Dauprat on the Tone of the Natural Horn
The aesthetics of the natural horn.
Dr. John Ericson
This article is based on materials published in the Historic Brass Society Journal 9 (1997).
One of the clearest discussions to be found on the tone of the natural horn was written by Louis-François Dauprat (1787-1868), who was professor of horn at the Paris Conservatory from 1816 until 1842. His monumental three-volume Méthode de Cor alto et Cor basse, published in 1824, contains a brief chapter titled "On the changes and improvements that some would like to see applied to the horn." While his comments are not direct reactions to the valve, they are nevertheless enlightening.
Some have wished that by means of holes and keys the considerable series of factitious sounds on the horn might be eliminated, while at the same time and in the same way those that are totally lacking in the low register would become possible. But this method, already applied to the [keyed] trumpet, has changed the timbre of the instrument to the point of giving it a quite peculiar character, creating an instrument which is neither a trumpet nor any other known instrument. ...
While Dauprat in this article was primarily arguing against the keyed brasses, one gets the sense that he felt that valves were also a bad idea. He refers to two important underlying aesthetics of natural horn playing. The first is that the differences of tonal color resulting from the use of different crooks is to be desired artistically. The second and more critical is that the shades of tonal color resulting from performing melodies using hand horn technique were considered especially expressive nuances which should not be suppressed. They were a part of what made a horn sound like a horn and gave the instrument its special tonal color.
Louis-François Dauprat, Method for Cor Alto and Cor Basse (Bloomington: Birdalone Music, 1994), trans. ed. Viola Roth, part 1, 5 .
Another interesting quotation from Dauprat may be found in the article on The Original Kopprasch Etudes.
Copyright John Ericson. All rights reserved.