Hello list,
On the topic of Mozart's sacred music and the use of trombones and trumpets,
but not horn, in his Requiem, I made the comment:
"Besides, the horn is the instrument of the devil and we don't want
that in a sacred work, do we?"To which David Jewell asks where this idea came
from.
I have to admit, I don't remember specifically how this seed was planted. It
was really meant in jest.
A little "bad boy" humor. Perhaps someone once said it was a devilishly
difficult instrument to play.
My idea was not so much that the Devil himself plays the horn (I think he is
actually a violinist who prefers country
music, but maybe he doubles on blues guitar). I sang the Mozart Requiem as a
college freshman and
references were made in my college years to trumpets and trombones as being
instruments named
somewhere in the bible. Perhaps I simply inferred this from the absence of
horns. Or as a freshman
I asked why no horns, since Mozart otherwise liked the horn, and was told this
by some well meaning
but mis-informed teacher. Sorry I don't have a better answer.
When people find out I play the horn and comment on the difficulty, I try to
minimize it by saying something like "yeah, that's what people tell me" or "all
instruments have their unique challenges." I don't allow myself to think the
horn is hard. I think that believing that the closer proximity of our partials
can be a strength, not a weakness is an important part of the "inner game" of
horn playing. I also don't like the idea of being "handicapped" by the audience
and allowing people to think that more mistakes from the horns are to be
expected or accepted.Stephen Burian
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