Säckingen. Trumpeter's Castle
Ernst W. Buser
The showpiece of the collection was undoubtedly the pretzel-shaped natural trumpet in E, made by Anton Schnitzer in Nürnberg in 1585.¹ This is the instrument which Cesare Bendinelli (c. 1542-1617), as "Obrister Trompeter" ("Colonel-Trumpeter"), played at the Bavarian court in Munich. He left this splendid trumpet together with the manuscript of his trumpet method "Tutta l'arte della Trombetta" of 1614 to the "Accademia Filarmonica" in his home town of Verona. Both exhibits are still in the possession of the Verona Accademia Filarmonica today and were only lent to Säckingen.
Edward H. Tarr has also been given permission to publish this, the earliest known trumpet tutor, in facsimile. The majority of the exhibits from the golden age of the natural trumpet (1600-1750) — including a natural trumpet by Johann Leonhard Ehe (Nürnberg 1700), a pair of D trumpets by the Kerner brothers (Vienna 1793), a splendid example of an Eb trumpet by Johann Siegmund Graf Breitenbach (1746) and a coiled hunting instrument by Johann Wilhelm Haas (Nürnberg 1688) — are very rare pieces belonging to the two exhibitors and testify to their very considerable skill, as well as their good luck, as collectors.
Rotary valve trumpet in D «Schupach et Guichard» Yverdon ca. 1830).
(Sammlung Ernst W. B user)
Even greater variety was displayed by the numerous instruments from the crisis period of the trumpet (1750-1815) and by those which point the way to the first valve trumpets of the 19th and early 20th centuries. A comprehensive section was devoted to the threat from the cornet (1875-1900) and further space to trumpets remarkable on account of their unusual shape and strange materials.
The modern trumpets and the very latest trumpets of our own age, of course, formed the conclusion.
It is to be hoped that very many friends of the trumpet visited this very worthwhile exhibition. It gave a suitable indication of the high values of the historically evolved knightly art of the trumpeter, which is also so extremely important artistically.
The exhibition, and the associated "First International Trumpet Week", opened on 2nd September 1979 with the trumpet ensemble of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. On 9th September, to conclude the trumpet seminar directed by Edward H. Tarr, there was a concert which gave an impressive indication of the achievements of all the participants:
— Edward H. Tarr, Basle, and his assistant tutor, Vincent Cichowicz, Chicago, played Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto in C for two trumpets, accompanied by a chamber orchestra conducted by Heinz G. Linke;
— many seminar participants proved themselves in a series of works ranging from Samuel Scheidt to Karl-Heinz Köper;
— and in conclusion all the participants played some magnificent sonatas from the "Charamela real" by the Lisbon court trumpeter, an anonymous writer of around 1760.