Скачать или смотреть 5. Corno not Corona Continued! Anneke Scott on Saint-Saëns Morceau de concert, op. 94

Hear the performance associated with this video here:    • Camille Saint-Saëns, Morceau de concert Op...  

Camille Saint-Saëns's “Morceau de Concert” was written for and premiered by the French horn player Henri Chaussier in 1891. This work was originally conceived for a very special type of horn designed by Chaussier and for this performance I have been fortunate enough to be loaned a unique copy of Chaussier’s instrument made by the Swiss brass makers Egger.

The original of this instrument, designed by Chaussier and realised by François Millereau in around 1885, belongs to the collection of the Musical Instrument Museum in Brussels. This copy was made by Egger’s as part of a major research project headed up by the Hochschule der Künste in Bern about a decade ago which led to a big conference in 2013 focusing on many aspects of 19th century French brass performance practice and instrument making, with the Cor Chaussier as its focus.

This instrument may at first glance look like a standard piston horn of the 19th or even early 20th century. It has the standard three piston valves and a fourth rotary thumb valve, again, not that unusual necessarily, given that makers such as Selmer were building compensating doubles. It isn’t crooked and it stands in F, which isn’t that unusual, the first valve behaves “normally” and lowers the instrument by a tone into E flat. But the second valve, rather than lowering by a semitone, is an ascending valve which raises by a semitone putting the instrument into F sharp. Then the third valve is another ascending valve this time by a major third, putting the instrument into A. And the rotary thumb valve is a separate valve (rather than one that switches between two sides or two separate systems like on the modern or most compensating horns), and lowers the instrument by a fourth into C basso. The combinations of these four valves mean I can play everything from Bb basso (thumb and 1st valve) through to Bb alto (2nd and 3rd valve).

This horn isn’t a standard piston horn but is what we would call an omnitonic horn. Omnitonic horns were a feature of the 19th century and are designed not to be chromatic instruments like a piston horn but are a natural horns in disguise. This instrument combines all the crooks needed on a natural horn into one piece of kit. I don’t have to worry about carrying or changing the crooks, in the case of this type of omnitonic horn I just choose a different combination of valves. One of the “unique selling points” of such a design was that the instrument can be kept at a stable temperature as there are not separate parts, the crooks, waiting to be used and getting cold in the meantime.

In 1886 Henri Chaussier published the first edition of his manifesto. “La Notice explicative sur les nouveaux instruments en Ut”, in which he outlined his concept of omnitonic instruments which could be applied to any brass instrument.

Chaussier wasn’t against progress but supported the idea that playing everything on a chromatic horn in F over-rode the sensibilities of composers, especially those of earlier eras, who were writing for horns in different crooks, complete with the special colour and character of each crook. This design by Chaussier is often regarded as the last of the omnitonic horns and his publication shows how the instrument appears to combine both the potential to use it as a natural horn in all the keys as well as to be played as a chromatic piston horn.

In 1891 Chaussier premiered what was initially entitled a Fantasie, only later renamed Morceau de Concert, composed for his horn by Saint-Saens. The reception was mixed. Many reviewers got the concept of the design and commented that the piece include passages for the instrument with hand stopping, as well as “instantaneous changes in crook…made to demonstrate the extent of the multiple resources of the omnitonic system”. When doubt was cast it was often questioning whether this piece changed the real “role of the instrument”, pointing to the virtuosity and arpeggio sections.

Approaching this work has been really mind blowing. One of the things that I know other horn players such as Claude Maury and Ulrich Hubner, both of whom have studied this work in great depth is that faced with the capabilities of this instrument and the music written by Saint-Saens it is likely that any horn player would make different interpretations as to which technique is relevant to which section. My approach initially was to learn it as a chromatic horn, or cor a pistons piece, that gave me the opportunity to learn the initially counterintuitive fingering. But the more I worked with the piece the more short cuts I could see and my natural horn brain kicked in. I kept on discovering passages where I realised I could play the material for horn in Eb or horn in C basso.