Ursula Paludan Monberg, Arcangelo & Jonathan Cohen - The Early Horn (2020)

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Ursula Paludan Monberg, Arcangelo & Jonathan Cohen - The Early Horn (2020)

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The hunting horn evolved in the seventeenth century as an accessory to a popular leisure activity for the aristocracy—the hunt. Its purpose during the chase was to signal unfolding events to people walking behind the mounted huntsmen; it was designed to be loud enough to project over considerable distance and over the barking of hunting hounds. From this rustic beginning, the horn underwent a remarkable process of taming and refinement over a few decades to become capable of being the featured musical instrument of chamber works in the eighteenth century, such as those recorded here. The music may still retain occasional references to its outdoor heritage in brief fanfares and hunting rhythms, but horn players achieved an ability to blend and balance with small groups of string instruments, harpsichord and woodwinds, with an emphasis on sweetness of tone, phrasing and articulation that would have been unanticipated a generation or so earlier. Not only was this a new sound-world for audiences of the eighteenth century, but it is now one that has become almost entirely neglected in the onward march of popular classical music, making this collection of works a pleasant reminder of the genre.

During the period spanned by the composers represented here, there were significant developments to the form of the horn and how it was played. From the early days of hunting music the bell of the instrument was held free of the player’s body to help project the sound. The circle or hoop of tubing was convenient for holding the instrument over a shoulder while riding a horse, and the instrument was in a fixed key, usually D, and measured about 15 feet (4.6 metres) from mouthpiece to bell, wound in one to three coils. In order to make it more practical to be able to change key for different pieces of music in non-hunting music, the length was coiled into two smaller, attachable circles. The first one—the narrower end in which the mouthpiece fits—became known as a crook, and the part with the bell at the end was called the corpus. With the more compact design, it was easier to transport a horn that could play in several different keys, and, importantly, some horn players began to experiment with modulating the pitch of notes by covering different degrees of the opening of the bell with their hand. (This was much more difficult to reach on the wide-hooped instrument.) The first place in which these experimental techniques were heard was Dresden, where one of the court orchestra’s horn players, Anton Joseph Hampel (1710–1771), was credited with the invention of the ‘hand-stopping’ technique. Ultimately this type of instrument became known as a hand horn, and it survived long past the invention of valves in the nineteenth century. Several of the composers represented here were familiar with this hand technique, and we can trace its development through the music where the required notes can only be achieved through the use of the hand in the bell on a horn of the period.

Carl Heinrich Graun was educated at the Kreuzkirche school in Dresden from the age of ten. He sang in the Dresdner Kreuzchor and the chorus of the Dresden Opera. During his early career he was employed as a singer in the Brunswick opera house, where he began writing operas. Ultimately, his skill in this area led to his appointment as Kapellmeister to Frederick the Great. Interestingly, his singing teacher in Dresden, Christian Petzold, also composed a work for the same combination of instruments as in the Trio in D major. The horn writing is a beautiful example of the new refined nature of the instrument in the late-baroque style of ‘sonata da camera’. In the first two movements the weaving of melody between the violin and horn is rather like an operatic duet where the individual characters make declarations and then come together in ornamented thirds and sixths, showing their courtly manners. The last movement is a gigue, reminiscent of hunting music in metre and arpeggios, but maintaining etiquette through the use of imitation between the parts in virtuosic scales, and making no compromises for the sake of instrumental limitations.

The use of the description ‘d’amore’ for an instrument is said to be due to the instrument’s sweeter tone—a consequence of its being pitched in a lower key. Leaving aside the discussion of whether lower keys or pitches are more pleasant than higher ones (on which there will never be agreement!) the oboe d’amore is a favourite oboe choice of many baroque composers. It also matches the horn in D as it is already in a closely related key. Graun’s Concerto in D major for horn, oboe d’amore and continuo is another trio sonata, this one being in the ‘sonata da chiesa’ form, beginning with a slow movement; the title ‘Concerto’ is used to denote a piece performed together. In the score the horn part is described as ‘corno concertante’ to indicate that it is a soloist’s part. An ingenious aspect of the slow third movement is the use of the relative minor key, where the limited availability of notes on a natural horn made this use of the key more of a challenge for Baroque composers.

Joseph Haydn’s Divertimento a 3 is a tour de force for any horn player. Comprising a theme, three progressively more challenging variations and a finale, the piece appears to have been composed in 1767 for Thaddäus Steinmüller, a horn player in the Esterházy orchestra who worked there from 1762 to 1772. At this time, horn players were commonly divided into two groups: the high-register specialists and the low-register specialists. This piece, though, is for a player who can master both extremes, for in the theme and variations the horn part frequently switches from the melody to the bass line, producing a part that spans an unusually wide range. In the finale there is a cadenza opportunity for the horn player to throw in a last flourish just a few bars before the end.

In Haydn’s own catalogue he originally entered this piece as ‘Trio per il Corno da Caccia’. Later in life he changed the title, omitting ‘da Caccia’ (‘the hunt’), perhaps indicating that it was no longer necessary to refer to the instrument as a hunting horn.

Probably the earliest work to be composed in this collection is Georg Philipp Telemann’s Concerto a 3 in F major. It has the simplest horn part of the selection and is played here without the use of any hand-stopping. It is another trio sonata, this time featuring a recorder as the main soloist, particularly notable in the second movement, in the relative minor key, where there is no part for the horn. There are places in both the first and last movements where the continuo accompaniment leaves it to the horn player to provide the bass line in a charming folk-music-like duo.

Along with the works by Graun, the two that bear anonymous authorship come from a collection of eighteen pieces, mostly concertos for horn, found in the University Library in Lund, Sweden. The Concerto in E flat major features the horn as soloist with a pair of oboes replacing traditional orchestral violins. The style is rather similar to that of works by Graun and it is most likely contemporaneous. Two fast outer movements, full of virtuosic passagework for the horn player, flank a beautiful aria-like slow movement.

The Concerto in E major marks another development towards the Classical period—the use of a horn in E. In Baroque music, the most common keys for horn are G, F and D. Even though there are rare examples beyond these keys, the horn in E is not called upon until around the middle of the eighteenth century. All the keys represented on this recording are common ones for the hand horn, even though they are not necessarily conceived with that technique in mind. However, the key of E lies particularly well on the hand horn and is also a flattering key for the oboe d’amore. The musical style is reminiscent of that found in compositions by Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688–1758) but the provenance of this concerto may never be known.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Horn Quintet in E flat major is scored for the unusual string combination of one violin, two violas and a cello, giving it a deeper sonority than that of a regular string quartet (two violins, one viola and a cello). The André edition (1802/3) used on this recording was the first one published with a horn part—two previous editions re-scored the original horn part within the instrumentation of a string quintet—and it omits several bars that were subsequently reinserted in later editions. André also put some of the horn’s low notes an octave up so that the part would better suit a specialist of the high register. It is thought that Mozart’s horn player, Joseph Leitgeb (1732–1811), found playing low notes more difficult as he aged, so perhaps André obtained a simplified copy via Leitgeb, or from another high horn player familiar with the work. However, there is no known autograph of the score, and the later editions are guided by scholarship rather than the original text.

Leopold Mozart’s Sinfonia da camera of 1755 is a four-movement small concerto that demonstrates the characteristic humour common in the music of both father (Leopold) and son (Wolfgang). The horn part was written in an older style that exploited the high register—one that went largely out of fashion in the subsequent generation. Only a composer with a sense of humour would write nine bars of trills in the first ten bars of the last movement!

This brief selection of works for the early horn demonstrates the chamber music aspect of the eighteenth-century horn, featuring it as a solo voice. During the period in which these compositions were created, the horn was known to much of the general public as an outdoor instrument that played fanfares at the hunt. Composers frequently quoted this aspect in their music when they wanted to flatter their patrons by acknowledging their status as sponsors of the hunt. Not only was this a basis for establishing idiomatic writing for the instrument, but by extension and refinement it allowed the horn to become associated with courtly activities and concerts. Its position was noted in The Compleat Tutor for the French Horn, published in 1746 in London by John Simpson, with the following introduction: ‘Of all wind instruments horns are allowed to have the pre-eminence, especially on the Water … melodious in the Vales, and diverting to the hunters. The addition and their power in a Concert is too well known to expatiate on.’