Not really the right title but, seeing that this in no way pretending to be an academic paper, I can call it a carrott if I like, can‘t I? :-)
I don‘t like dogma, especially when it is fed to generation after generation of students by innocently non-inquisitive and non-sceptical teachers. Over the years I have seen numerous anecdotal references to events and concepts that have been repeated by the semi-informed and ended up in teaching materials and even yes, academic papers. Some have proven not be true, embarrassingly enough, Elvis may well not have been in the UK long enough to visit London for example, wishful thinking even?
One of the horn related ones - is about Johannes Brahms. It is claimed that he was taught horn by his father who was musically adept and also reported to have earned at least some of his income through musical activities. Now, don‘t take my word for this!!! Go and trawl the internet for qualified opinion and you‘ll find citation after citation mstly of German text translated badly into English vocabulary and even back again. Some say Brahms learnt „Waldhorn“ some that he learnt „Flügelhorn“ alongside piano of course. The sources are generally most obvious on the text for CD covers.
One phrase that turns up quite often is something like „Brahms referred to the horn as the Brass Viola“ i.e. Blechbratsche. When I first read this, I thought it was way too nice a quote for anyone to want to discred it and also that it was actually unlikely. Why would Brahms of all people refer to a horn of any type as a „Brass Viola“? I think it‘s a derogatory term, maybe not. Maybe he was referring to voicing in orchestration, or agility in general usage, both almost believable enough to lend credibility.
I have some friends, good ones, who are amongst the leading musicological experts on matters „Brahms“ so, of course, I asked where this quote could have come from. It goes back a few years and is probably attributable to some over-zealous press-person peddling unsubstantiated „research“. We can‘t find it referenced in any of the known Brahms correspondence or writings, anywhere. So, if you want to write a CD cover about the Brahms Horn Trio, you‘ll find the Blech Bratsche even on ntional broadcasting websites about the trio as well as the CD covers of numerous horn players‘ recordings, BUT, please, at least until there is some hard evidence, please either leave it out completely or refer to it as an interesting example of the way urban myths get into historical tomes.
Then we get to the phrases „Brahms wrote his Horn Trio for natural horn“ and „Brahms expressed a preference for his Horn Trio to be played on a natural horn“ both of which I will go into in my next post.
Meanwhile... is the saxophone really a Brass Clarinet?