the way of the dinosaurs, leaving
survivors that included the euphonium (originally called Sommerophone
by its Weimar inventor), and the oval-shaped, rotary-valved B-flat
Tenor Horn in central Europe (note: the E-flat version of this is
called an
Alt-Horn in German-speaking lands).
When it comes to practice, however, these questions are almost always
settled by local tradition. An example: the Tenor Tuba in B-flat of
Holst's Planets, unquestionably meant to be played on a euphonium, has
long been played in Vienna on a Wagner tuba, and in Paris on a Sax
Horn --
convenient local substitutions, but not what the composer had in mind.
Likewise, in the UK and US the Tenor Horn part in Mahler's 7th is
typically played on euphonium. But whether this substitution is
justified by
local tradition, player expertise, limited budget, or just the result
of misinformation, it
is simply not the instrument the composer specified.
Bill Melton
Hauset (B) / Sinfonie Orchester Aachen (D)
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